Week 10 - Little Lord Fauntleroy

I think that we would all like to believe that in an ideal world, an authors’ gender would not be associated with certain stereotypes of writing. But when we found out that Frances Burnett was indeed a woman, too many things about the text suddenly clicked for me to say that the gender of the author did not affect the way the story of Little Lord Fauntleroy was told. Indeed one of my first thoughts upon reading this text was how differently boyhood was depicted from that of Tom Sawyer or Ragged Dick, and I was looking forward to blogging on the topic. Gender of the author does play an important role in the telling of the story, though I think that the difference between the way Tom Sawyer and Little Lord Fauntleroy are told has mostly to do with how Twain based his story on how he remembered boyhood, and Burnett based her story on how she idealized boyhood from the perspective of a mother.

Cedric Errol is presented in Little Lord Fauntleroy as quite different Tom Sawyer or Ragged Dick in their namesake books. Tom is rough, tricky, impulsive, and frequently disobeys his aunt. Dick is wryly humorous, street-smart, and rebellious in a “cool” way. Cedric reminds me much more of Ellen Montgomery than either of these two boys. He is mostly friends with only adults, he cares a great deal for his mother (in fact neither Tom nor Dick had a proper mother), he wears his hair curly and long, and he is finely dressed. I have to imagine that these descriptions of Cedric as such a “beautiful” boy much have sounded effeminate to a 19^th century audience as well as this modern reader, and until we discovered that Frances Burnett was indeed a woman I had wondered at what the intent of creating him like this had been. Now I do not think it is too much of a stretch to compare this story more easily to the didactic tale of The Wide, Wide World than to the other depictions of boyhood we’ve read about so far; Ellen is the ideal daughter, and Cedric seems to be the ideal son.

In fact, Burnett tells us that Cedric’s “greatest charm was this cheerful, fearless, quaint little way of making friends with people.” She goes on to state that “he had never heard an unkind or uncourteous word spoken at home; he had always been loved and caressed and treated tenderly, and so his childish soul was full of kindness and innocent warm feeling” (446). That is certainly a very different description of a young boy than from what the male authors said of their own characters. Well we can see very plainly in Tom Sawyer that Tom causes his aunt no end of grief, and what mother would want to be put through all that with her children? Though we can’t take these texts as artifacts, we can probably argue that Tom is much closer to being a typical boy of the time than is Cedric simply because Burnett could never have experienced boyhood intimately enough to write of it as accurately as Twain or Alger. Little Lord Fauntleroy was probably intended by Burnett to temper troublesome boyish qualities and attempt to make young boys (like young girls) more manageable to a mother.

Week 9 - Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer is quite a quotable little book, even from the little that we have read of it so far. Though there exists a plethora of possible blog-able quotes, there was one passage in particular that I felt was worth noting. Right after Tom escapes from Aunt Polly, on page 402 Charles Dickens comes out of the text to tell us that "he was not the Model Boy of the village. He knew the model boy very well though -- and loathed him."

Stopping there, that quote seems largely out of context with the previous dialogue. Out of a rather comical scene featuring one of Tom's many boyish pranks, suddenly he is juxtaposed against some seemingly perfect imaginary being and we are made aware of how strongly he resents this comparison. This passage gives us a brief glimpse inside Tom's head, but is at first seemingly out of context. However we are soon given more insight into these puzzling words upon the entrance of the "citified" boy with an "air about him that ate into Tom's vitals. The more Tom stared at the splendid marvel, the higher he turned up his nose at his finery and the shabbier and shabbier his own outfit seemed to him to grow" (403). This city boy becomes the personification of this "model boy," and we can see that Tom dislikes him instantly because he represents everything that Tom is not. The city boy is wealthy, well-dressed, and well-spoken. He wears shoes on the weekday, and a necktie, whereas Tom does not. Being a confident young lad, Tom takes an instant dislike of the boy probably because his finery throws into stark relief Tom's own ratty clothes and makes him feel self-conscious. Being also proud, having someone make him feel self-conscious cause him to become angry and pick a fight with the boy. It is most likely a move designed to show that boy that he is not better than Tom in all areas, despite the city boys' bragging. 

Tom resents this "model boy." Loathes him even. Not only for the reasons as represented by his encounter with the city boy, but also because the model boy represents a part of the population he doesn't ever see himself resembling. Tom is lazy, he tricks people, lies to his aunt, and gets into a host of other mischief. He wants the glory that comes with being the model boy (such as winning a Bible and impressing the new girl) but doesn't want to work for it. He doesn't think he has the capacity to even be the model boy, so he doesn't try, and just simply lives life his way. Why should he try to fit the image of what everybody else thinks he should be when his tricks and his cleverness win him the same things with less effort? Being crafty is what he is good at, and I know if I were him I would resent being told I have to act a certain way too. To a 12-year-old boy, it must be next to insufferable.

Week 8 - Ragged Dick

One of the first things I noticed about the story Ragged Dick was how different everybody's expectations were for Dick than they were for previous female characters we've read about.  Dicks quick witted and colloquial speech endears him to others rather than provoking a rebuttal. Though he possess numerous faults as stated by the narrator, he is often referred to as "our hero" rather than being offered suggestions on self improvement. His ambition and work ethic are praised; things we never even heard mentioned in our previous stories. Young boys are clearly more free to operate and advance in society in spheres other than the domestic one.

We have read that little girls are supposed to be well mannered, helpful, pretty, and polite, much like Ellen Montgomery from The Wide, Wide World. We have watched bad things happen to girls who were lacking in one or more of these areas, such as when Gerty from The Lamplighter attacks Nan Grant and gets kicked out of her home, or when Sybil from A Whisper in the Dark throws a temper tantrum and gets sent to the insane asylum. These rules of conduct that guide young women are entirely different for young  boys like Dick (the simple fact that he holds a job is proof of this; consider Capitola from The Hidden Hand). The narrator openly admits that Dick "wasn't a model boy in all aspects," yet continually refers to him as a hero throughout the text (339). Dick supports himself by living on the street blacking boots, working for a living, whereas Sybil's only option to keep herself financially stable seemed to be to get married.  Boys and girls appear to have clearly divided duties to which they are expected to attend, and when people blur that line (such as Capitola dressing like a boy) it can make society uncomfortable.

Aside from simply being allowed more freedom than girls, boys of this time seem to be pushed towards what we would call achieving the "American Dream." Dick's industrious nature is constantly highlighted throughout the story; Dick buys himself breakfast almost everyday from the money he earns in the mornings, and chastises his friend Johnny for not earning the same fortunes, calling him lazy. Though he is still poor due to his extravagant spending habits, towards the end of this excerpt we find that Dick does have some rather large ambitions. He tells his new friend Frank that "I really wish I could get somethin' else to do... I'd like to be a office boy, and learn business, and grow up 'spectable" (389). We see finally that, despite his frequent jokes at his own poverty, he really just wants a dignified, legitimate place amongst the rest of society. Frank telling Dick the story of Dick Whittington was no coincidence either; it stuck me instantly as highly didactic and one of the few similarities I could see between this story and our previous readings (391). Dick Whittington (who shares the first name of our protagonist) starts out as a street boy just like Ragged Dick and grows up to become wealthy and "Lord Mayor of London" (392). This story combined with Frank's statement that "If you'll try to be somebody, and grow up into a respectable member of society, you will," tries very plainly to tell the young boys reading this story that no matter where you come from in life, you can be accepted by society if you will just work hard.