Daily Archives: 29 Dec ’14

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Tom Sawyer

The adventures of Tom Sawyer is more like Tom Sawyer, the troublemaker. In the beginning of the book, the reader can already see how much of a trouble maker he is. He easily persuades his friends to do his punishment. I feel as though Tom Sawyer is a mischievous kid who simply likes adventure and doing his own thing. This can relate to many children who read this story since many children like the idea of going on an adventure and being a rebel at one point in their childhood.

Something that struck me as interesting is the fact that Tom grew up with this Aunt Polly, so it makes me think that if he grew up with both his mother and father, would his actions and behavior be different. Is it because he has no father figure that he is the way he is? How would things be different if he had both parents?

Although Tom is a mischievous kid who doesn’t like following the rule, it seems as though he gets away with a lot of things simply because of the saying, “boys will be boys.” This means that boys are allowed to do such things because that’s just what boys do. What if a girl is mischievous, then why is it not allowed for her to be this way. I feel like back in the day, girls are seem to be proper and to just stay home to play with dolls so if a girl acts the way that Tom did, then it would be a bigger problem.

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Anti-Slavery Alphabet

At first glance, the Anti-Slavery Alphabet is definitely aesthetically pleasing and can intrigued children. The simplistic look to the Alphabet is what can draw children to the reading. For me, just by looking at it, I liked the way it looked. Children can be exposed to serious political topics in such a way that they can relate in a bit. The alphabet aspect to it brings it to entice the younger audience but the topic itself is a very strong serious topic.

As I was reading each line, I can tell this alphabet was intended for white children instead of all children. For the part of letter B, it states:

B is a Brother with a skin of somewhat darker hue, But in our Heavenly Father’s sight, He is as dear as you.

This is saying how that black slaves are just like the white in the eyes of God, which is showing equality to the younger audience. As the letters go on by, it gets a bit dark; for the letter D, it’s showing how a whip is used to punish the slaves who disobey or rest. While reading the letter H, I felt a bit uncomfortable because if this is meant for children, then this letter is definitely really dark:

H is the Hound his master trained, and called to scent the track of the unhappy Fugitive, and bring him trembling back.

The thing that struck me was “unhappy Fugitive,” because what fugitive would be happy. I feel like the use of the adjective was quite strange and really dark. As I kept reading more and more, it felt like the letters kept getting darker and darker.

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The Truant Boy

In both Truant Boy stories, Abbott main message that came across was that every actions has a consequences in which you cannot escape. In the case of Henry, he faced the ultimate price for such a simple action that could have been avoided if he just did what he was supposed to do. In a way, I feel as though that these stories were a tad bit over the top since Henry’s ultimate fate was dying from his actions. This story was probably written in a way to scare children to do the right thing straight from the beginning so they do not follow the same path as Henry.

Abbott was probably trying to catch the children’s attention by making sure they do not use a little lie because the consequences of that little lie will only have a bad ending. Abbott wants to show a great moral but it felt a bit over the top. Since Henry lied and played truancy, he ended up skipping school, lying to his teacher, hanging out with the wrong type of friends, and even disappointing his parents. One sign of disobedience can lead to a lifetime of sadness and regret.

The one thing in the story that stuck out most to me, was the fact that Henry knew deep down that he wanted to change and he wanted to do something better, but in the end, he never truly fell through with his mind. Even though he knew he was wrong, he kept repeating the same problem. It seemed as though Henry thought he was too far gone to make any change. Henry didn’t seem to understand that he did in fact had many chances to come clean and to step up to make a change in his life. His life could’ve been a better life if only he didn’t live life fearing his regrets and simply make a change in his actions.