Tag Archives: truant

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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.

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The Truant Boy’s Massive Mistake

A major aspect in a majority of children’s stories is that they have a moral to teach their young audiences, and in my opinion The Truant and The Truant Boy’s End was no exception. I believe that the moral of the story of Henry was that your actions always have consequences, even if they are not apparent at first.

In the first story, a young boy Henry skips school for the first time and lies about where he was. Soon after, he skips school again because he had already gotten away with it once. Even though he felt immensely guilty he did not see the major consequences of skipping school until the second reading. The fact that you don’t see the consequences until much later made me like these stories even more. In real life, sometimes everything seems to be going your way even if you are breaking the rules. It isn’t until much later in your life that you really see the results of your actions. Skipping school led him to misbehave and get kicked out of school, which ruined his future, but also broke his parent’s hearts. This shows how your actions affect more than just you.

I also believe that adults can relate to this story just as much as children, if not more, because most children believe that something like this could never happen to them. They believe that even if they break the rules they would never let it get out of control like Henry did. Many adults have witnessed in their own lives or in the lives of others that one mistake can snowball out of control into much more major offenses. Adults see the truth in these stories and make their lesson have a strong impact on the reader. The moral that your actions always have consequences can impact and teach readers of all ages.