Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Boys are a lot different from girls. Boys in literature don't have to be neurotically in tune with religion. Dick says, "No" , when asked if he ever read the Bible(303). Little Ellen Montgomery would definitely have said yes. Next, Ragged Dick does not have very good grammar or pronunciation, which is ok because he is not a girl. He says "That must have been a valooable lamp"(299). Clearly he is mispronouncing the word valuable, yet it is ok because he is a boy and not a girl. Girls in literature value their education very much... more so than guys. Next since Dick has friends at all, he is very in tune with their needs and takes care of them as if they were himself. After Johnny Mullen was hit by an omnibus, Ragged Dick helps him out and pays for his hospital stay. Dick says, "Me and some of his friends paid his board while he was there" (297). Ellen Montgomery did not even have the friends to take care of. Sybil may have been able to have friends if she was not always locked up in a crazy house. Guys in literature are a lot more easy going than most girls in literature because they joke around. Frank is said to be "Laughing" after a joke that Dick made (294). I know generally that boys are different from girls and the literature shows this, however I'm not sure what is meant by the contrast in literature. Maybe guys are allowed to do a lot more of what they want to do than girls. Ellen Montgomery was really restricted by religion and education so much so that she did not have any friends. Ragged Dick on the other hand is clearly under educated and has no religion, yet he seems a lot more likable and happy than Ellen was. Yet Capitola played a boys role and she was much more likable than most of the girls in our literature. I think Boys could make a lot more jokes about 19th century American society maybe telling them to loosen up a bit. Their language is satisfactory at best, so maybe that too is a way of telling American society to loosen up. Honestly I don't know how they would comment upon 19th Century American society. Guys in literature contrast a lot of the 19th century American society ideals, like having a strong faith in God, a good education, and being the opposite of collectivist who take more care of the people around them.
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you pointed out really good differences.
ReplyDeleteI liked your point about how Dick seems to have a lot of friends. Although all the girls in other stories were very polite and well brought up you never saw them interact with another child, almost like they did not have friends. It almost suggests that boys are more social and likeable.
I agree somewhat with what you've said. I did notice the lack of religion in Ragged Dick and I alson noticed his lack of education, but I'm not sure I agreed with Dick's ignorance due to the fact that he is a boy. I think it steems from him living on the streets and being poor. Gerty's vocabulary was horrible, but it was because she was poor and hadn't been to school. Here we have a boy and girl sharing the same insufficient education level.
ReplyDeleteI also like what you point out about Dick having a lot of friends. We never see much about young girls hanging out with friends, because it seems like they were never given the time to do so. Boys were expected and allowed to be adventurous and I think that helped them to be able to have a lot of different friends.
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