Essay about The Voice of the Chimney Sweepers

Children have a reputation for being innocent and naive. This is mainly because their experiences with the world are few and sheltered. As the children grow up they are exposed to more and more of the unfiltered world. Some parents do everything they can to keep their children from seeing that world. That is because as they see more of the world they become less innocent. Normally adults are the only ones who have truly lost their innocence. Unfortunately, there are exceptions, as there are to every rule, and they are not good. Children who have lost their innocence have had horrible things happen. Elie Wiesel writes in the novella Night how he lost his innocence. Elie has suffered a loss of innocence because he is desensitized, he has lost

Characters lose their innocence throughout American literature. What exactly does “losing their innocence” mean? Losing one’s innocence can be seen as a character maturing. A character may lose his/her innocence in ways including the viewing of a traumatic event, especially one that will scar his/her life forever. Losing one’s innocence can also be caused by losing one’s trust in someone whom he/she once trusted, catching a glimpse into the “real world”, or performing an act of immorality. The recurring theme of loss of innocence, as seen throughout American literature and reality, can affect a person and the people around him/her both negatively and positively. As a result, the audience can see the character mature through losing hope of dreams, becoming an outcast of society, gaining a new perspective of ideas, or gaining confidence. Negative and positive effects falling onto characters as a result of a loss of innocence can be found in works such as The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and The Hunger Games; this theme can also be seen in real life through the effects of children exposed to violent video games.

To value innocence is to value ignorance because the loss of innocence reveals the realities of society.

Innocence to many people can be defined as someone who has no guilt or shame and who is pure and uncorrupt. At times, this childhood like manner is loss for an abundance of reasons one can not control, whether it is because of a pain experienced off a struggle, or simply because one grows old and just experiences life with all its life changing moments. In my opinion, innocence is something that should be cherished as long as possible. Scars are sometimes left, imprinted deep into our skin, changing a person for good. In the book All Quiet in the Western Front, this could clearly be seen throughout the whole story about how these characters, Paul and his friends, go through many challenges that they did not expect,

(page 90) Innocence is shown at the beginning of the book by Jem and Scout, because to them they lived in a perfect world that showed no evil. They are innocents who have been destroyed through contact with evil. The loss of innocence in a way is a coming of age. This happens by an experience in a child's life where they realize the world's darkness instead of only seeing the good side of it.

In many ways, people lose their innocence. The novel, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton’s main characters are the Socs and the Greasers. The novel shows us a lot of examples of loss of innocence between them. Also in the song, “Nothing Gold” by Stevie Wonder described the sense of innocence pretty well. In the novel and the song, we can find a lot of examples of loss of innocence which is shown through losing someone or something so special and problems people have to face.

William Blake's The Chimney Sweeper, written in 1789, tells the story of what happened to many young boys during this time period. Often, boys as young as four and five were sold for the soul purpose of cleaning chimneys because of their small size. These children were exploited and lived a meager existence that was socially acceptable at the time. Blake voices the evils of this acceptance through point of view, symbolism, and his startling irony.

The Chimney Sweepers was published in 1789 and 1794. William Blake was the author of both poems that are named the same thing but are honestly completely different.

At the time, there were no child labor laws, meaning any child could be placed in a factory or any environment regardless of age. In “The Chimney Sweeper,” Blake demonstrates children’s innocence. The speaker is a young male child who was sold before he could speak (51). Children during the time frame were literally placed inside the chimney to dust them out. Blake chalks the poem full of poetic devices to depict the harsh child labor laws occurring.

In William Blake’s poem Songs of Innocence, he addresses the issue of child labor in London, and how it damages their innocence and health. Like the corruption in London at the time, the children’s essence is being corrupted by the lies they are being told to get them to do their duties. Blake writes about a little boy, Tom Dacre, who is new to chimney sweeping, and allows the audience to see what an innocent child is like before his innocence decomposes. Blake uses innocent Tom Dacre in this poem to amplify his fight against child labor in London, and show society, how it causes children’s lives and innocence to decay. Although a minor character, Tom Dacre undergoes a major evolution in only 24 lines, that represents the sad evolution that many children in his position experience.

William Blake thought the role of the child to be innocence. Witnessing two of his

William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are collections of poems that utilize the imagery, instruction, and lives of children to make a larger social commentary. The use of child-centered themes in the two books allowed Blake to make a crucial commentary on his political and moral surroundings with deceptively simplistic and readable poetry. Utilizing these themes Blake criticized the church, attacking the hypocritical clergy and pointing out the ironies and cruelties found within the doctrines of organized religion. He wrote about the horrific working conditions of children as a means to magnify the inequality between the poor working class and

“The Chimney Sweeper” is a poem written by William Blake (1757 –1827). His main aim is to expose the social defects in his age and the vices which afflict his society and to confront his readers with the dreadful suffering of the working paupers. According to Blake, the chimney-sweeping life is not a life at all; the labourer children have lost their childhood, their freedom, and their innocence. He criticizes the victimisation of children and the injustice of this oppressive labour. He shows how Tom; the chimney sweeper and other children suffer from long hard labour in addition to physical and psychological abuse. Blake insists that these children are living in abject and inhumane conditions of deprivation, misery and humiliation

Beginning in the 1670s children were often used as chimney sweeps in England. After the Great Fire of London, new building regulations were designed to keep the city safer. Fireplaces were required to be built a certain way, with narrower chimneys; and it became more important to ensure that the chimneys were free of obstruction after a liberal amount of usage. Since the chimneys were so cramped, this task was given to children, the only people petite enough to fit inside the chimneys. Most of the children who were chimney sweeps were often orphans who were apprenticed to a “Master Sweep” who would be their boss and take care of them. Consequently, during this time period, the terrible abuse of children as chimney sweeps became widespread. William Blake was an author during this time period who realized how horrible the chimney sweeping industry was. Blake was so disgusted with the industry that he wrote two poems about it, one in Songs of Innocence and another in Songs of Experience. In Songs of Experience, William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” uses a critical tone of society to give a voice to social groups who did not have the ability to use their voices.

In Songs of Innocence, the dominant symbol is the child. The poems are narrated from the standpoint of a child and represent the early stages of the human imagination. At this point in its life, the imagination is not fully formed and does not yet contain its own distinctive character. The innocent's world view is one of "Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love" where God the creator bestows meaning upon nature.