ExtraCredit(Chimney sweepers?!)

Both the 1789’s “The chimney sweeper” and 1794’s “The chimney sweeper” are about the corruption of child labor in the chimney sweep business.
However, one poem (1789) is a call for action, whereas the 1794 poem is a cry for help.

1789 reads, “… That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned and Jack, Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black,” This is a metaphor for the sweepers (particularly children) dying inside of the chimneys which they cleaned, hence ‘coffins of black’. The coffins were black because of the dirt and soot built up inside the chimney, it being the ‘coffin’. This makes the argument more of a coherent view, rather than caring for feelings, the poem focuses on a situation based upon a child’s experience and his attitude towards it, which seems to be more so matter-of-fact than anything else, for example, when Tom is sad about getting his hair shaved, the little sweeper boy replies, “Hush, Tom! Never mind it, for when your head’s bare, You know that soot cannot spoil your white hair.” He says this as if he has accepted his fate, which is later accurate when the boy is up and ready to clean by the time Tom awakes.

1789 has a different approach, it is more emotional rather than logical. This is portrayed in the last stanza when he says, “And because I am happy, and dance and sing, They think they have done me no injury…” The writer is expressing a need for aid. This stanza is conveying that the child appears happy but this is only because he is a child. Children are always going to laugh and play, they’ll try to make their lives better because they don’t understand the harsh realities of the “real world”. So what the child’s feeling on the inside won’t always mirror on the outside.

The similarity between the two poems is that religion is brought up. Yet, it is differing because the 1789 one is creating a positive mood towards religion, for example in Tom’s dream when the angel had the key to open the coffin to set them free. This illustrates that as long as you have belief and faith, God will send you angels to release your pains. But in the later 1794 poem, he blames God for his hopelessness, such as in the last stanza which says, “…And are gone to praise God and his priest and king, Who make up a heaven of misery.”

The interesting topic is that the author was never a chimney sweeper and was born into a middle class family. So his views could have altered after he had some insight on the subject. It’s intriguing, again, that the ‘call for action’ poem was published five years before the ‘call for help’ poem. Consequently, the 1794 poem echoes the 1789 poem.

Analytical1

Invisible Man gives great symbols and motifs throughout the novel, most representing the ignoble values of white men towards the African-American community. Specifically, in chapter 6, Dr. Herbert Bledsoe expels the narrator for showing the true realities among the blacks near the college to the founder of the college, then further ruining the college’s reputation by taking him to a brothel. The expelling of ‘invisible man’ is significant to the story due to the motif of white superiority.
Bledsoe explains that, “ I’s big and black and I say, ‘Yes suh,’ as loudly as any burrhead when it’s convenient, but I’m still the king down here…” and he continues telling the narrator that he would lynch any negro is that’s what it takes to keep his position.
This echoes the narrator’s grandfather’s words because Dr. Bledsoe is a servant to the whites, and he does his betraying part of, “Yeses and grins”.
When Bledsoe expelled the narrator, this was a bitter reality for him. This made him become conscious that he could, too, become a traitor as Bledsoe soon, at the rate he was at. Bledsoe was a looking-glass into the future for the narrator, which reflected the actuality of white dominance.