Taking a Look at Child Labor

Child labor is a cruel act that involves putting children into back breaking work. The poet William Blake lived in a time when such harshness was accepted, and saw it for what it truly was. In his poem, Blake shows the child labor in chimney sweeping. The poem is centered around two characters, the narrator and a boy child named Tom. The narrator is a young boy who was sold into work at a young age. Tom is a child in the same situation but he has a strange dream. In “The Chimney Sweeper”, Blake expresses his view of the wrongness of child labor by showing what it is and how it affects the children.

Child labor, by nature, is harsh and extremely harsh in chimney sweeping. Chimney sweeping was a job that required children in order to get the work done (Child Labor). In his poem, Blake’s narrator says “… my father sold me while yet my tongue/ could scarcely cry “ ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!” (Blake 2-3). This shows that when he was put into work, he was a young child just abandoned by his father. Being sold into work is the exact same thing as slavery, which is very harsh. In 1788, there were some laws made so the conditions that they lived in would be better. These laws were never really put into effect (Children and Chimneys). In his poem, Blake shows the conditions that they lived in. In his first stanza, Blake’s narrator says, “So your chimneys I sweep and in soot I sleep” (Blake 4). This states that the boy did work for people and he had to sleep in soot. The harshness in child labor can have many effects on children, one of them is having what is most important to them stolen.

Leal 2

A child is the most innocent human on Earth. But when that innocence is stolen, the child is forced to grow up and see the world for what it really is. Blake shows this situation with a child named Tom. Tom was sold into chimney sweeping as a young child. Before he is even put into work, “[his hair] curled like a lamb’s back” ( Blake 6). A lamb in literature is often seen as a symbol of innocence. Blake uses these words to express how innocent Tom is. When Tom is put into work his head, “was shaved… for when [his] head’s bare/… soot could not spoil [his]