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Essay on the Chimney Sweeper

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Submitted By joedar
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English 102-B12 LUO
Spring 2014
Joseph P Garland Jr L23810423
MLA

A literary analysis of “The Chimney Sweeper.”

Social Injustice was rampant among chimney sweeps in 18th and 19th Century England... In the poem “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Innocence” This paper will evaluate and show the story and writing style dealing with social injustice. 1. Introduction a. The Chimney Sweeper 2. The Location and Era a. 18th and 19th Century England 3. Point of View a. Tom Dacre 4. Writing Style A. Lack of Rhyme 5. Conclusion

William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Innocence” provides a view of extreme social injustice among children being used as chimney sweeps in 18th and 19th Century England. William Blake also in 1794 wrote “The Chimney Sweeper” in “Songs of Experience.” For this essay, the analysis will be of “The Chimney Sweeper” from “Songs of Innocence” written in 1789. This poem shows social injustice from the character’s eyes dealing with oppression, exploitations and death.

The life that William Blake creates in “The Chimney Sweeper” is one of social and economic injustice, the use of child labor which leads to a society of that time being un-sympathetic to the needs of its children. Blake draws attention from the first stanza of the poem to a child that has already experienced the death of his mother and being sold into indentured servitude by the father before the child could even process the death and what is happening to them.
At very early ages in 18th and 19th Century England extremely young children were being sold to clean chimneys. These children were just not being sold as orphans but even by family members to pay off debt or because they could no longer care for the child. In the “Chimney Sweeper” the child telling the story recounts a dream had by a fellow child chimney sweeper named

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