“Young Africans Of British Growth”:Chimney Sweepers In The Literature During The Industrial Revolution

Chimney sweeper,as one category of child labor,is often invisible in the historical records.Actually,children employed as chimney sweepers have a long time in Britain and its number reaches the peak during the industrial revolution which is considered as the darkest period of chimney sweepers.Although the employment of children as climbing boys is forbidden by the Act of 1788,this law does not work well since the parliament does not attach sufficient importance to its execution.A great many of masters ignore this law and go on using children to sweep the soot away;meanwhile,householders approve masters' actions as they are of view that climbing boys do better in cleaning chimneys than machines.It is not until 1875 that climbing boys leave the stage of history.During their black period,their alienation and trauma arouse concern and some writers adopt climbing boys' sufferings in their literary works.Based on relevant literary analysis,this thesis makes use of a large amount of materials to enter into climbing boys' inner world,and to access their experiences.By putting chimney sweepers in the foreground,this thesis is divided into four chapters to reveal their alienation and trauma.The first chapter is the literature review of studies on chimney sweepers both in history and in literature.The second chapter relies on chimney sweepers' experiences which are written in literature to expose their torments.Climbing boys' alienation and trauma will be highlighted by exploring their living and working conditions,their own thoughts and senses,their limited private space.Both the terrible environment they live in and their restricted personal space imply their low social status or their alienated state for the reason that people's social position is proportional to their living standard and the space they occupy.Climbing boys' psychological world is also a vital element to uncover their misfortune.On the strength of text interpretation,the third chapter aims to disclose the main causes that give rise to chimney sweepers' alienation and trauma.In Charles Kinsley's The Water Babies,lack of education and exposure to violence are the chief culprits of chimney sweepers' tragedy.Religion used to help climbing boys to cope with their suffering and irresponsible parents who sell their children to sweep soot prove to be two negative effects on chimney sweepers' life,which is evident in William Blake's The Chimney Sweeper.Apart from these elements,Charles Lamb presents the fact that climbing boys' plight also lies in their intensive workload and relevant diseases caused by their occupation in his The Praise of Chimney Sweepers.The fourth chapter is devoted to sum up the results of chimney sweepers' alienation and trauma.This occupation bears away children's innocence as well as their morality.Confronting the cruel and indifferent aspect of the society,climbing boys step into the world of experience,and some of them even decay in their morality.Accompanied with chimney sweepers' alienation and trauma,their acquisition of benevolence comes gradually.On behalf of climbing boys,many campaigners take effective actions to attempt to abolish the employment of child sweepers,and numerous littérateurs create sentimental literature related with climbing boys' plight in order to arouse the public concern.In a sense,chimney sweepers' final emancipation derives from their alienation and trauma.