Tom

I am a city girl and I wouldn't know the first thing to do in the country. I would imagin swingin on an old tier that would hang from a tree look ing over a hill, with a dirt road that leads to my neighboors house 300 miles away. Everyday I would wake up to tend to the cows, hourses, pigs and sheep. I would water the crops, get rid of pest, and pick the tamotos that were about to fall. This was the perception I had of the country based on what I have heard and seen while driving through it. After reading Tom Sawyer I saw that I was right about some things and wrong about others.
In Tom Sawyer, Tom was a very interesting young boy. He was nothing like the young vagabond boot-black in "Ragged Dick". Reading both of these passages gave us an opportunity to see the difference of life in the city vs. the country. In "Ragged Dick", Dick was his own provider, lived were he wanted, and did what every he had to do to survive. On the other hand Tom was a very adventurist boy that lived on a farm. Dick made it clear that the only way to survive in the city is that you must have money, nice clothes, and know the right person. In the country money was not present among the children for the did not have a place to spend it on. In the country Tom and his friends wished to have the most property, meaning more marbles, shoe strings, useless keys and other priceless objects to a city boy. The more things you had in the country the better off you were than the other guys. Tom showed me that country life is not too bad but as for being a city girl all of my life, I would die if I went to the country now. I will chose the city over the country any day and I think Tom would too if he had a choice.

Ragged Dick

Compared to the other readings that we have previously read in class, this is the first time a boy is the main character. In our previous text we were able to see how little girls should act but in "Ragged Dick" we were able to better understand the way little boys in the 19th century were expected to act. Reading this story we were also able to come up with major differences between the roles and place in society boys and girls held during this time period. Girls were taught to be pretty, elegant, a home maker, and most of all a good mother and wife. During this time girls/women were not seen as capable of doing the things that boys/men should and could do even though in "The Hidden Hand" Capitola made it very clear that girls can do whatever it may be and better. The differences that we saw were very disappointing to me, because boys had it much easier than girls did.
Dick was your typical boot black boy in New York. As a boy Dick was able to provide for himself without worrying about if he would be taken seriously. I cant help but think about Capitola, for she understood that she would not be able to get any work even if she had her own business such as a boot-black if she didn't change her appearance and make the world think she was boy. As Ragged as Dick looked, he was still able to make money despite his dirty face, button-less vest, too big pants and his black but once was white handkerchief. Boys of this time period did not have any worries, everything was care free in a scene. As long as you made an honest living you were seen as an okay guy, which is far from the case for little girls.