KidLit Forum

Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper appeared in 1881.
It is the story of two boys, the prince Edward and the pauper Tom who are suddenly forced to change their places, and experience completely different ways of life. The plot evolves around two stories: Tom's at the Royal Court and Edward's among the low-class people. Two different and contrastive environments with great impact on the two characters. The two boys have similar appearance, which leads to a series of plot complications. Edward and Tom trick everyone around them just by changing their outfits. This proves in a way that appearances can be misleading.
It is a story which focuses on the class-based justice. From this book we find out that each class has its own set of rules which have to be learned and obeyed in order to be accepted. Tom and Edward realize that they actually know very little about their real social class, or about the other's as a matter of fact. This changes completely the way they see the world. Twain shows the huge difference between the high and the low societies in England. It also shows how the two classes knew nothing about the other. It implies that the social status was influenced by appearance and not by the true self of a person. The difference between the two classes is shown by describing Edward's and Tom's homes, the people, the way they talk, behave, dress, spend time. Twain describes Tom's house as “small, decayed, and rickety, but it was packed full of wretchedly poor families”. A place where “drunkenness, riot, and brawling were the order there every night and nearly all night long. Broken heads were as common as hunger in that place”. Edward lived a life in luxury in the huge Westminster palace.
The Prince and the Pauper, wants to demonstrate the fact that being rich is not all about having money.After having changed places with Edward, Tom becomes richer than he could ever dream of, but it turns out to be not what he really wanted or imagined richness would be. Edward loses all of his richness only to find another kind of wealth that has nothing to do with money. He finds out that richness has to do with family sometimes.You are rich if you have friends and family who love you and appreciate you. Tom, on the other hand, has a family who abuse him and neglect him. So the boys' conclusion is that having a loving and supporting family is sometimes all the richness you could want. It does not really matter to which class you belong to, having a loving family is worth all the money in the world.

"The difference between the two classes is shown by describing Edward's and Tom's homes"
I agree with you. This two pictures shows how far is one reality from the other as well as their inhabitants.