KidLit Forum

The Prince and the Pauper
Mark Twain

This book is one of the most beautiful books of our childhood. Who wouldn’t want to live in a prince’s life for just one day and see all that grandeur and richness. For Tom that was his only dream and as the quote says ‘Be careful what you wish for because you might get it’ one day he meets The Prince of Wales, Edward. For a period of time Tom lives as a prince and Edward as a pauper. It is a sad story written in a funny way. I think the author tries to put a veil on that 16th century and paints over the those slums and he paints it with sense of humor. ‘One summer's day he saw poor Anne Askew and three men burned at the stake in Smithfield, and heard an ex-bishop preach a sermon to them which did not interest him. Yes, Tom's life was varied and pleasant enough, on the whole’. The book is full with instances when sarcasm is used by the author and because of this the novel is not depressed or sad. I said that he paints it with humor but I don’t want to say that what happens in the book is funny because it’s not. I just want to emphasize that even though life and living in that period was horrible and cruel for the poor ones Mark Twain tried to make somehow fun of the situations. It is already pretty hard for a child to read about a poor boy whose only entertainment is watching people burn at a stake or who is bitten because he brings little money home after he begs all day. Everybody could learn something from this novel. If you are poor it reminds you to follow your dreams, have faith and be good because something amazing might happen to you, if you are rich it reminds you that a boy or a girl or a family somewhere struggles to get by and if you don’t like the dinner prepared for you maybe somebody else didn’t have dinner at all. Tom and Edward could be anyone, in any other time not just the 16th century and the author used them to criticize their society.

Nice post, Melanie, with many insights and connection (in)to our own world...