Ragged Dick

Religion plays a different role between little boys and little girls. Ellen was constantly being encouraged to rely on God, believe in God, do His will. It was expected of her, just as it is expected for the little girls in 19th century literature to accept God and religion and do no harm or sin.

However, the role of religion with little boys is quite different. Ragged Dick didn’t even know what a bible really was, only that there was a “Bible house” with “a big pile of ‘em” (303). He was not expected to rely on God or believe in God or do His will. Instead he is to be independent and rely on himself in order to be successful in life.

Why is this so different? I mean, when I was young my brother and I were both taught about church, Jesus, God and His love and that we should try our best not to sin? However, I have noticed in recent years that I am expected to be at church with my mom but my brother has a choice as to whether or not he wants to go. Why are the girls taught and demanded to attend church and the boys essentially have the choice? I have always wondered this.

It does not surprise me that Dick did not rely on God or that he did not know what a Bible was, it wasn’t expected in this sort of literature and time period.

A Whisper in the Dark

Before insanity was brought into the picture, the text was more of a crazy, upside down love affair with many hidden messages and trickery. Now it is completely opposite in that we are slowing watching (reading) as Sybil slips deeper and deeper into a psychotic state. She is slowly going mad and not only do we know it as readers but she does as well. We as readers can “see” her thoughts as she feels as though her “health was going, [her] mind growing confused and weak; [her] thoughts wandered vaguely, memory began to fail, and idiocy or madness seemed [her] inevitable fate…” (pg 241).

Originally, because Sybil was manipulative and “coquettish” (pg 219), I believed her to be a brat who thought she could get away from everything and that if bad things happened to her, then she deserved it; “you get what you ask for.” However, as I was reading into Sybil’s mind, I kept thinking about my Psychiatric and Mental Health nursing class and my perception of her changed from a negative one to that of empathy for a young girl forced into a situation where she was slowly going mad. She tried to fight it at first by trying to escape over “a high wall [that] enclosed [the garden] on every side” (pg 239). She got caught again and her “spirit was crushed, [her] strength gone, [and her] freedom lost” (pg 239). Sybil’s “hope died” (pg 242) as she went through this struggle to maintain her sanity.

As for the mother/daughter relationship, it was not what I expected. They were connected in a way that was, what I believe, the truest and strongest bond between a mother and her daughter. Sybil thought her mother to be dead when in fact she was only one floor away from her in the same building. Her mother died trying to save her by leaving her messages in the dog’s collar and whispering “Find it! For God’s sake find it before it is too late!...The dog—a lock of hair—there is yet time” (pg 243). Even thought they never really met or created the kind of relationship expected by this time period, the unspoken bond of love between them was very evident.