Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography
Harrison, James. "Blake's the Chimney Sweeper." Explicator 36.2 (2002): 1-3. Literary
Reference Center. Web. 4 November 2010.
1.
The writer, Harrison is contrasting two characters: the speaker and Tom Dacre and is discussing how the different viewpoints and tone of voice affect our understanding. The speaker is older and has many years of experience clean chimneys. The speaker actually believes that this job is his "calling". However, the less experienced, Tom Dacre does not feel this way and is often sad when focus to do this job, which shows the irony of the story.

I think Harrison's article is reliable, useful, and has no bias at all. I believe the goal is to provide the readers with a better understanding, show the big contrast in the viewpoints, and show how its irony. The irony is what gives the poems its power, so Harrison wants us to pay attention to that. If one accepts it and the other knows it isn't fair, that is a big contrast in the viewpoints. When the reader put it all together, they might say that he points out the irony to make us think about the idea of fate. Remember that the readers know the boys' fate that the job will kill them, but at least one of them does not. So we can feel sorry for the boy, even if he doesn't feel sorry.

2.
Schrumpf, Ellen."Child Labor in the West." Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: In History
and Society 1.1 (2004):159-162.Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Nov. 2010.

The point of this article to provide the readers with some details on what these young kids were forced to do. Ellen Schrumpf provides the readers with a brief look at the history of child labor in the West. Schrumpt tells that kids at the age of 14 had to start working tough jobs and were looked upon to contribute to the family income. Schrumpt also discusses how this terrible crime lasted for centuries until it was revisited and changed in the twentieth century.
I think Schrimpfy did a pretty good job with this article. She does not show any bias and presents the article in a very unique way. I would surely read more of these types of books if written in the same style as this one. However, I have one complaint and that is that Schrimpfty did not provide information. I still have some glanaring questions about the child labor in the west. I
think the article is great, but it would have been better, if more details were provided.
3.
Brown, Marilyn R. "Images of Childhood." Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: In History
and Society. 2.1 (2004): 449-463. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Nov. 2010.
Marilyn Brown clearly shows how the perspective of young innocent kids changed from century to century. Brown takes her readers on a long journey starting with the fifteen century all the way
to the twenty-first century. Brown goal in this article is to show the readers how the image of children changed and has got worse over time. It has gotten so bad that children were being taken advantage of and children were being exploitated.
Brown clearly shows her point in this article. Although, the article is very lengthy, I believe that it effectively shows the readers how the image of children changed over time.
4.
Murray, Christine. "18th Century London". PBS. PBS, 2001. Web. 6 November 2010.
In these articles, Murray's goal is to show London in the eighteenth century was not a good place for anyone; especially young children. Murray tells us how children were forced to work many hours and were paid very little or nothing at all. Almost all of the children were forced to live in work- houses, because their parents could not afford to feed them. To keep the children from starving to death, parents would sell their children to people who could feed them. Also, she discusses the living conditions, which were terrible. Families would drink dirty water, and would leave their trash everywhere.
I think that Murray does a great job in describing how the 18th century looked, what people was going through, and how they were treated during this time. Murray's articles are simply a delight to read, and I would recommend them to anyone. Murray clearly, yet interestedly proves her point about how this century in London was not good.
5.
Malthus, Thomas. "Essay on Population". Fordham. Fordham, 1798. Web. 5 November 2010.
In his essay, Malthus is making the point that there were many things that should be fixed in the 18th century including increasing population and poverty. Malthus was saying that families were growing faster that the supply of food and due to the growth in size, most families could not afford to buy food or supplies. The growth in population had made the cost of labor decrease, which caused problems for many families.
Malthus makes his point in this essay, although he did it with long and confusing words and sentences, his point, I believe was made. Basically, he is saying that there were things that needed to be address during this time period. The increase population was one of the problems and many families made their young kids work tough jobs because of this.