Tom Sawyer Prompt

I really want to look at the national parenting aspect of this story. During our discussion we noticed that in the previous stories we have read, none of the children that we were focusing on were raised by their biological parents. This is very interesting to me considering children’s literature of the nineteenth century really focused on the relationship of elders and children yet none of these stories had the ideal parent to child relationship.
One thing that was mentioned in our discussion that I would like to focus on is the comparison between Nan Grant as a mother figure and Aunt Polly. These two characters were raising children that were not biologically theirs but yet they had a huge impact in the children’s lives. I think it’s ironic how in each story Nan Grant and Aunt Polly still took care of their biological children along with Gerty and Tom. It makes me wonder if their biological children were ever favored over Tom and Gerty. “Aunt, you don’t whack Sid when he takes it.” This quote is Tom referring to the fact that Aunt Polly never punishes her biological child Sid like she does Tom. “Her only chance of obtaining any share of the meal was to be on the spot when they had finished.” This quote is in The Lamplighter and is referring to the fact that Nan Grant’s son’s get to eat before Gerty. I believe that some parents who have mixed families have a real tendency to favor their own biological children over ones that have been adopted into their family. I think this problem is something that can be deeper looked into even today.