Morality essay prince pauper

Stylistically, the novel is very different from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). It combines his fascination with Europe’s romantic past with his natural bent for satirizing the injustices and social conventions of his own age.

In The Prince and the Pauper, Tom Canty is much better off if he stays away from his abusive, alcoholic, controlling father, who is both a thief and a murderer. Twain was one of the first authors of children’s literature to recognize the concept of parental abuse and to make the father the principal villain of the story.

Twain’s major criticism of society, both in Tudor times and in his own, is the mistake of gauging a person’s true worth based on that person’s outward appearance, that is, by judging them, for example, strictly by the clothes they wear.

Although twenty-first century readers think of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as children’s books, The Prince and the Pauper is the only novel Twain ever wrote specifically for children, especially his two young daughters. He aims the other two books at general audiences of all ages.