Little Lord Fauntleroy

I would like to draw attention to the differences between Cedric, Ragged Dick, and Tom Sawyer. While there may be other contributing factors Cedric differs greatly from Dick and Tom. Dick and Tom are more of the typical "boy." They're dirty and manipulative. They don't hang around their mothers and they despise rules and authority. Cedric is quite opposite. He is, quite frankly, a mama's boy. He is clean, adores his mother and doesn't participate in the same type of activities that most stereotypical boys do. Boys are all about play and things like that while girls hung around their mothers and did domestic things. Could it be that we are seeing the way the author views children? Women are more likely to elaborate on the children in the way that they want their children to relate to them. They want a snuggly mama's boy. Men are more likely to kind of take the "boys will be boys" attitude.

Knowing the gender of the author gives a different perspective. If a man had written about Cedric in this fashion I might be inclined to think that he was making fun of him, or that it was satirical. I can understand why men would write under woman's names, or vise versa for that very reason. At this time, women spent more time with children and knew more about them. Men only saw them for a limited amount of time so it would make sense that they would have more of the stereotypical view.