Essay Example on Goody Two-Shoes: Orphaned in Isolation, Guided by God

"Goody Two-Shoes" is a children's story. It talks about a man who was once wealthy, however when the crops failed to yield, his sheep died and the wealth he had vanished. The amounts of debts increased and even though he sold his farm he was not able to settle all the debts. He had two children and a wife and after felling sick and dying. The two orphan children were left in an isolated world, with no one to guide them the elements of obedience, or even take care of them, but only God. They were really poor, hungry and unkempt. Those who were wealthy were proud to notice them (Grenby Pg. 50). However, Mr. Smith, a clergyman in the village was a humble man and generous. He bought the children a pair of shoes and clothes which they were in dire need. Through the character of Margery, it is evident that someone can rise up from rags and teaches other children to be adept and even obedient to the authority. Margery focuses on tutoring kids how to read using alphabet blocks, emphasizing on them giving respect to those in authority, and the significance of waking up early and hard work.

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Margery began teaching herself to read and becomes so adroit that she starts teaching other children, through the alphabet blocks she devises on her own (Grenby Pg. 56). She uses his wisdom to advise a sickly gentleman that for him to regain back his health he should wake up early and eat more food, she also prevents a robbery aimed at the house of her father's old enemy (Grenby Pg. 57). This is an aspect of obedience to the authority as she does return good for the evil committed by her father's enemy.

Margery's good status continued to grow and earned her a job of schoolmistress at a local school (Grenby Pg. 68). Margery focuses on tutoring kids how to read using alphabet blocks, emphasizing on them giving respect to those in authority, and the significance of waking up early and hard work. She complains against the habit of tormenting insects, beating horses and dogs. Margery is married by a gentleman, however, like her father, she is widowed after six years of marriage. She decides to use her wealth to promote religiousness, help the poor, and promote matrimony, even though she never gets married again. In the end, she dies and everyone griefs about her death.

Despite the confusion in the authorship of the text, the narrator encourages obedience to authority. Children are entirely linked to the text and the narrative voice in the book. Welsh makes considerations of the child reader and the audience (Nikolajeva n.p). The authorial control in the format of the book highlights the pedagogical authority that the text will display to its readers in which in this case are children. Similarly, the presentation of the language using visual devices plays an important role in the readers' interaction with the text and at the same time graphic realization. Children, therefore, are able to learn using letterform scripts something that propels teachers to enter into slants of authority during their instruction.

The growing use of letter and alphabets makes children have an urge to read books that have similar shapes. Teachers, in this case, find it easy to give instruction to children particularly beginners since simplicity in these styles creates some authority which children are naturally reinforced to obey. Nikolajeva and Scott in their book 'how picture books work' avow that publishers of educational books and the government are playing a vital role to encourage obedience of authority to the text or instructional books (71). There are multitude influences and factors that when conveyed in the literary readings encourage obedience to authority, for instance, use of margins, word and line spacing, justification of characters to mention but a few. The publication of many books combines many forms to construct texts that can benefit children readers.

Welsh focuses on teaching children about the tricks of being wealthy and acquiring a good status in society. The block of letters, syllables, and words presents children with a nimble that the world is made up of a letter and the words themselves can encourage them to understand how the world works (120). There are many lessons in the text that tend to cover the meaning of the letter and how to compose words and sentences. As children continue learning, they do compose sentences and admit to the styles such as print blocks rather than mechanical justification of a hand. This justifies that Newbery's text totally encourages obedience for the fact that the length of religious sentences composed by children is as a result of learning. Children can use their new learning to construct and write sentences the same way they observe the world. The text works as practical and fictional entities that institute children to interact with it hence a reflection of how their lives should look like in the corporate world.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Goody Two-Shoes is a confident and interesting heroine. Through hard work and repaying good for bad, she is able to change her future by teaching other children not only how to learn using block alphabet, but also the importance of being obedient to those in authority. (Grenby Pg. 134). Through her wealth, she is able to help the poor children, instill values and piety, and enhance matrimony something that was difficult during her childhood. Margery uses the parable of a "young servant who rises from rags to wealth through determination and resilience, having savings, and marriage to his master's niece, but loses every penny to his creditors when he fails to ensure properly a fleet of ships. "(Grenby Pg. 70). He uses the parable to teach children the importance of obedience to authority or submission. Even though Margery is a strong character, she also had weakness like not being able to encourage women to take up power in moral capacity. She symbolizes that the value of preparing young girls to womanhood however daunting it might look. Finally, Margery is able to impact the future generation on the importance of being submissive to those in authority and value of hard work so that they may live a better life than she did.

Works Cited

Grenby, Matthew O., ed. Little Goody Two-Shoes and Other Stories: Originally Published by John Newbery. Macmillan International Higher Education, 2013.

Welsh, Charles. Goody Two-Shoes: a Facsimile Reproduction of the Edition of 1776. Holp Shuppan, 1881.

Nikolajeva, Maria, and Carole Scott. How picturebooks work. Routledge, 2013.