Photograph originally found on http://www.thecore.nus.edu/victorian/gender/wojtczak/pics/dfamily.jpg.

Working Class Families by Karen Miller

            A struggling economy is hard for every one, but is especially difficult for families. As our readings in class have shown, it very common for every member of the family to be put to some sort of work in order to help maintain their poverty income. This included the youngest of children, whether they were able to sustain a job or simply watch over the younger children while their parents worked for money.

The image I found is a photograph of a family – mostly composed of young children - washing and drinking from the East Well in Hastings, England. Hastings is a town and Borough on the coast of East Sussex in England and is mainly known for its trade in fishing. The city is one that harbored many poor in the Victorian age. Almost all of these people lived a penniless and hard working life. The photograph and description shows a family of five huddled around the East Well for water. On closer inspection, the water seems to be a small stream that is pouring out of the wall. While this water was free and safer than the ocean’s water, it is still a painstakingly small amount. The middle sister is hunched over the fountain with her hand cupped in an attempt to gather some to drink.

Around the entirety of the picture are very three young children. It is hard to tell the sex of the small children, but it would appear to be two girls by the fountain and one boy, who is watching off to the side. The figure that is most matured is clearly a female, by the way she is dressed, but it is uncertain whether she is the eldest child or the mother. By the size of the other children, it gives the impression that is an older child. If this is so, that means that four young children are being watched over and cared for by their older sibling, and the parents must be off working.

This image offers an important elaboration on the thoughts the readings provided. In Henry Mayhew’s Watercress Girl, he describes a young girl who is put to work on the streets in order to make money for her family. The young girl in this interview is not sad or depressed that she works such a hard life, but instead she has faced the fact that helping her family is doing what it takes to survive.

The body language of the children in this picture challenges this thought. While it is true that none of them are slouched over in depression or crying, the overall emotion of this picture is sadness. The two children on the opposite sides of the photograph are sitting, staring straight ahead. They are also the only two faces that you can see clearly and are shown in a profile. Their cheeks and clothes are smudged with dirt and their faces are completely emotionless.

Mayhew’s Watercress Girl tells that before she was old enough to sell water cresses, she tended to her aunt’s baby long enough until it could walk. This brief moment is the only time she mentions this. She was lucky to only have to care for one baby for such a sort amount of time, due to the major responsibility it comes with. She does say, “I aint a child, and I shan’t be a women till I’m twenty, but I’m past eight, I am.”

While the eldest girl in the picture appears to be much older than eight, but still a teenager, I would argue that she has a more difficult life than the Watercress Girl. When their parents are out making money, the eldest child is left to care for all four young siblings. Not only is it hard to teach each child morals and life lessons, but this young girl has to care for, clean, and feed all four children. An amazing amount of responsibility now falls onto that child’s shoulders. A young girl must explain to her little siblings why they cannot afford to eat - even if they are hungry – or why they have to just try to keep as warm as they can – when they are complaining about lack of clothing. Absolutely no detail in the photograph gives the impression that this family is happy, at best they are content in knowing that this is the way their life is.

One thing Mayhew did get right in his interview with the Watercress girl is that children are not ‘children’ anymore. That is, in the sense they are not free-spirited, curious, and worry-free. Instead they are thrust into a place that demands of them to become emotional adults. The Watercress girl has to bicker and bargain with the market people to get a good batch, a skill no child should be expected to perform. The eldest daughter in the family must tend to every aspect of the family while her parents are away trying to earn a living, a burden no child should have to bear. A lifetime of poverty forces even the youngest children to mature in order to survive.

While these two artists, one a sociologist and one a photographer have sampled the same situation of poor and working families, they showcase different aspects. They tend to differ on overall emotions that the families are showing: Mayhew saying that the poor are not bitter about their circumstance, but the picture showing a somber young family completing daily chores. But they do have the most important aspect in common, and that is how the poverty affects the maturity of the young children in a rapid manner.