The Spoiled Child

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Introduction

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 The Spoiled Child was written by William Craig Brownlee, who lived from 1783 until 1860. William C. Brownlee was born in Torfoot Farm, Scotland, which is known to have housed Queen Anne, Duchess of Hamilton. Brownlee was also a distant cousin to 25th President of the US, William McKinley. He was a well-known priest, who was appreciated for his eloquent public-speaking and written works. Even in the earliest of years, Brownlee had a distaste for the Pope. Brownlee found himself identifying with the religion of Protestant Christianity. Brownlee was an active anti-Catholic, who  had wrote several papers and a book in which he addressed, what he called, the Popery and Catholic controversies as his concerns over the Christian faith did not include the Catholic Church and the position of the Pope as his own position as a Protestant minister during the Second Great Awakening, a period in American history similar to the original Protestant Reformation in European which was marked by a great spread of the distrust and apprehension towards the Catholic church over its many errors and abuses. Brownlee is easy to see as a product of the time as the mod violence, distrust and discrimination against Catholics during this time is what led to the creation of Catholic parochial schools, as many Protestants believed that they were God’s chosen people and that the Catholic Church was the Whore of Babylon from the Book of Revelation. His religious views eventually led him to co-founding a pro-Protestant group that still exists, after being absorbed into another group, to this day in the form of the American and Foreign Christian Union. Brownlee, himself, was an active figure in the religious circles of his time, and a frequent writer of works to express and spread his opinion, having written 14 books on religion, morals and several historical topics concerning his native Scotland and his views on those topics.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Brownlee’s personal life was typical for the time, he had a wife, Mariah, and nine children. Brownlee also taught Greek and Latin at the University of Rutgers with a Doctorate in Languages. During his time at Rutgers, he founded The Philoclean Society, which is one of the oldest collegiate literary societies in existence today. Colleagues of Brownlee claimed that he had experienced his stroke, during a public service “on the banks of the Hudson” (McCartee 81). The setting of the text is in an unknown northern state of the United States, which he refers to as the state of “N,” leaving the reader to speculate whether the state is: New Hampshire, New Jersey, or New York. Evidence from Brownlee’s life leads to the assumption that the novel’s setting is in either New Jersey or New York, as he lived in both states. In New Jersey, Brownlee had a street named after him.

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 The story of The Spoiled Child is based on the apparent experiences of Brownlee when he was minister in either New Jersey or New York concerning a young son of a family that had been poorly disciplined and left to his own devices far too long. Brownlee uses the family as a example of what failure to properly discipline and setting boundaries for children can lead to as he includes what could be a account of the child in his adult life who is a drunkard and father to five children in

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Another thing that can be noted about The Spoiled Child is that it does an excellent job of showing the ways that different parenting styles have wide-ranging effects on child development. The parenting style that was shown most prominently in this story would have to be the permissive style of parenting. Someone who uses a permissive style of parenting would let their kid get away with most things, rarely punishing them or disciplining them, except for in the most extreme circumstances.

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 This type of parenting can be seen from Mr. C, the man who raised the titular spoiled child. Mr. C was too nice, and he allowed his child to grow up undisciplined, letting him get whatever he wanted. Now we know that permissive parenting leads to children displaying lower achievement due to a lack of expectations. These children are more susceptible to making poor decisions, prone to showing more aggression, and are less capable of showing emotional understanding. The Spoiled Child signals all of these symptoms and more, which is impressive given that the novel was published between the years 1840 and 1846. The practice of psychology itself had been around in one form or another for most of civilization, but it wasn’t until 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt created the first ever institute for psychology in Germany.

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 Not only was the concept of parenting styles unstudied during this time period, the concept of parenting itself was relatively ignored. During this period of time, children were mostly seen as a commodity, a way of adding wealth to a household. It’s not clear whether the author was extremely profound in his ideas, or if he was extremely close-minded in his belief that the fear of god is all that one needs in order to stay on the right path. Regardless of how it happened, William Craig Brownlee accidentally stumbled onto the concept of permissive parenting and was able to somewhat accurately describe how that type of parenting would affect a growing child. The term “growing child” is relevant for more reasons than just that, however, that term also describes what the target audience for this story would be, growing children.

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 The Spoiled Child is much more than just an ordinary story written by an extraordinary man; The Spoiled Child is a perfect example of the instructive literature of the 18th and 19th centuries. Instructive literature is a type of literature that aims to instruct their readers in something, whether that something is a way of thinking, a set of morals, a religious belief, etc. is not relevant, as it is the act of combining entertainment with social or moral instruction that makes instructive literature what it is. Oftentimes, these tales would depict middle-class families in order to appeal to as many people as possible, the goal of these stories is to make us relate to the story’s characters so that we can learn both from their mistakes and from their achievements. I believe that because this story is attempting to relate to as many people as possible, William C Brownlee intentionally wrote both the setting and the character names completely blank in order for people to ascribe their own setting and people to the story in an attempt to make it feel more relatable. Regardless, The Spoiled Child aims to give us an example of what happens to children that grow up without God and without discipline as a warning sign. The goal is that children will see this spoiled, degenerative man and think something along the lines of “If I don’t want to become like that, I’d better start fearing God and respecting my parents”.

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 Unlike most instructive literature at the time, however, William C. Brownlee intended for this story to be read by parents as well, showing them that they need to put the fear of god in their children and that they need to teach them proper discipline as well, lest sloth take over them. The message is extremely manipulative and I think that it perfectly shows where the author’s mind was at while writing this story, it shows a kind of ignorant lack of self-awareness that you could only really find in the extremely religious fanatics of the past, a group which this author appears to be extremely familiar with. I believe that Brownlee worded his intent and his message better than I ever could in the last line of his story, “We pronounce not on the final destiny of poor John C——; but who of us, I beseech you, would wish our children to follow his course of life, or to die his appalling death?”.

¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 William C Brownlee confronted a change in society, as he thought best, which was to address it in text. Brownlee assumed from his experiences that the fear of God and respect of parents were of utmost importance in raising a child. Brownlee’s stance on the matter would have been accepted and denied by some in his time, arguably also, in the present-day, there would be a range of opinions. Focusing on the aspect of “fear,” one could argue that most parental guardians of this time do not want to instill fear in their children, rather now, compassion and understanding. The discourse on this topic of “parenting” is a universal subject that will continue to be studied for as long as there are children that do not adhere to their parent’s wants and needs. Thus, causing the guardians to wonder how they can reach their children where they are at and come to agreeance with them. The inclusion of religion in the parenting of a child is now, much more subjective and relative to the family, although the lessons that are taught by religion can be seen as necessary and influential to becoming ultimately “good.” In contemporary culture, the text could be controversial, although it begins a spectacular discourse on how parenting has evolved in the past two centuries.

¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 Work Cited:

¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 0 McCartee, R, and Thomas E. Vermilye. Memorial of the Rev. William C. Brownlee. New York: Consistory of the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New-York, 1860. Print.