Hard Times

Hard Times
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Hard Times
Victorian era refers to the period described as the hard times particularly for underage children. In his text, Dickens explained several ways in which children being exploitation occurred. During this era, factories and mines employed children as the chimney sweeps. Moreover, the children had a role of helping during the family budget making and scheduled to work on activities that took between 14 to 18 hours to complete. The jobs were poorly paid and carried out in a dangerous environment. Besides working as chimney sweeps the children were delegate duties such as crossing sweepers, selling products such as matches and flowers, running errands and served as shoeblacks. An example of child exploitation reflected in the text include the children being made to remove 5 to 9-year-old chimney sweeps; at the end, they came out of the chimneys covered with soot from their heads to toes. Also, Dickens states that the children had cuts in their legs, arms, knees, and elbows bleeding. There was no proper health care given to them as the wounds were washed using salt water before being sent back into the chimney (Shelston, 2017). To make matter worse, the majority of these children were orphans and lived in alleys or Side Street in a pathetic condition.
Assuming that things were still the same today and it is a must I employ a child to work in my chloride manufacturing company, I think the situation would be different. In this 21st century, technology has revolutionized the operation process of things different from the Victorian era.

Hence it will be very hard for people who are underage to work with big machines in my vocation because types of machinery perform the majority of the operations. Another issue that would make it hard for a child to work with me is because fumes emitted from manufacturing of chloride is harmful to the health of children when inhaled. Some of the health complications resulting from inhaling the fumes from the chimneys include inflammation of the throat, nose and upper windpipe. There is also coughing and in severe cases, one would experiences complications such as circulatory system failure, pulmonary edema, and even death.

Reference
Shelston, A. (2017). Hard Times by Charles Dickens, the 4th Norton Critical Edition ed. by Fred Kaplan, Dickens Quarterly, 34(3), 262-265.