Child labor is a cruel act that involves subjecting children to backbreaking work. The poet William Blake lived in a time when such harshness was accepted and he saw it for what it really was. In his poem, Blake shows the work of children in sweeping chimneys. The poem centers on two characters, the narrator and a boy named Tom. The narrator is a young boy who was sold for work at a very young age. Tom is a child in the same situation but he has a strange dream. In "The Chimney Sweeper", Blake expresses his views on the wrongness of child labor by showing what it is and how it affects children. Child labor, by nature, is hard and extremely hard in chimney sweeping. Chimney sweeping was a job that required children to do the work (child labor). In his poem, Blake's narrator says, “…my father sold me when my tongue/could scarcely cry” 'cry! 'cry! 'cry!' (Blake 2-3). This shows that when he was put to work, he was a young child just abandoned by his father. Being sold for work is exactly the same as slavery, which is very harsh. In 1788, laws were passed to improve the living conditions of the residents. These laws were never really implemented (Children and Chimneys) In his poem, Blake shows the conditions in which they lived. . In his first stanza, Blake's narrator says, "So I sweep your chimneys and sleep in the soot" (Blake 4). Harshness of child labor can have many effects on children, one of them being the theft of what is most important to them Leal 2A child is the most innocent human on Earth. innocence is stolen, the child is forced to grow up and see the world as it really is Blake shows this situation with a child named Tom. Tom was sold as a chimney sweep when he was a young child. Even before he was put to work, “[his hair] was curled like the back of a lamb” (Blake 6). In literature, the lamb is often seen as a symbol of innocence. Blake uses these words to express how innocent Tom is. When Tom was put to work, his head “was shaved…for when [his] head was bare/…the soot could not spoil [his]]