As we’ve discussed our latest novel Iqbal, several of you have asked whether we ever had child labourers here in Quebec. We’ve also been discussing how artists sometimes create art to send a specific message. Here is an example of that. It’s a page from a Quebec magazine called L’Album which was published in 1912; more than 100 years ago!
Do you think the artist was for or against child labour?
Can you decode this image?
Source: Bibliotheque et Archives nationales du Quebec 2007. L’Album: journal mensuel illustre, vol. 1, nos 1-4, 1912 (octobre)
I think the artist did the most he can to show that the kid is hurt to show that child labour could hurt children and adults. : ( I think that all people that does child labour should go in prison for atleast 15 years because child labour hurts alot when you don’t see your family for alot of time. : (
If someone treated a child like this in Quebec nowadays, then they would go to jail. We would call it “child abuse”.
Mrs. Theriault
The guy or girl who drawed that picture is against child labour.
I agree, Zachary. HOW do you think the artist got that message across to you?
This picture i think represents the death of the abused children that all there life were abused and died abused.The meaning of this picture is that you see a child working for moneymakers and they can’t do anything to get away so they die young being abused cause of disease or they being overworked.That what i think the message is in this picture.
I think your analysis of the picture makes perfect sense, J.D. Now that we have the Charter of Rights For Children this shouldn’t happen, because it is against the right of children to have their “life”.
Mrs. Theriault
I have been wondering about WHY the artist chose to send this message out. What do you think, J.D.?
Mrs. Theriault
On top of the building I saw a skeleton.In the picture it looks like the skeleton is looking at the boy thinking that if he works for the money makers any more he will die.I think the skeleton means he will die.
You really got the message here, G.C.
As you know from our classroom discussion today, the skeleton is really a Grim Reaper. You understood that it is a symbol of death and in case you’re not aware, the Grim Reaper shows up when death is imminent!
Mrs. Theriault
Hi G.C.
The skeleton is called the Grim Reaper.
N.B., thanks for adding that. Do you happen to know what the Grim Reaper is called in French?
Mrs. Theriault
I think that the writer was against child labor. I think that because in the picture above of the words the picture shows a figure with a blade and he comes around and kills people when it is there time to die
Thank you for sharing your information about this in class today, O.P. I was wondering whether anyone would know that it was the Grim Reaper!
Mrs. Theriault
I think that people who did hurt children should die.The guy or girl that did that picture against child labour…PS.In the book the people did not do any thing and the police just took the money and left.
“…the people did not do anything and the police just took the money and left.” That’s an excellent connection, Z.P.
In an UNJUST society where there are very rich and very poor people, the very rich people can buy the protection of the police. So it takes a great deal of struggle on the part of the powerless to get justice.
We are very lucky to live in a society where everyone has equal rights.
Mrs. Theriault
The poor boy in child labour is being tortured by carrying heavy gears. He looks like he’s been doing this for several years.
In the background it looks like a skeleton is putting up a flag. And next to the skeleton is a big HUGE man. And on the man is a skeleton smiling.The skeleton (smiling) on the man and the HUGE man is 2 bosses.Plus the skeleton putting up the flag is just like the poor boy in child labour.
People who do child labour shall be in prison for 14 years.The question is “How are they going to get the man in the prison?”
The question is “How are they going to get the man in the prison?”
This is a very insightful question, M.M.
To me it would be important to punish that specific wrong-doer, but what would be more important in the long run is to organize the society so as to protect all the children.
Luckily, we have made a lot of progress in the protection of children since 1912!
I think the child is poor and is having a nightmare of all the bad things that have happen in the child’s life,because you can see a skeleton on the top of the picture. You can see that the child is struggling to pull the wheel barrow with all the objects in it.
i believe we should stop child labor,because it is horrible to see a child struggle doing hard work for nothing.The artist is against child labor by making it rain,and making it look dreadful,like a adult should doing this and not a little kid carrying heavy stuff.
I love this idea of it being a dream that the boy is having. Often our dreams look a bit like real life and a little bit mixed up. So that could be his job during the day and then, as you say, he could be dreaming about the skeleton. Intriguing idea!
Mrs. Theriaul
I find that this drawn picture makes it sad by looking at this person doing work. I tried reading the little message down the picture and saying that children get sick or something and I think its a message saying why children should NOT do child labour. But in important causes for the family, they child would have to go but its still not very good for the child. I wonder why there is a skeleton head and a like a stick person with like an ash. But I think it gives a message that it is bad. Sort of evil.
“I wonder why there is a skeleton head and a like a stick person with like an ash. But I think it gives a message that it is bad. Sort of evil.” G.B.
Interesting comment, G.B. This makes me think of our conversation about how tricky it is for an artist to communicate a message because the artist might use a “code” that the viewer (you) can’t “read”.
The grown-ups who looked at this drawing in a 1912 newspaper would have known that the skeleton was a “Grim Reaper” – but 10/11 year olds looking at this almost 100 years later usually wouldn’t recognize it.
But if you think about it, he still got the general “feeling” across, didn’t he?
Mrs. Theriault
If you look all at the top very closely it looks like a reaper and every body did child labor should be punished.They should be in jail minimum 5 years.I think that the skeleton means doom.The skeleton has a kind of knife on a stick.the boy is carrying plenty of metal gears.
Hi,
In this picture there is a young boy in child labor, carrying a lot of heavy objects. If you can see, on the top of the building, there is a skeleton with a big smile holding this knife. I think that the skelelton is smiling because he is enjoying the little boy work hard, and that he is enjoying the boy suffer the pain.
I think that the person who put this in the newspaper (october 1912), put this picture because he doesnt like child labor and that he wants child labor to stop. Maybe beacause he has a connection with child labor (meaning maybe, he was in child labor once). I dont like child labor too, (not that I have been in child labor) I do not like it because, I find that those people who are doing this to kids are using them for money like in the story “Iqbal”. The kids do not like being used for money, they want to be loved and to be with their family and friends and live their own life.
Thank you
K.B., hank you for drawing my attention to why the artist was interested in child labour, such as the idea that maybe he was a child labourer. I hadn’t thought about that.
Now that I do think about it, I wonder if he just noticed child labourers in the street and decided it was wrong.
In fact, the reason we have seen such progress in childrens’ rights in the 20th century is because good people have recognized evil and fought to change it.
Mrs. Theriault
I find that in this picture they are trying to tell us that its not the best place to be because at the top of the building the re is a skeleton with an axed in his hands and at thwe bottom there is this kid that is having trouble carrying the carage of materials and other stuff.
I also find that in this picture at the top that there are faces that are lookking mad at the boy because he is having troule carrying the carage and in my head I think that this is child labour.
I think that the person in this picture is poor and is thinking about what could happen to the child. When the artist drew this i think hes was thinking about child labor.The message is it’s not right to make children work For theire perents debt or just to work for no reason.I think the artist wants to stop child labor.In the picture there is a kid that is pulling a wheel barrow in some kind of storm.On the top right corner you see the grim repper or some kind of evil man.I think that he stands for the master of the child it means that they are bad people. The building behind him is the factory that the kid is bringing the gears and stuff to. I think adults should be doing this work not kids.
Hello,
At first I thought that this picture was a little boy pulling a Horse Cart(I don’t know what it’s called but I think you get the point).I thought he was pulling it for the fun of it.After though I looked and thought “No hes not pulling it for fun, hes in child labor!!”.Poor kid though:(,I’m pretty sure that that kid had been there for a long time(and has been separated from his parents and is very sad).What I think the author of this picture is giving us a message that child labor is really bad and it is like if you are not allowed to have your life anymore because your trapped!!.I am against that because your trapped from your mom,dad,brothers,sisters and its really not fair and I feel bad for the people who were in child labor(a long long time ago).It is also unfair because the masters lie to you!! they say you will get out of where you are(in child labor)soon,but NO! YOU DON’T!
Hi,
I think that child labor is bad because children are never released when they are in child labor:(
.It is really sad that people are being treated badly from their masters like that.I think that this picture is about a child making money by bringing wheels,poles,gears and etc. I think that he is going to sell these stuff to people.The child in this picture looks poor and weak.He was not respected by his master.People who are brought to slavery (child labor) aren’t being treated well.Not a lot of food,few pauses and work 16 hours per day,7 days out of 7.Some child labor places are brick factories,carpet factories and working for merchants.:(
I think that the picture the writer did mean’s that he is against child labor.The shadow’s up on the building are a skeleton and a huuuge man but we don’t see his body we only see his leg’s.
S.S.
Hi in this bast week or so me and my class have been reading a book called Iqbal it is about a boy and a girl named Fatimah and Iqbal . All of the kids that were in the place is because there parents did not have enough money so they had to give them up to Child Labor:(. What I think is hapenigh in this picture is that a boy is tryingn to break away from Child Labor.But I am not sure if he brook away but hopefully he did because in Iqbal he was very successful:).So I realy hope that he and anyone with him got out:).
If you look closely at the top of the bilding is a sceleton. That he his hollding a long knife like if he is saying like if it was not fun and look like a person from doom or hell. And the little boy is carying a big cart full of gears and wheels and doesent look happy and maybe craying. And on the side of the skeleton look like a bad giant.And the building look like a bad place and look like a prision and lonley and dark.
I think that child labor is really bad because young children have to work, work, and work… only work. I think that there should never, ever be child labor. Here are two examples: I am a child, and I would hate it to be working about 16 hours per day, 7 days out of 7 for a master. I would only do it if I really had to do it. That was the first example. This is the second example, remember to think about the second example: Imagine you are a young child, about only 6 years old. Imagine you were working in a carpet factory or a brick factory, working for a master, only about two dollars a day. I find it really sad.
In this picture (above), it shows a boy pulling a wheel. This could also be child labor. He could be working for a master, getting and bringing wheels, etc, for 1 dollar a day.
Imagine you were the boy.
Help fight child labor!!!
This is a great “Call To Action”, N.B., and it comes after you looked at a piece of art that is 98 years old. I don’t think the artist ever thought that his message would reach someone in the year 2010. Do you?
And what is also amazing is that his artwork might still be having an effect on people today. Even though we no longer have this type of child labour in Quebec, it might inspire people to fight child labour in other countries.
Mrs. Theriault
Hi,
When I wrote help fight child labor, I meant everywhere. I am happy that we don’t have child labor left in Quebec, but I hope that child labor ends EVERYWHERE!!! Let me say this again, the help fight child labor part, but better and more understandable:
HELP FIGHT CHILD LABOR EVERYONE!!! Anyone that lives anywhere can make a difference. Hope you help.
Hello
,
I saw the picture, and what I saw was a poor little kid having to hold that big caridge BUT he is in pain and will never probally get free that poor little kid I would be in horible pain if I was him . THERE should be a law (well there is a law about child labor but no in that time ). I wish i could help him but thats life
.
I always wonderd how it felt, to be a slave with no escape a life with no vacation. Bedtime hoping you’ll get a hug and kiss one day befor you fall asleep. there’s no going back to a normal life.
.
Us kids are not treted as humans were treted as SLAVES!!!!.
Why can’t we have a normal child life like siting on the couch drinking some milk we don’t get milk when were a slave we get nothing good to help us keep strength so we would just die when were to weak
I am lucky that i get a hug an kiss every night from my mom and dad
here’s an example of how happy I am
Thankyou for listening.
I think that there is skeleton with a axes. the skeleton is death for the kid.
there is a man ledges and some of the upper part of the body. It is like he is carrying a car. I don’t know why he has gear in the cart. It must be
At the top of this picture I see two skeletons. One of them had a scythe. Also next to the skeletons it looks like there is a lion which the skeletons are behind. It looks like the boy is carrying all the components of a car witch is the most heaviest part of the car. The town looks abandon and it also looks like the plague hit.
My perception of this picture is that the are trying to say that the masters of the factories are kind of like the grim reaper. They take away the life of the kids by making them work for little or no money. Also they usually threaten and beat the kids. For example:
In Iqbal the master Hussain Khan put kids in a under ground tomb if they did something he thinks is bad. This is a good example of child slavery and freedom.
I find that this is a strong drawing in the fact that they are giving a strong opinion.
hi,
my opinion on children ladour is very bad because I don’t think children have to work 12 hours a day with so little food and little rest.I think that I an lucky to have a mom and dad that are not poor and can care about me and provide food and not make me work 12 hours a day.In this picture I can see a boy that is not well rested.that is an example of child labour. In this picture you see that thier is a factory.This picture makes me feel very sad and scared because I seea big factory and a boy working almost to death and he does not get payed.In the right top corner of the picture I spoted a smiling skeleton with a axe. I think that means easy work for the childs master and hard work for the child.
I think that on the building there are two skeletons. I think that these skeletons mean the death of the children that are in that factory. By death I mean that there like being killed and that these skeletons are going to get them and bring them to hell. I think that because skeletons in films like always come from hell.
Beside the skeletons I kind of see a guy and I think that the guy beside the skeletons is the guy that makes all the money.I think that the guy is beside the skeletons because he is like the devil and he is like the devil because he is threatning the children. He is also a devil because he is not just threatning he is also like killing them in a kinde of sens. Also the little kid that is pulling the kart has no chance of getting out of the factory because he is to weak. He also can’t get out because the man running the factory is not weak like the child and also the guy is not a kid it is a man and he is running the factory.
Also if you look at the kid very closely you will see that he is very weak and also very thin.If you look at the kart that he is pulling in it is a lot of things and almost all these things are made in metal. We were also talking about pollution in our class and it is connected to that because on top of the building if notise there are chemenise and out of it comes gust and clouds with polulted air and polluted gas. I
I also notice that the man or guy that is runnig the factory is pretty fat and I think that I know why he is fat He is fat because he is getting all the food. Also he has all that food because he is getting all the money that all these children are making for him by working and making the things and after they sell it and they do not get the money gust him that gets it.
It also connects because in the kart if you look closely you will see that there are simple machines in it and the simple machine is a wheel and axle but there is not really an axle in it because there is just a wheel with alot of teeth. Also I think that that factory a lot of children in it and I say that because the factory looks kind of big. But at least they have clothes and the most important are shoes because when you walk outside with no shoes it hurts a lot because of the rocks and with shoes it is a kind of protection so it does not hurt.