In The Chimney Sweep by Robert Blake, the lives of two young boys who sweep chimneys are shown. It is through these kids that he evokes a sense of pity and sympathy to speak out against the horrors of forcing children to work in dangerous jobs. By portraying the talking boy and his friend Tom Dacre as two pure and innocent children, he can open your eyes to the horrors of the chimney sweep's profession. In The Chimney Sweeper, the boy is characterized as an innocent child, unaware of his true situation. Blake sympathized with the boys who worked under the harsh conditions of being a chimney sweep. By showing the child's complete unawareness, Blake makes readers see the life of a chimney sweep. The boy in the poem is a very young child, not much older than seven or eight. It is clear that the boy is simply a child several times throughout the poem. He tells us that he was sold as a chimney sweeper before his "tongue could barely cry" "cry! 'cry! 'cry! 'cry!" Generally, young children are the ones who have problems with pronunciation. We learn that the boy's mother died when he was very young, further increasing the sympathy towards the boy that his "father sold him..." when he was very young, he does not seem to feel any anger or hatred towards his father. The boys are also characterized by Tom Dacre's reaction to having his hair cut. He begins to cry while his head is shaved, a childish reaction. Tom is compared to a lamb in one simile. Lambs are commonly seen as symbols of purity. The thoughts and actions of children are not only characterized as pure, but they characterize all children..... . half of the paper ... situation because he doesn't seem to understand it completely. Because of his innocence, he cannot understand what put him in this position. The author, however, knows the true gravity of the boy's situation and is trying to change the situation of others like the boy. Blake uses The Chimney Sweep to champion the issue of children working themselves to death as chimney sweeps. By comparing the boy's innocence and the severity of the chimney sweep's job, he shows the horrors of the situation. Next, Tom Dacre has a dream that contains two very different interpretations, one relating to their current life, the other to the afterlife. Irony is also prevalent in the story to characterize the boys as innocent. All these aspects of the poem come together to evoke pity for the children in the reader.