Analysis Of Huck's Theft By Steven Mintz

Steven Mintz, author of “Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood” (2004), writes about the conceptualization of childhood in America. He views the history of childhood in this country as having three overlapping phases. Phase one he terms as premodern childhood. This phase took place in the colonial era and in this period of time adults viewed children as adults in training. Mintz suggests that in the premodern phase the parental responsibility was to hurry children toward their adult role and status (Mintz, 2004). Phase two for Mintz was about the middle of the 18th century when children were regarded as innocent, malleable and fragile. Adults viewed the young as needing to be sheltered from contamination. However, childhood was more

likely to be seen as a separate stage of life that required special care and various institutions to protect it. Finally, Mintz’s third phase he calls postmodern childhood. During this phase in the 20th century, various norms about the family, gender roles, age, and reproduction had broken down to be replaced by new and seemingly ever-shifting norms. Also breaking down and shifting during the last several decades is the ideal of a protected childhood in which the young are isolated from adult realities of life (Mintz, 2004).
As we entered the 20th century, the conceptualization of childhood was becoming institutionalized. That is, when there were agencies to protect children from abuse and cruelty, when there was a separate court for children, when there were labor laws aimed at children, and when there were laws providing for education for children, it was easier to see that children and childhood had become their own entities; in effect, they had become institutions, if you will. This was pointed out by James and James (2004), as they discuss the developments in Western society that made children important, giving them their own unique status. For instance, in the 20th century not only were there special doctors for children (pediatricians), but there were also children’s hospitals, child psychologists, and child welfare agencies. Clearly, these developments show that America, as well as other Western nations, set children apart from adults, and gave young people their own childhood society.