London Working Poor in the late 18th Century

 To be completely honest, my knowledge of the late 18th century working poor in London was little to none. What stood out to me was the level of poverty and what that meant for the people of the working poor. We meet a lot of characters that are likable and are forced to choose between dehumanizing actions or stealing. When Thornill gets accustomed to stealing for necessity, it becomes ingrained in him and is what ends up being his downfall. The passage in which we learn that Thornhill’s own Ma would organize stealing books in order to pay for food stuck out to me. She is Thornhill's parent and therefore a role model in his life, and yet she is stealing. To me this is evidence of a broken system in which people were forced to either commit crimes or pick up actual dog droppings just to survive. Out of the two, stealing seemed like the better option. This in turn makes me think about the systems at play in London as a whole. Throughout the chapter we learn that the upper class is making money in London through shipping, exporting, and trading. Human life seemed to be valued lower than the goods that being traded, and therefore the punishments were incredibly harsh. The description of Collarbone’s hanging also stood out to me as being particularly gruesome. There is a clear emphasis on goods over human life that forces the poor to remain poor and therefore are forced into a life of stealing which is then punished severely creating a cycle of poverty and death. This is why it's particularly tragic that Thornhill starts to succeed in life only to get caught stealing, lose everything and forced to a land in which he no longer is able to even attempt to move up in the socioeconomic ranks.