The Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
"The Story of a Bad Boy" by Thomas Bailey Aldrich is a semi-autobiographical narrative that captures the essence of boyhood in the late 19th century. The tale follows Tom, a young boy navigating life in his hometown of Rivermouth after relocating from New Orleans. Through Tom’s adventures, including friendships, school rivalries, and playful mischief, the story evokes nostalgia for a simpler, carefree childhood. Central to the narrative are Tom’s interactions with family members, including his supportive grandfather, and his experiences at school, where he faces challenges such as bullies and the complexities of first love.
Aldrich's work is significant within the "bad boy" genre, aligning with other notable literary works that explore youthful rebellion and camaraderie, yet it distinguishes itself by portraying a protagonist who does not grapple with societal alienation. Instead, Tom’s experiences and misadventures reflect a youthful innocence and a close-knit community. The story ultimately leads to a poignant conclusion, as Tom confronts the realities of growing up, including loss and the end of his boyhood dreams. This narrative continues to resonate with readers for its vivid depiction of early American childhood and the universal themes of friendship, family, and the bittersweet transition into adulthood.
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The Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
First published: 1869, serial; 1870, book; illustrated
Type of work: Domestic realism
Themes: Coming-of-age, friendship, family, and nature
Time of work: The first half of the nineteenth century
Recommended Ages: 13-15
Locale: Rivermouth (Portsmouth, New Hampshire)
Principal Characters:
Tom Bailey , a lively boy, who lives with his grandfatherCaptain Nutter , Tom’s kindly maternal grandfather, a veteran of the War of 1812Miss Abigail , Captain Nutter’s unmarried sister, who supervises his householdKitty Collins , a good-natured maidPepper Whitcomb , Tom’s schoolmate and best friend
The Story
Narrated by Tom Bailey, The Story of a Bad Boy, though realistic in tone, nevertheless sounds the kind of sustained note of nostalgia that one would expect to find in a work that is largely autobiographical and that deals with a chiefly happy childhood. At eighteen months of age, Tom had been taken from his native Rivermouth to New Orleans, where his father had gone into banking. Now that it is time to begin his schooling, his parents take him to live in his Grandfather Nutter’s house back in Rivermouth. In the large, cheery old Nutter house, Tom is made to feel at home by his grandfather, the maid Kitty Collins, and Captain Nutter’s unmarried sister, Miss Abigail. An additional solace in times of homesickness is Gypsy, the almost humanly wise and sympathetic pony that Tom’s father had shipped from New Orleans for his son’s use.
Enrolled by his grandfather in the academy, or Temple Grammar School, Tom quickly makes friends among his schoolmates, though Tom must later beat a bully named Conway. Tom starts a theater in his grandfather’s barn, but an accidental injury to Pepper Whitcomb, though not serious, brings an end to the theater. One Fourth of July, Tom and his friends drag a long-idle mail coach from its barn into a roaring bonfire. Caught by the watchmen, they are apprehended and locked up. They escape but are made to compensate the owner of the coach.
A highlight in Tom’s life is his induction into the Rivermouth Centipedes, to which many of his schoolmates belong. The induction occurs following a comical though frightening initiation. Somewhat later, in winter, Tom and his friends at the academy turn Slatter’s Mill into Fort Slatter and engage in a prolonged snowball fight with boys from another part of town. When, contrary to their own rules, both sides put marbles in the snowballs and serious injuries ensue, the constabulary and citizenry demolish the fort and end the fight.
About a year later, a boat puts into Rivermouth, and Tom discovers that one of its sailors is Sailor Ben, whom he brings home with him and who turns out to be Kitty Collins’ long-lost husband. A tearful but happy reunion ensues. Now an adolescent, Tom is intrigued by the girls at a nearby all-female academy, but his mild flirtations come to nothing. Not until his grandfather’s nineteen-year-old niece comes to visit does Tom know love, and when the young man who comes to fetch her away is identified as her fiance, Tom is inconsolable for a long time.
Gloomy news arrives from New Orleans: His father’s banking business is folding, and cholera is raging in the city. Longing to be reunited with his parents, Tom runs away by train to Boston, intending to ship from there to New Orleans as a cabin boy. Aware of the boy’s plan, Grandfather Nutter orders Sailor Ben to shadow the boy and bring him back. When the two do return home, Tom learns that his father has died of cholera. Since the family has experienced financial ruin, Tom can no longer think of going off to college. Instead, he accepts the offer of an uncle in New York of a job in a counting house. Tom’s boyhood days are behind him forever.
Context
The Story of a Bad Boy is in the tradition of “bad boy” books, a fact that a number of critics noted. Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s book was preceded by Thomas Hughes’s English work, Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857), and followed in America by Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1844). Also to be mentioned are George Wilbur Peck’s Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa (1883), William Dean Howell’s A Boy’s Town (1890), and in the twentieth century, Booth Tarkington’s Penrod (1914) and J.D.Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951).
Unlike Twain’s Huckleberry Finn or Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, however, Tom Bailey does not feel alienated from society; he is not trying, consciously or unconsciously, to develop a moral code of his own—one which might conflict with that followed by the society in which he lives—and he is not aware of any hypocrisy in the people around him as Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield are. The Story of a Bad Boy continues to be of interest because of its ability to evoke vividly what boyhood was like in the early years of the twentieth century and because of the clear picture Aldrich paints of a younger and more innocent America.