Samantha Parkington is one of the most influential American Girl characters in the history of the brand. She's one of the first and one of the most remembered, but an often overlooked quality is her ability to influence adults despite being a child during the 1900s.
As an example of this, let's look at Samantha's speech on Progress In America during her second book,
Samantha Learns a Lesson [Beforever
Manners and Mischief a Samantha Classic 1]
Now, in the book there's actually two speeches, one she does at school and then the one she delivers to the Mount Bedford Ladies Club, we'll be focusing on the second one as that is where the final version of the speech is.
"Americans are very proud of being modern, we are proud of the machines in our factories because they make so many new things for us. But Americans are proud of being truthful, too. If we were truthful we would say that the factory machines make things fast and cheap, but they are dangerous, too. They can hurt children who work in the factories. The machines can break their arms. They can cut off their fingers. They can make children sick. And children who work in factories don't have time to play or go to school. They are too tired.
If our factories can hurt children, then we have not made good progress in America, and I believe Americans want to be good. I believe we want to be kind. And if we are kind, I believe we will take care of the children. Then we can truly be proud of our factories and our progress."
[Abridged from
Samantha Learns a Lesson]
Alright, so it's not any adult speech obviously, it's fairly simple and short because its audience is 8 year old kids. But, it's still powerful and very strong in its message, here's why:
1.Samantha's speech is incredibly concise, there is absolutely no sugarcoating and no stepping around an 'elephant in the room'. Partly this is because of Samantha's personality, but it works in the speech's favor as it gives her message a quick start, getting rid of the opportunity for any adults to tune her out before she can begin talking about her main point.
2.The author of the Samantha books, Susan S. Adler, deserves credit for the varied sentence structure within Samantha's speech that makes her message really hit home. The short sentences of "The machines can break their arms. They can cut off their fingers" each conjure up mental images of themselves. This gives power to Samantha's message as it creates a sense of despair about the overall situation, tugging on heartstrings and making people eager to listen for a resolution.
3.Finally, Samantha makes a personal connection with the audience at the end of her speech. She turns the focus from herself and her opinions to the "we" of America. When she says "I believe Americans want to be good. I believe we want to be kind." she's really emphasizing that this isn't just her opinion on one subject, but that it's an issue for everyone to be considering.
Now, how does this relate to today?
Today America is much better than in the 20th century. We have child labor laws and factory safety and fire codes and all sorts of things to keep us safe. However, Samantha's message on the dangers of child labor and the notion of being truthful about the state of progress can now be applied to other developing countries. While the speech is American focused, We can see the same concept all around the world when factories collapse or set on fire. There are also still plenty of children working in factories; they may not live in America anymore, but the dangers Samantha talks about are the same no matter where they are, and they still need our help. It is time for Americans to take Samantha's message further than ever, thereby continuing our progress and helping other countries do the same.
