These are two of the most interesting MT stories in my opinion because they are dripping with irony. Just by the title, you have a preconceived notion of how the stories are going to go, especially since I think most of us had not idea about MT's dark side.
The Story of the Good Little Boy is concise: boy is good, boy helps people, boy follows Sunday school teachings to a T, boy has bad thing happen to him, boy dies. The end! Righteousness is punished. In The Story of the Bad Little Boy, the boy is a total jerk and does awful things to everyone, grows up, murders his family, and becomes a respected politician. Sinfulness is rewarded.
Now, this could be categorized under the theme of Luck, but could just as easily fall under Training, in the sense that training ISN'T everything, that you can be trained to do the right thing but still find yourself unrewarded. MT must have had little respect for Sunday school teachings and organized religion in general.
There I go, off on religion again. It's just one of my favorite MT themes! His views on religion in this story fascinate me. Thoughts?
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