The story “The Whipping Boy” was written by Sid Fleischman and illustrated by Peter Sis, and talks about a young prince known as Prince Brat. He was always misbehaving, and the punishment got to his whipping boy, Jemmy. Over the course of a year, Prince Brat learned nothing, but Jemmy learned to do lots of things. One night, the Prince decided to run away with Jemmy, they met two outlaws, Billy and Cutwater and they escaped them soon after. When the two are still arguing after they escape, they meet a girl who's looking for her dancing bear, Petunia. Later, she was gone and Jemmy and Prince Brat kept arguing. Later, they meet Capt. Harry Nips and Hot-Potato Man for a ride to the city. And they met the two outlaws once again. The two outlaws mistake Prince brat for the Whipping boy and whip him. Later on, the girl that they met earlier, which is named Betsy, and her bear Petunia came and scared the two outlaws away. Later when they got back in the city, Jemmy had escaped in the sewers because the King put a price on him. He was later brought back to the castle under the Prince’s protection.
If I were a whipping boy, I would definitely try to escape this injustice, letting whipping boys have the punishment for a young nobleman or prince is unfair. Possibly one thing I would do is to collaborate with the other royal family members to help me escape, or possibly, the guards or the maids. Another thing I would do is to escape by myself, likely flipping out the window, sneaking out at night, or even just bribing a guard. That way, I don’t have to go to the queen or King because that is probably not really gonna work. So really, you have to make friends and strengthen your reputation in this situation so you can escape, or you’re stuck forever in this injustice.
Another thing I would do if I were a whipping boy is to talk it out with the King or someone else like the Queen, I would definitely not just sit around and be a victim of injustice. I would possibly try to persuade the King to let me go, If I were escaping, the odds of failing would still exist. So definitely, talking with the King or Queen is a better choice first than to start just to plan on escaping the castle quickly. If the Queen or King rejects my request, then, I would plan on escaping because if there’s no way to talk it out, I’ll escape. But it would always be a backup plan, since it’s pretty risky after all.
One more thing I would do if I were a whipping boy is just simply to obey them. If I really can’t escape, resist, or talk with them. I’ll obey their rules and maybe if the Prince behaves well or learns to behave well, I’ll be spared from the whipping forever. In this situation, a lot of people may just choose to fight back, but how? They have way more people and better weaponry, if it is to fight, there would be completely no percentage of winning. Obeying would be better because at least you wouldn’t get into big trouble, but this is something I would put behind escaping, being in this injustice is still not good and there is still a possibility the prince won’t behave well.
In conclusion of “The Whipping Boy”. Whipping Boys were often appearing in the past centuries, Young Princes or Young Nobleman may have Whipping boys to blame for their own mistake. Sid Fleischman had brought this injustice concept from the past centuries to our views again. In my opinion, Sid Fleischman completely summarised the unfairnesses of Whipping Boys in the middle ages and he brought this concept to many readers, such as me, I’ve never heard of this concept before, but after reading this book and doing some googling, I found the huge unfairnesses of this role and how it almost doesn’t have any pros, all cons for this historical role.
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