Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster

In the present Nan has a vivid dream and realizes that the Sweep used to take thread from his own coat in order to mend hers. Hearing birdsong, she runs to tell Charlie that it is spring. Charlie has been excitedly waiting for the egg in the attic (the Nothing Room) to hatch. Nan finds him there among the broken remains of the egg. Charlie is devastated to have accidentally killed the baby bird, which dies inside its broken egg. Suddenly, Charlie, seemingly unaware that he is doing so, starts to smoke and smolder, and the baby bird comes back to life. Charlie names it Dent. Nan notices that Charlie’s hand, which gave Dent life, is now cold, hard stone.

One of Dent’s wings is malformed and he cannot fly. Charlie makes him a home in the Nothing Room. Toby comes to bring worms for Dent and tells Nan that a lady was so moved by Newt’s talk at the Friendly Society that she is adopting him; he will be Lord Newt.

Nan feels slightly jealous of the good fortune that Newt found in her place; she is feeling excluded from Charlie’s life thanks to his new his obsession with Dent. Nan notices that a sign has been posted on the door of their home; the captain’s house is to be auctioned off in three weeks. Nan is shocked to see the garden that Charlie has grown in the Nothing Room; he can make things grow seemingly by magic, but doing so makes his life ebb his life away; his fingers are cold and still. Nan tries to make him promise to stop giving pieces of himself away. He says that he will stop, but he does not absolutely promise.

Nan goes to see Miss Bloom. She enters through the front door and notices that all the girls have gone home for the Easter holidays. Miss Bloom has prepared a Passover spread; she tells Nan about the tradition and about the Jewish foods they are eating. Nan asks about Newt and is shocked and upset to learn that he is still indentured to Crudd. Crudd found out about the plan to adopt Newt and is charging an extortionate fee to have the contract indenturing Newt to him broken. Nan leaves suddenly.

Nan plans to destroy Newt’s contract to free him from Crudd. To do this, Nan needs Roger’s help. She knows that he always slips away on Christmas and Easter, so she follows him and finds him watching a couple in a house.

She is shocked to realize that they are his parents; she had assumed that he was an orphan. Roger explains that they sold him to Crudd, which allowed them to feed the rest of the family. Every Christmas and Easter, Roger watches his family eat together, including his three younger siblings. Roger plans to someday buy their home and raise their rent enough to force them out; he also resolves to follow them and continue ruining their lives. Hearing this, Nan realizes that Roger is a lost cause. Roger tells Nan that Crudd is deformed and ugly since Charlie attacked him.

Nan worries about finding a safe place for Charlie once the captain’s house is sold. She runs into Toby in Camden. Toby takes her to get ice cream, which she has never had before. The owner of the ice cream stand welcomes Toby enthusiastically in return for flowers that he has taken from a grave. Toby takes Nan to the rooftop of a place called Chesterfield House to tell her about the builder: Isaac Ware, a chimney sweep who became one of the greatest builders in England. Toby explains that Nan, like Isaac, is destined for greatness. Nan opens up to Toby about her concerns for Charlie; she worries how to keep him safe and worries about his limbs turning to stone in return for saving things.

One afternoon, Charlie and Nan are playing in the captain’s house when Toby arrives, breathless, saying that Newt has been in an accident. Crudd sent Newt up a factory stack alone; this is a job that usually requires at least two sweepers who must use rigging. Toby, Nan, and Charlie take a carriage to the hospital. Miss Bloom and the boys around Newt’s bed are startled by Charlie’s appearance. Nan asks Charlie to try to bring Newt back to life, but Charlie is unable to do so. Miss Bloom tells Nan that Newt died on the way to the hospital; Nan reasons that Charlie must not be able to bring the dead back to life. Nan hugs Charlie; she is devastated.

Miss Bloom, Toby, Charlie, Whittles, Shilling-Tom, and Nan go back to the captain’s house. Shilling-Tom insists that his shilling should be used to buy Newt’s casket; Toby takes the coin and goes to make the arrangements.

Miss Bloom insists that something must be done to change the situation, but the sweeps assure her that rich people see sweeps suffer and die every day and simply don’t care. Nan suggests that on May Day—the day of the sweeps—people could be made to see and understand the true plight of the climbers.

In preparation for a demonstration on May Day, the boys gather other climbers. Miss Bloom helps call the boys to order and explains the plan to transform the May Day march into a protest march. One of the boys questions whether anything will ever change, as people will still need their chimneys cleaned. Toby produces the mechanical brush that he made: an improved version of the one Nan found depicted in the old newspaper clipping. This tool provides people with an alternative to using chimney sweeps.

The sweeps pass the word along for the following day, warning each other not to let their masters find out about their protest plans. Back at the captain’s house, they decide what to write on the signs they will carry. Miss Bloom admits that meeting Charlie has reminded her that the world is full of wondrous possibilities.

Note: This chapter is italicized to indicate a temporal shift; it takes place in Nan’s past when she lived with the Sweep.

Nan wakes from a distressing dream that she is being taken from the Sweep, this almost happened a few weeks earlier; men had locked her in a carriage to be taken to an orphanage, but Nan managed to escape. The Sweep tells Nan that he also gets scared of things. He gives her the wooden knight chess piece to hold as she sleeps, to remind her that she is brave and that she can fight off anyone who threatens her.

Thousands of Londoners gather in the streets for the May Day march. This time, the sweeps are wearing their customary dirty black cloaks, rather than cleaning up for the occasion, as they usually do. Under their coats, they hide the signs that Miss Bloom and Nan made. They dress Charlie as the Green Man, a traditional mascot of May Day. An unknown boy approaches Charlie and tells him that Nan wants him to save children who are stuck in a boat. Charlie is unsure what to do; he remembers that Nan told him to stay in the back of the parade, but the boy tells him that Nan will be disappointed if he doesn’t help, so he agrees to help.

Meanwhile, Nan and the climbing boys look at the plain coffin; Toby says that it cost a shilling; Shilling-Tom looks proud, but Nan is confident that it would have cost more. Toby has fixed the Sweep’s old hat and returns it to Nan; Nan is appreciative of the hat, and appreciative of Toby’s belief that that she has an important purpose to fulfill. She thanks him. A boy comes to tell Nan that Charlie is gone.

The unknown boy leads Charlie through twisting streets; Charlie feels worried that he won’t be able to find his way back. Finally, they reach the boat. The boy urges Charlie onto it Charlie observes that there are no children, and the boy says, “Nan was right, you really are like a little child” (307). The boy unties the boat, which floats away. Charlie cries out for the boy to wait, saying that he has to be at the march. The boy says, “I’ll give Cinderella your regards” (307).

People raise a cheer that is soon replaced with an uncomfortable silence as the children march, dirty and silent rather than joyously bending to pick up the pennies and pies thrown for them. When the children reach the square, they put their brooms down and pick up their signs. Each sign has the name, age, and cause of death of a child who lost their life. The crowd yells angrily, but when Nan sings the William Blake poem about the chimney sweep, the crowd stops to listen, and the people are moved. Sweep masters come and begin berating and beating the sweeps, and the crowd moves to defend the children. Suddenly, Crudd grabs Nan.

Meanwhile, Charlie is stuck on the boat and realizes that he has been tricked. Hearing Nan call for him, he starts to smoke in his distress, and soon the boat catches on fire. The burning boat bumps up against a pylon of London Bridge; Charlie climbs the stone pylon and runs to help Nan. Most of his Green Man costume has burned off, and people murmur “monster” as he runs past them toward the matchstick.

Toby tries to help Nan, but Crudd strikes him in the face, knocking him unconscious. Nan yells for Charlie, but Crudd points out that Charlie gets confused easily. Nan remembers that she told Roger this and works out that together, Roger and Crudd have tricked Charlie and lured him away. Nan kicks Crudd in the nose and escapes, running toward the matchstick and fleeing up its steep, stone steps. Below, Crudd’s voice taunts her with the observation that there is no way down. She climbs to the very top while the people below watch. She remembers with dread that Crudd used to be a climber himself. He starts to climb up to her, and she is reminded that the witnesses below won’t care if she dies, for they already allow hundreds of children to die in their chimneys every year.

From the perspective of the people in the square, a young sweep and her master grapple at the top of the matchstick and then fall. The man dies instantly. The girl’s body is shattered from her fall, but she doesn’t die instantly as she is caught by a canopy below.

Suddenly, the Green Man appears and goes to the girl. The climbers form a barricade around the Green Man to protect him from police, who try to approach him. The Green Man picks up the girl and leaves with her.

Nan wakes up; Charlie is holding her and running. Nan is in incredible pain from her injuries. Charlie tells her that they’re going home. They arrive at the St. Florian’s Church, in Potter’s Field where the poor are buried. He takes her to where the Sweep is buried. Charlie starts to speak the Sweep’s words, which Nan sometimes hears in her dreams. Retold, she hears the experiences of her youth told from the Sweep’s perspective and learns that he felt helpless to protect her from the world. She reflects that she never knew about his fear and worry for her. Charlie tells one final story from the Sweep: the tale of a man contemplating the jumping off a bridge when he sees a tiny baby girl in a bundle—Nan. He picks her up and feeds her from a bottle of milk, deciding that he must stay alive because she needs him.

Charlie says that there is one thing left; it is time to wake Nan up. Nan realizes that he plans to trade his life for hers and tries to stop him, but he insists. Charlie holds her, and she feels the flicker of warmth healing her body. Charlie turns to stone.

Nan wakes. It is a year later. She is in the Nothing Room, which is now called the Orchard, where she sleeps among the roots of the oak tree that Charlie gave bits of his life force to grow. The Climbing Boys Reform Act is now in place; it bans children under 13 years old from working as sweeps. Miss Bloom and the Friendly Society have purchased the captain’s home, which is being used as a school and home for retired climbers.

Dent arrives; he has not been seen since May Day of the previous year. Nan follows the bird to the Sweep’s grave, where Charlie’s stone form crouches above. Dent has made a nest in Charlie’s arms, and Nan reflects that Charlie is still acting as a protector. Toby comes to find Nan and gives her the tiny piece of Charlie that Charlie left under Prospero. Nan is comforted by it, as it smells like Charlie.