Petitions are, in many cases, controversial. They are often signed in protest of things such as unfair pay, civil rights, or unsafe working conditions. Oftentimes the signers of these petitions risk their jobs and their reputations. “Lyddie” by Katherine Paterson is the story of a young girl coming of age in mid nineteenth century New England. Her family is indebted, and eventually Lyddie makes her way to Lowell to start life as a factory girl, leaving behind her younger brother, sisters, and ailing mother, in pursuit of her new job. Though Lyddie does well in the factory, the working conditions there are deplorable. So when Lyddie’s friend, Diana Goss, begins to circulate a petition that argues for shortened hours, Lyddie has a difficult
People make decisions every day of their lives. For example, if they either wanted to go to Disney World or Disney Orlando. In the novel, Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson a 15 year-old girl named Lyddie was hired as a servant to help pay off her family farm’s debts. Lyddie wants to reunite her family once again…. somehow. Lyddie heard about all of the money a girl could make working in the Lowell, Massachusetts Mills. She makes her way there, to find that her dream of returning home with her family may never come true. This story is important because it talks about the Industrial Revolution and how the girls were mistreated, in danger, harassed, paid unfairly, child labor and terrible hours. While there are many reasons Lyddie should sign the
The Industrialization had bloom during the late 1800s early 1900s. This big growth was a positive and negative impact in the United States history. This began the devastating practice of child labor. Children would work in factories for very long hours be paid very low wages or not even be paid. According to Harold Goldstein, ‘’it had been accepted as a norm, employment of young children gradually came to be viewed as harmful and exploitative in the United States.’’ The evolution of the United States Industrialization began child labor, which forced children to live very different lives than children live today.
In the stories “Good Country People”, “ The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, and “The Displaced Person” Flannery O’Connor had believed that pride was the root to all evil, and those who had to much would have their pride lead to their utter demise due to temptation. A quote that really ties into what O’Connor had been thinking was one by St. Cyril or Jerusalem. She had written that “ The dragon is by the side of the road, Watching those who pass. Beware least he devour you. We go to the father of souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon”. This entailed that one needed to leave their pride at the door and recognize reality and limitations on ones self and not be overtaken by the temptations in life. If one hadn't left their pride at the curb, they were going to experience a rude awakening in Mrs. O’Conner’s short stories.
Working at the factory provides Lyddie with a great deal of money, more than she has ever got before. If Lyddie had not gone to the factory she would have no money left. Before Lyddie worked at the factory she had a different job. She was a house maid and got paid little to no income at all, then when she went to the factory all of that changed. “ The pay reflected her proficiency, she was making almost $2.50 a week…” ( page 86 ). Lyddie was very poor when she was a maid due to no earnings therefore she needed the money. When she went to the factory her wages went up tremendously compared to what they used to be. In another case Lyddie
2015: A promising year, full of opportunities, though less than 3 months away from coming to a close. Not more than 100 years ago, things were not the same as they exist now. Major problems were faced in eras such as the Progressive Era. Such problems that people faced back then were women’s suffrage, child labor, and deforestation. If I was born in the generation where I had where to choose where to place $1,000,000 to certain cause, I would give it to the three things I have stated.
In Katherine Patterson's novel Lyddie, the main character is facing a difficult decision to sign a petition to decrease the number of working hours and decrease the dangerous working conditions. On on hand, she thinks she should sign because of how it is affecting her and her friends, but on the other hand, she could get blacklisted for doing so. Lyddie is working in a mill with harsh working conditions. The air is polluted, humid, and on top of all that, the hours they spend in the crowded room with the looms is over fourteen hours each day. She traveled from her home at the farm, then to a tavern where after being fired, realized the best place to go was to Lowell, Massachusetts. She earns money to support her family and pay off the debt to her farm. Lyddie should not sign the petition because then it will
Child labor was a huge issue in the late 1800’s to the 1900’s. Children often worked through unfair, unhealthy, and unsafe. Children often worked hard for little pay. The children often contracted diseases and lost arms, hands and fingers in accidents and even died sometimes. Young workers had dangerous jobs like working in the coal mines. Kids during the 1820’s through 1920’s went on strike because working conditions were unhealthy, unfair and unsafe.
In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the protagonist, Offred, expresses her wish that her “story [is] different,” that it is “happier,” or at least “more active, less hesitant, less distracted” than it is ultimately portrayed (267). However, as her story is told, these characteristics are evident in the way she talks and acts, especially around those with authority. Hesitant to express her true thoughts and feelings, and distracted by memories from her previous life, Offred attempts to piece together her role in the society that has taken her freedom. The result is a compilation of moments, of memories, both from her present, her past, and even speculation about her future. This collection consists of various emotions, and
Lydia (Lyddie) Worthen, a thirteen-year-old begins working in the Lowell textile mill to pay off her family’s debt. In Lyddie by Katherine Paterson, every girl has the choice of signing the petition Diana Goss is circulating. The air in the factory is murky and dense, the sound coming from the looms are unbearable, as well as the unfair hours and pay on the job. Lyddie should sign the petition, for the treatment she and many other girls received on their job are unjust.
In Katherine Paterson’s novel, “Lyddie”, the main character must survive and make decisions that will affect her and how she lives. Lyddie was a thirteen year old girl, and her father had left the family. While Lyddie’s mother and younger siblings had gone to their aunt’s home for the winter, Lyddie and her brother Charlie decide stay to take care of it. However, during Spring, both Lyddie and Charlie were demanded to go to work to pay off their family's debts. Lyddie is taken to a tavern of which she meets Triphena ( the cook ) and Mrs. Cutler. Moreover, Lyddie returns from a secret trip, and in result, she is told that she has been fired. Lyddie ( at this time ) is now adventuring off to become a factory girl being told she could make a
Lyddie by Katherine Paterson is about a girl that works in a mill. The working conditions at the mill are not very good. There is a petition going around for girls to sign that work at the mill for better working conditions. While some people think that Lyddie shouldn’t sign the petition because she could lose her job, Lyddie should sign the petition that Diana Goss Circulates because of the dangerous conditions and bad conditions at the boarding house.
The most significant event of the twentieth-century emergencies the societies classes diversity and struggle. The novel, The Jungle penned by Upton Sinclair attempts to display the lower class economic and social challenges by exemplifying the difficulties of a Lithuanian immigrant family.The predicament situation of Jurgis and his family reveals the dark side of the capitalism, therefore, additionally, it revealed the bourgeoisie class dominance and exploitation of the proletariat class. Throughout the novel, Jurgis and his family encounter varied difficulties from being unable to find a proper job to several deaths followed one after another due to their harsh living conditions which result in the family separation nevertheless the children’s
“We read it for months, so many times that the book became tattered and sweat stained, it lost its spine, came unearthed, sections fell apart […] but we loved it dearly” (68). Reading created joy between the girls, strengthening their friendship and their will to escape the encompassing darkness of the neighbourhood. Each moment spent reading in the courtyard was one where they could be children, creating an inseparable bond. There was no worry of the past becoming present, in fact, the book drove them to desire a better future. Little Women provided a luminosity from the injustices they suffered, like Lila’s inability to continue her education. Knowing education was the way out of the neighbourhood, and having the inability to receive it is crushing blow, but the book gave them a secondary option. What would have been just a book to most children became a lifeline for the girls, introducing the hope that even without direct education, the girls could learn through one another. While Elena is going to school, Lila is borrowing library books a learning in unison. Even when Lila resigns herself to staying in the neighbourhood, she remembers the luminosity learning created and wishes for Elena to continue studying, saying “No, don’t ever stop: I’ll give you the money” (312). If
The short stories A Rose for Emily and Miss Brill have two characters Emily Grierson, the