Working Conditions In Katherine Patterson's Lyddie

One reason Lyddie should sign the petition is for better hours and wages. One example was one day at the mill Lyddie was telling herself “She needed the money. She had to have the money” (89). In this part of the book Lyddie is working on four looms just to earn a little bit of money. For all the hard work she is doing she needs more money and signing the petition may help in doing so.

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.

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

If Lyddie did work at the factory she would have no place and could possibly be living on the street. In a particular situation Learns that if she signs the petition she could get dismissed. “ Should you sign the petition Betsy they’ll dismiss you” (page 91 ). Lyddie could get fired if she signs the petition which means she would have to leave the corporation and as said before Lyddie would have nowhere to go. Not only would Lyddie have no shelter, but now she has the responsibility of caring for her little sister who unexpectedly came to stay with her.

Currently, in the novel, the working conditions are long hours of tending the looms, bad air quality, disease, and dangerous machines. Diana wanted Lyddie to sign the petition, however, there would be consequences of signing. The benefits of

If she can’t return there, there is no where for her to go. This petition is an invitation to be blacklisted. Lyddie’s survival is based solely on her employment at the Lowell mill, and more harm than good will come of signing the petition. Lyddie’s goal of reuniting her family, the goal she is so faithful to, can simply no longer be accomplished.

In this essay, I will be talking about all the hardships that Lyddie had to push through and how bad their lives were back then. Many young girls, working as young as ten, had many harsh conditions already. Starting in chapter 3, which was the cutler's tavern, Lyddie got her first job. Even in the beginning, you could tell it was going to be a harsh time for the rude comments given by the owner. For example, “ “Go along” the woman was saying.

She expresses that, “North and South Carolina and Georgia place no restriction upon the work of children at night; and while we sleep little white girls will be working tonight in the mills in those states, working eleven hours at night,” (Line 27-31.) She uses the phrase ‘while we sleep’ to generate feelings of remorse among the listeners as the children work tirelessly on end while the adults are resting. She also uses the phrase ‘little white girls’ to create more sympathy as girls were seen as frail and innocent, and it creates the question ‘Why is an innocent and weak person being forced to work laboriously?’. She also states, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy,” (Line 18-22.) She uses auditory imagery in the pathos argument above for her audience to better understand the harsh conditions that the children work in.

Kids during the 1820’s through 1920’s went on strike because working conditions were unhealthy, unfair and unsafe. Conditions in the spinning-room textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts were extremely unhealthy. Workers often suffered hearing loss or other diseases primarily of the lungs due to the loud noise the many looms made and the cotton fiber they were breathing in. The text states “ “Tremendous noise

Through the long and impactful novel Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson, a 13-year-old girl was forced to leave her family and beloved home that she loves. Due to her distant mother 's decision to sell her off to a mill because of problems with money. Also, for the actions of her husband who left the family in search of good mines. A troubling family goes through many setbacks to hopefully unite the once full family the Lyddie once had. Lyddie should sign the petition because she works long hours with little pay under the watchful eye of the overseer who could be classified as a child molester.

Children from as young as the age of 6 began working in factories, the beginning of their exploitation, to meet demands of items and financial need for families. In Florence Kelley’s speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia 1905, Kelley addresses the overwhelming problem of child labor in the United States. The imagery, appeal to logic, and the diction Kelley uses in her speech emphasizes the exploitation of children in the child labor crisis in twentieth century America. Kelley’s use of imagery assists her audience in visualizing the inhumanity of the practice.

Child Labor Analysis Child Labor was one of Florence Kelley’s main topics at a speech she gave in Philadelphia during a convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Kelley talks about all the horrors children were going through and the injustices they were suffering. She talks of the conditions children working in, the hours they were going in, and all in all, how wrong child labor was. Her purpose for this was to gain support of people to petition for the end of child labor. Kelley’s appeals to Ethos, Pathos and Logos through the use of great rhetoric is what allows her to achieve her purpose.

Florence Kelley uses many rhetorical devices and strategies to convey her message about child labor and working conditions for women in the early 1900’s. Kelley uses each device effectively to produce a very powerful strategy. This strategy convinces the reader about her view and persuades them to take action. The beginning of the speech starts with a statistic, “two million children under the age of sixteen years are earning their bread.”

During the 1900’s working conditions were undeniably horrible. In Packingtown everyday got more difficult as the days went on. In the meat packing business things were supposed to be done quick. Inside the factories packing, chopping, inspecting and people actions didn’t mix. Not only did the people in the factories suffered, the people outside of the factory also suffered.

Nevertheless, a protest and unsuccessful strike of ‘Lowell Mill Girls’ in 1834 find a prominent place in the history of labor movement in the United States. Labor movements are also credited for their contribution to civil liberties. As per ACLU website, “Collective action is often necessary to protect individual rights. Unions by their nature facilitate and enhance the exercise of core civil liberties, such as the right of association, speech, and petition.” ACLU website further says that collective bargaining statutes take into account the economic reality that individual workers typically lack the bargaining power to stand up meaningfully for their individual