ipl-logo

Working Conditions In Lyddie, By Katherine Paterson

713 Words3 Pages

The novel Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson, is about Lyddie, the protagonist. After her family’s farm goes into debt, she goes to work in the Cutler’s Tavern where she works, almost like a slave as she doesn’t earn money for herself. Lyddie then gets fired and goes to Lowell, Massachusetts to get a job at the textile factory. She manages to become one of the factory workers at the factory and works with Diana, a fellow worker. Diana started a petition for getting fewer work hours and better working conditions because they have bad working conditions. 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 …show more content…

As noted on page 92, “You’d be blacklisted no other corporation would hire you.” This confirms that if Lyddie gets fired is a very little chance that she would get another job. According to dictionary.com, a blacklist is, “A list privately exchanged among employers, containing the names of persons to be barred from employment because of trustworthiness for holding opinions considered undesirable.” If Lyddie is blacklisted it means she can be fired from her current job and other factories will refuse to hire her.
On the other hand, Lyddie should sign the petition because then she would have more free time. Evidence that supports this is, “Time is more precious than money, Lyddie girl. If only I had two more free hours of an evening what I couldn't do.” This shows that the factory girls did not have a lot of free time and if they signed the petition they would have two or three more hours of free time and that Betsy (another factory girl and Lyddie’s roommate) believes that time is valuable. However, Lyddie does not need extra hours of freedom, but more money for her family and to pay off the

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Lyddie By Katherine Paterson

    863 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the quote, Lyddie’s friend, Betsy, is sent away with her uncle to Maine for being too weak to work at the factory due to being sick. Her illness was caused by all the dust and lint in the factories. The factory takes in workers when they are young and strong, and when they can’t work anymore, they fire them without another thought. If Lyddie

    Read More

  • Should The Struggle In Katherine Paterson's Lyddie

    633 Words  | 3 Pages

    She hasn 't seen her family in 2 years and is still working hard to collect money to get her cabin back, which is in debt. When Lyddie meets Diana Goss, who was a girl working with Lyddie in the factory, Diana introduces her to a petition, that could change her life for the better, or for the worse. Should Lyddie sign the petition for a happier, healthier life, but could get blacklisted, or should Lyddie suffer for a few more years to get the money she needs? Some people might state that she shouldn 't sign the petition because the job has decent pay and that Lyddie doesn 't mind and is only focusing on one goal- money. The right decision for Lyddie is to sign the petition, so that Lyddie doesn 't get into any dangerous situation, doesn 't get worn out from her job and has a decreased risk of getting sick.

    Read More

  • Life In The Iron-Mills By Rebecca Harding Davis

    983 Words  | 4 Pages

    The short story Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis revolves around a lower-classed American citizen named Hugh Wolfe in the mid-1800s, who cannot be blamed and prosecuted for his decision to keep the money and try to make a better life for himself. Rebecca Harding Davis sets the story up to show the early struggles of Hugh’s life: “A morbid, gloomy man, untaught, unled, left to feed his soul in grossness and crime, and hard, grinding labor” (Davis 10). Davis uses Hugh’s life as a representation of how society functioned at the time. Unfortunately for Hugh, the class system is set up in a way where it is nearly impossible to reach a higher social status, leaving Hugh confined in his lugubrious, lower-class life. Davis also reveals

    Read More

  • The Princess Colliery: A Short Story

    452 Words  | 2 Pages

    Moving to Windsor, Ontario from Sydney Mines, Cape Breton was a result of many changes that created a number of closures in Atlantic Canada. The coal mines closed down putting thousands of miners out of work. The Princess Colliery Pit that filled the box cars full of coal shut it's doors in nineteen seventy five. It has since been torn down. The train station where the big iron wheels were used to pull the luggage to the freight cars is no longer in business.

    Read More

  • Who Should Lyddie Sign The Petition

    612 Words  | 3 Pages

    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. Lyddie should sign the petition because they need better working conditions.

    Read More

  • Triangle Shirtwaist Labor In The 1920's

    198 Words  | 1 Pages

    Jumping forward to 1909, it became the rising of the women. Once again women are fighting what they believe in when working in the factories. However, this is the most famous strike that has taken place against International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). The women started to picket them, but ended up getting arrested for doing so. One day 20-30 thousand people went on strike; they got strike pay, publicity, and legal support from the WTUL to continue the strike against the factories.

    Read More

  • Child Labor Laws In Katherine Paterson's Lyddie

    813 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the mid 1800s industry was advancing and children of all ages were working in dangerous factories. People attempted to strike against these rules, while some decided not to. In the book ¨Lyddie¨ by Katherine Paterson, the main character Lyddie has a job in a factory with very poor conditions and long hours. Since this was only the 1800s, child labor laws were not yet established and Lyddie was recently introduced to her idea of rebelling against the rules for more rights.

    Read More

  • Working Conditions In Katherine Patterson's Lyddie

    809 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelly's Speech

    838 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Girl Who Survived Essay

    1044 Words  | 5 Pages

    Her and her family get deported the "ghetto" because they were Jewish. There life was flipped upside down; she came from a decently wealthy bakeground. With everything going down around them it was a harsh awkening for all of them. She became a goods smuggler to help her family services. Even with all the danger and risker around

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Finish Of Patsy Barnes

    952 Words  | 4 Pages

    For example, Patsy and his mother live in poverty on a “scanty livelihood” and were too “poor, too poor to even call in a doctor.” This shows one of Patsy’s many struggles and how it affects his and his mother’s life by showing how they can’t even get proper treatment for Patsy’s mother’s sickness. Another example is the struggle Patsy faces with being black in the 1800s, being told things like “Why don’t you stay down south where you belong.” Likewise, Joby also deals with struggles related to the time his story is set. For example, the Civil War made it so “Nothing stayed put.

    Read More

  • Issues In The Glass Castle: Controversial Issues

    830 Words  | 4 Pages

    She explains how happy, but conflicted because her parents refuse money from her and live as homeless people. She writes the memoir to work through her feelings and share’s her story. Some topics that I could identify in the text are: poverty, teenage pregnancy and child rights. The issue of poverty is portrayed from the beginning of the book to the end.

    Read More

  • How Did Lyddie Get The Air In The Factory

    507 Words  | 3 Pages

    LYDDIE 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.

    Read More

  • Lyddie Petition

    744 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Who Is Adeline Purthe?

    262 Words  | 2 Pages

    My character, Adeline Purthe, was born in 1888 in New York City. She is now 25 years old and works with the NAWSA, National American Woman Suffrage Association, fighting for women’s right to vote. Her grandfather came over to America from Ireland during the Potato Famine in 1846 in his boat with his wife and other families hoping to start a new life in America. He started a business in New York City importing and exporting goods with his boat to other countries. In 1857 her grandfather and grandmother gave birth to Adeline’s father, Finn.

    Read More

More about Working Conditions In Lyddie, By Katherine Paterson

Open Document