When we begin to analyze “Life in the Iron Mills” by Rebecca Harding Davis, we see several issues that truly highlight the absurdity that occurs as much today as it did during the timeline of this novel. When we are first introduced to Wolfe, we are introduced to a man almost drained of all his being, all the while having a “fierce thirst for beauty” (Davis,25) embedded within his soul. Essentially speaking, we discover that Wolfe is an artistic soul lost within an impoverished body, desperately looking for any way to discover his yearning desires. However, despite his yearning and natural talent, we see that he is still rejected upon being discovered by Kirby, Doctor May, and Mitchell. In rejecting Wolfe, these men perfectly display the disparities …show more content…
between art and politics within this novel, as the rich political figures here specifically choose to not expose the brilliant artistic vision of Wolfe, for a myriad of reasons; some being due to the economic disparity that exists between Wolfe and the rich men, the discrepancies in understanding between Wolfe and the rich men, as well as protecting the social standings of themselves (the rich men). These reasons sum up one theme within the entire novel, this being that the political powers dictated the artistic expressions of this time in order to benefit or not affect the interests of the politicians. When we are first introduced to these political figures (Kirby, Doctor May, and Mitchell), we are introduced to individuals who look at these firemen with pity, yet have no cause to help them in any way.
Evidence of this can be seen as Kirby and the overseer, Clarke, comfortably joke around about the fate of the men within the iron mill. “Judging from some of the faces of your men, they bid fair to try the reality of Dante’s vision some day.” (Davis, 27) From this excerpt, we can already distinguish that these political figures do not see the mill workers as equals. Further evidence can be seen later on within the novel as we see that Kirby further denounces the value of these workers, stating “If I had the making of men, these men who do the lowest part of the world’s work should be machines, -nothing more, -hands.” (Davis, 34) This statement even further diminishes the value of the iron mill workers according to Kirby, Mitchell and Doctor May. Their views on the iron mill workers became especially apparent in the treatment of Wolfe and his art, as Mitchell quotes “And so Money sends back its answer into the depths through you… Money has spoken!” (Davis, 35), noting that due to the lack of monetary value within Wolfe’s life, he would not be discovered and have his longing desire for beauty satisfied. This is also clearly stated through Kirby, as he claims, “What has the man who pays them money to do with their souls’ concerns, more than the grocer or butcher who takes it?” …show more content…
(Davis,35), further cementing his harsh views on Wolfe and the workers of the iron mills. As the rich men first discovered the Korl statue of Wolfe, each one of them stood astounded in bewilderment.
Each of the rich men inquired as to what the statue was symbolizing, as they could not quite gather much besides the look of a working-class woman of “Wolfe’s" kind. The beautifully distraught strokes that Wolfe captured amazed the rich men, however, also vexed them. As Wolfe first described his artwork’s hunger, the Doctor is humored since he thinks that Wolfe falsely displayed physical hunger, stating “Oh-h! But what a mistake you have made, my fine fellow! You have given no sign of starvation to the body. It is strong, -terribly strong.” (Davis, 33). This led to a reexplanation by Wolfe, stating that her hunger was for “Summat to make her live” (Davis, 33), which allowed the rich men to begin to realize the disparity of the average mill worker. However, despite this explanation by Wolfe, the full understanding of Wolfe’s work by the rich men is still lacking, and we see an example of this within the text, as Davis states “Some terrible problem lay hid in this woman’s face, and troubled these men.” (Davis, 34) This gap is never fully fixed, and is an evident reason as to why they choose to leave Wolfe and his artistic value in the
dark. While discussing the potential discovery that the rich men have stumbled upon, each member makes it clear that neither will take Wolfe in to harness his special talents, for a variety of reasons regarding themselves. We first see Kirby make his case, as he simply states that he is not responsible for any of his worker’s talents or works outside of working hours, stating “My duty to my operatives has a narrow limit… Outside of that, if they cut korl… I am not responsible” (Davis, 35), cementing his belief in that he is not responsible for Wolfe aside from being an employer, and does not wish to become anything more. We also see how Doctor May rejects Wolfe, stating “I have not the means… Why should one be raised, when myriads are left? -I have not the money, boy,” allowing us to see how Doctor May is unwilling to sacrifice himself in order to make Wolfe known. (Davis, 37) These two statements evidently show how none of the rich men were willing to risk themselves to help Wolfe, thus leaving him and his artwork in the shadows. Throughout the novel, it was clear to see the political restraints that were put on Wolfe and his art, which restrained him to life as a mill worker. We saw examples of this as we analyzed the different reasons each of our rich men (Kirby, Doctor May, and Mitchell) rejected the artistic expression of Wolfe, as they considered their own views over Wolfe’s. In restricting Wolfe and containing his artwork, they kept themselves free of any issues and conflicts against their wishes, essentially saying “I am innocent of the blood of this man.” (Davis, 36) This viewpoint shown throughout the novel is evident even in today’s world, as we consistently see political leaders subdue artistic expression to conduct their laws and regulations without much interference safely and efficiently. As Wolfe was subdued and rejected, many artistic expressions of our generation are rejected in favor of the goals of our political leaders, as the Kirby and Doctor May’s of our generation advance their own political views for their own benefit.
The Coal Company exploited the workers by underpaying them and restricting their freedom as consumers. The miners were forced to buy their own tools, clothes, food, etc. from the Ôcompany storeÕ many times at higher prices than necessary. This created circulation of money from the company to the laborer back to the company. The miners worked for obvious reasons: to supply themselves and their families with shelter, food and clothing. They relied on company power to supply a means of employment. However, the company in turn relied on the laborers, because without them the company would have no means by which to excavate the coal and continue the production process.
O’Donnell who was with his company for eleven years, would lose their jobs to a machine who could do the job quicker or to a worker who would work for a lower wage, like young boys or immigrants. O’Donnell described how men would gather to be picked for work in the mill and the men with young boys to serve as “back-boys” always got picked first because they could do the work faster and the young boys worked for $.30 or $.40 a day as opposed to the $1.50 O’Donnell usual took home for a day’s work. He also described how it didn’t take a skilled worker like himself to operate the new ring-spinners that expedited the cotton spinning process. But skilled workers and laborers weren’t the only ones who were “under the plating” of the Gilded Age. In Document 19-2, women described the struggles of working as domestic servants. Many women went to work during the late 19th century to help out their families in this time of financial anguish. Many took up jobs as domestic
In the note “Evils Imminent,” Erik Larson writes “Beneath the gore and smoke and loam, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow” [xi]. The purpose of this novel is to compare and contrast the book's main characters, Daniel Burnham and Henry H. Holmes. The characters have contrasting personalities and feelings, but a few similar motives to a certain extent.
Another aspect that brought many women into abolitionism was the play on their emotions. Although the stereotype of women being very emotional beings is extremely subjective, it is, more times than not, very true. And I, being a woman, can vouch for that idea, even though I would rather not admit to it. Garrison and his writers, knowing this, played to women’s emotions in the urge to get them more involved. And this notion later helped women bring others into the movement by using their own emotions to play on the h...
Both of these stories provide insight into the lives of people in the 1920s and help us understand the history of this time period. We see that during this era, one's wealth held greater importance than their character. The 1920s were marked by corruption, poverty, and liveliness. F. Scott Fitzgerald's two amazing stories immerse us in the characters' experiences. Stories like these offer valuable insight into how men and women lived during this decade, and we can be grateful that we have achieved greater equity among individuals today.
In the beginning of the movie, the viewer is promptly made aware of the conditions the coal miners were forced the work under. The Stone Mountain Coal Company exerted a great deal of energy to ensure control of all aspects of the miner's lives. By paying them in company script, the company forces the miners to purchase all goods and services
...es of the servant and Judith who appear collected and focused with intense concentration and diligence to the task. By incorporating such dramatic expression on the faces and bodies of the figures the viewer can empathize and almost feel the sheer pain depicted on the face of Holofernes as well as the intensity and urgency of the two women’s task.
Rebecca Harding Davis wrote “Life in the Iron Mills” in the mid-nineteenth century in part to raise awareness about working conditions in industrial mills. With the goal of presenting the reality of the mills’ environment and the lives of the mill workers, Davis employs vivid and concrete descriptions of the mills, the workers’ homes, and the workers themselves. Yet her story’s realism is not objective; Davis has a reformer’s agenda, and her word-pictures are colored accordingly. One theme that receives a particularly negative shading in the story is big business and the money associated with it. Davis uses this negative portrayal of money to emphasize the damage that the single-minded pursuit of wealth works upon the humanity of those who desire it.
Poor working conditions in mines in The Gilded Age was as normal to the people then as a 40 hour workweek is to us now. Looking back at all of the horrific and terrible accidents and such that happened then seems unimaginable to us, but to them, it was just another day at work. Children worked in the mines to support their families, often in company towns where inhaling soot all day and contracting black lung was really your only option for a job.
Fitzgerald uses setting to criticise society’s loss of morality and the growth of consumerism after the Great War. The rise of the stock market in the 1920s enabled business to prosper in America. However, although the owners of industry found themselves better off wages didn’t rise equally, causing the gap between the rich and poor to grow markedly. Parkinson argues that the settings “represent [these] alternative worlds of success and failure in a modern capitalist society”. The valley of ashes symbolises this failure and moral decay, acting as a foil to the affluent “world of success”, East Egg, and highlighting that the lower classes must suffer to support its existence. This setting is introduced in Chapter 2 and is described as where “ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens”. The personification of the environment creates the sense that these failures are rooted in the land, suggesting that poverty is an inescapable part of American society. This is emphasised through the use of tripling which creates a sense of endlessness. By describing the men who live there as “crumbling through the pow...
American history between 1865 and 1900 is characterized as the Gilded Age. Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner coined this term; it means that this era, from the outside, appeared prosperous, but with a closer look, one could discover the corruption that lay beneath the thin layer of gold. This era was filled with urbanization, industrialization, and immigration; these three things gave the Gilded Age the appearance of being a prosperous time filled with progress. However, the American industrial worker, the bulwark of the age, did not prosper as much as one may have thought. American industrial workers faced extremely difficult lives, working very hard to receive little reward, and it did not take very long before they wanted reform. The industrial workers banded together, forming labor unions, in order to try to negotiate with their employers to have some of their demands met. Labor unions are generally thought of as having positive effects on workers, which certainly was true, but only to an extent. Labor unions also had some very negative effects on workers, specifically when their demands were not met, or when they were seen negatively by the government and the public. Immigration rates during the Gilded Age were extremely high, because the United States had great opportunities, especially in available jobs, which were greatly desirable to foreign people. Immigration generally had negative effects on American industrial workers. With large numbers of immigrants coming from foreign countries, there was a surplus of labor which caused unemployment and wages to remain low. Also, immigration had great effects on labor unions, generally negative as well, which would then in turn negatively affect the workers in that union. Last...
Reading is an experience of art; without readers’ interaction, the meaning of any literary work is insufficient. “[Norman] Holland believes that we react to literary texts with the same psychological responses we bring to our daily life....That is, in various ways we unconsciously recreate in the text the world that exists in our mind.” (Tyson, 182) By telling a story that centers on the conflicts between two wealth young females whose personalities are distinctly different in the jazz age, Fitzgerald leads us on a journey of physical, and especially psychological transition of the protagonists through an omniscient narration. For female individuals, a tale emphasis on the youth,
Twain’s novel was greatly influenced by the times and criticizes the imperfections in society. These errors in society were subjective to the current events during the Gilded Age. The following show the effects of the current times that influenced the context of the novel. One of America’s leading historians of America in the west, Patricia N. Limerick well elaborates on what happened in the Gilded Age. The following quote fro...
Unions were looked down upon and often scoffed at by factory owners. England even went through a period where unions were outlawed because of how liberal they were. People during the time of the Industrial Revolution were taken advantage of and were not paid as much as they should have been. One protester was set up at a train station protested “against the triumph of machinery and the gain and glory which the wealthy… men were likely to derive from it,” (Document 2). This man was dirty and poor, his circumstances likely induced by mechanization. The wealthy had virtual control over the poor. They reduced the salaries of the poor because there was no higher authority to tell them they could not. As well as this, the poor could not do much due to the fact that they needed to work in order to make at least some money to support their families. The Industrial Revolution mainly benefitted the wealthy. Document 2 focuses on the grand opening of the railway between Liverpool and Manchester, which would seemingly be an exciting event. However, the writer reports that the faces were grim and the spectators were grimy, implying that the Industrial Revolution and its technological advances had caused
Many Americans choose to forget the past brutalities of child labor. Unfortunately, the past does not disappear. Child labor did take place in the U.S. and the Carolina Cotton Mill photograph is a prominent witness. Lewis Wickes Hine is the artist behind this powerful photo, which was taken in the early 1900s (Dimock). Hine’s Carolina Cotton Mill embodies the struggle of child labor through the incorporation of situational information, artistic elements such as lines and space, and cultural values.