Lyddie By Katherine Paterson: An Analysis

943 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Womens role in the 1800s

Lydia Worthen was only thirteen when she took on a job at the Lowell Mill as an attempt to bring her family back together. In the novel, Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson, Lyddie was first introduced as the mother figure of her large family. She grew up without a father but instead with her mother and many siblings. She grew up in 1843 in Vermont until her mother hired her as a Tavern worker. Eventually, Lyddie finds her job at the Tavern unpleasant and once she’s dismissed, Lyddie switches to the factory life as a female textile worker at the Lowell Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts. The factory is strict with their set of regulations but after working for some time, Lyddie makes a few companions. One of which, Diana Goss, presents Lyddie with a petition. If the petition holds …show more content…

Lyddie should sign the petition that Diana Gross is circulating because it could lower her long work hours and it could improve the unsafe working environment that began to affect Lyddie negatively. If noticed, the petition could change and improve the horrible working environment around the girls. Obviously the girls work at a factory and it may not be the cleanest, however, for girls around Lyddie’s age, it is completely unsafe and the petition has the potential to fix that. As Lyddie begins her first day at the mill, she is instantly struck by the environment around her. On page 62, Paterson states, “Creation! What a noise! Clatter and clack, great shuddering moans, groans, creaks, and rattles. The shrieks and whistles of huge leather belts on wheels. And when her brain cleared enough, Lyddie saw through the murky air

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Erin George's A Woman Doing Life

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    Erin George’s A Woman Doing Life: Notes from a Prison for Women sheds light on her life at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women (FCCW) where she was sentenced for the rest of her life for first-degree murder. It is one of the few books that take the reader on a journey of a lifer, from the day of sentencing to the day of hoping to being bunked adjacent to her best friend in the geriatric ward.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Mother Jones: Fierce Fighter For Workers Rights

    620 Words  | 2 Pages

    She wanted to change the law for the unfairness of the children. The text states, “They would march the mill children all the way to the president of the United States-Theodore Roosevelt.” (Josephson, 6). The author explains what she is planning to do to hopefully change the mind of President Roosevelt. The author writes, “Their bodies were bone-thin, with hollow chests.” …”’some with their hands off, some with the thumb missing, some with their fingers off at the knuckles’ - victims of mill accidents.” (Josephson, 5). This means that the children weren’t being fed properly and they were injured while working. Some of the children lost body parts because the job was too

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Eighteen By Lauren Alleyne

    1391 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lauren Alleyne uses the rigid form of the sonnet to navigate through the healing process after being sexually assaulted. Ten years after that night, she writes the sonnet sequence Eighteen, which deviates from the typical sonnet form in the aspects of the speaker, subject, and format. Playing off of the standard sonnet form, Alleyne is able to recount the emotions of that night during the first sonnet in the sequence. The typical sonnet tends to objectify the female body or one’s lover; in this sequence, the sonnets address what happens when an individual acts on these objectifications and assaults Alleyne. Alleyne deviates from the standard subject and speaker of the typical sonnet form to begin the healing process; the process begins

    Read More

  • Industrial Revolution Dbq Essay

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    Young girls were not allowed to open the windows and had to breathe in the dust, deal with the nerve-racking noises of the machines all day, and were expected to continue work even if they 're suffering from a violent headache or toothache (Doc 2). The author of this report is in favor of employing young women since he claimed they seemed happy and they loved their machines so they polished them and tied ribbons on them, but he didn 't consider that they were implemented to make their awful situations more bearable. A woman who worked in both factory and field also stated she preferred working in the field rather than the factory because it was hard work but it never hurt her health (Doc 1), showing how dangerous it was to work in a factory with poor living conditions. Poor living conditions were common for nearly all workers, and similar to what the journalist saw, may have been overlooked due to everyone seeming

    Read More

  • Let Me Hear Your Voice by Catherine Maurice: A Reading Reflection

    1163 Words  | 3 Pages

    Let Me Hear Your Voice by Catherine Maurice is an autobiographical story from a mother’s perspective. It is a narrative that uses multiple different concepts that have been the focus of class lectures and textbook materials. It touches on different therapies used for children with autism and even focuses briefly on the controversial subject of inclusion verses exclusion. This book provides insight on a myriad of different emotions that parents experience, which is tough for an educator to otherwise understand. The individuals were relatable and the context was extremely easy to understand, without taking away from the medical terminology. This book was a useful resource, as well as an enjoyable heart warming tale.

    Read More

  • Our Kids Literary Analysis

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    In a country like the United States of America, with a history of every individual having an equal opportunity to reach their dreams, it becomes harder and harder to grasp the reality that equal opportunity is diminishing as the years go on. The book Our Kids by Robert Putnam illustrates this reality and compares life during the 1950’s and today’s society and how it has gradually gotten to a point of inequality. In particular, he goes into two touching stories, one that shows the changes in the communities we live in and another that illustrates the change of family structure. In the end he shows how both stories contribute to the American dream slipping away from our hands.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Readicide By Kelly Gallagher

    1208 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book Readicide by Kelly Gallagher is the ugly truth of the policies adopted in the school system to prioritized test taking strategies for the most part of the day and killing the enjoyment of students reading. The author points out that students’ reading has shifted negatively and the reading percentage has decreased. Students hate to read and classic novels are slowly vanishing from classrooms. The findings to Gallagher’s discoveries are research based and heartbreaking as the movement of standardized testing has been reinforced in most states. There are too many standards to teach and teachers are held accountable for students testing performance. Therefore, educators are forced to do test preps where students are provided with facts to be memorized and lack of comprehension. The author emphasized that students are no longer able to choose a book for the enjoyment of reading. Students’ interests are no longer taken into consideration. Students are reading less and less at school to make time for test prep. Gallagher says that as an educator and parent young

    Read More

  • Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s A New-England Tale and Hope Leslie

    3303 Words  | 7 Pages

    Limited opportunities for women to share their opinions publicly throughout the Nineteenth century caused an abundance of females to communicate their ideas through writing. Catharine Maria Sedgwick was among the first of American authors to publish historical and other fiction. Much of her work deals with the role of white women in society, especially involving the Cult of Domesticity or True Womanhood. Sedgwick managed to incorporate her unorthodox views on women’s behavior, relationships, religion, and people foreign to her culture, while still appealing to a broad audience. Her novels, A New-England Tale, published in 1822 and Hope Leslie published in 1827, contradict the mainstream ideals of her time. The time period and culture, during which Sedgwick matured, along with her family relationships, greatly influenced her work.

    Read More

  • My Antonia Essay: The Character of Lena Lingard

    1791 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lena Lingard is the best example of a non-domestic central character which appears amidst the domesticity of My Ántonia. Often the sections which feature Lena instead of Ántonia are seen as confusing divergences from the plot line of a novel that purports to be about the woman named in the title. However, since Lena appears in the novel almost as often as Ántonia, and more often than any other character except Jim, she is a central character. Lena is a working woman who refuses to accept the constraints society places upon her. Even when society predicts that by becoming a dressmaker instead of marrying she will fail and become a "loose" woman, she disrupts their expectations and succeeds.

    Read More

  • Edith Warton's The Age of Innocence

    608 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Edith Warton’s novel, The Age of Innocence the main character Newland Archer has a complex personality that is filled with hidden desires and ideas; some of these ideas are controversial in the society that he lives in. The arrival of Ellen Olenska and the harsh realization of living in a boring society help expose these unseen traits.

    Read More

  • Lydia Marie Child

    689 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lydia Marie Child was born on February 11, 1802 and died on October 20, 1880. During her life she wrote in many forms and on various topics, but Lydia was more than just a writer. She wrote short stories, biographies, science fiction, serialized fiction, children’s literature, historical novels and antislavery literature (Karcher 6). She was also a journalist and a feminist, and wrote about the American Revolution and Native Americans. She helped Harriot Jacobson escape slavery, encouraged reform and was an abolitionist. But, before she could help others, Lydia had to fight for her own right to advance and succeed. Lydia was born in Medford, Massachusetts, as the sixth and youngest child of Convers and Susannah Francis. Susannah died when Lydia was twelve, and she was sent to live with a married sister until the age of nineteen. Although Mr. Francis encouraged the intellectual advancement of his sons, he discouraged his daughter, Lydia, from her fondness for books (Myerson 5). Lydia continued to read and learn, without her father’s encouragement or help, an...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Color Purple By Alice Walker

    2348 Words  | 5 Pages

    Alice Walker is the pride of African Americans, who are considered as the most suppressed community within United States. She was born on 9th February 1944 in Georgia. She started her career as a social worker activist, followed by teaching and writer. She has secured many awards for her unprecedented works. The third novel of Alice Walker “The Color Purple” was published in 1982, which gave the real flight to her publications; as she received massive credits from around the world. Her works basically include short stories, novels and essays that are always evidently centered on the struggles and adversities of black women particularly in United States. Walker uses the writing as her standard to spread her voice and to process experiences of

    Read More

  • Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides

    2029 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Virgin Suicides is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel written in 1993 by Jeffrey Eugenides. It was his debut novel. It centers on a group of unnamed neighborhood boys who are captivated by the five mysterious Lisbon sisters. The book was critically acclaimed for its unique first person plural narrative and received numerous awards. The book originally appeared as a short story that won an Aga Khan Prize for Fiction in 1991. The short story eventually developed into the first chapter of The Virgin Suicides. In 1999, the book was adapted into a film by renowned director Sofia Coppola. It has appeared on numerous “Must read” lists including, one by actor James Franco, and another by author Patrick Ness. In the novel, Eugenides explores the lives of the Lisbon family, the neighborhood boys, and Trip Fontaine.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Color Purple By Alice Walker

    2211 Words  | 5 Pages

    My reaction to this article was quiet agreeing. I agreed with many things stated in this article, the article explained the story exactly right. For example when it states the relationship between Shug and Celie because Shug was always there for Celie. The article did a really good job explaining the novel and gave a really good report. (The New York Times).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Anne Bradstreet To My Dear Children

    1550 Words  | 4 Pages

    Anne Bradstreet starts off her letter with a short poem that presents insight as to what to expect in “To My Dear Children” when she says “here you may find/ what was in your living mother’s mind” (Bradstreet 161). This is the first sign she gives that her letter contains not just a mere retelling of adolescent events, but an introspection of her own life. She writes this at a very turbulent point in history for a devout Puritan. She lived during the migration of Puritans to America to escape the persecution of the Catholic Church and also through the fragmentation of the Puritans into different sects when people began to question the Puritan faith.

    Read More

More about Lyddie By Katherine Paterson: An Analysis

Open Document