"...I at one time thought of her as one of the best on the floor. But I am forced, sir, to ask for her dismissal. It is a matter of moral turpitude."
Moral what? What was he saying? What was he accusing her of?
"I see," said the agent, as though ass had been explained when nothing, nothing had.
(Paterson, pg. 167-168)
Lyddie is a historical fiction novel by Katherine Paterson. In the segment above, the protagonist, Lyddie Worthen, is fired from working at the Lowell Mill because she protected another girl from the advances of their overseer, Mr. Marsden. In order to protect himself, the overseer destroys Lyddie's career without giving any concrete examples of her alleged depravity, because he can get away with slandering her character. This example brought to mind why trade unions were formed in the United States; to maintain and improve working conditions for a company's workers. In chapter 4 of Young Adult Literature in the Classroom: Reading It, Teaching It, Loving It, author Barbara A. Illig-Aviles notes that historical fiction helps the reader "appreciate the struggles and acts of personal courage required by people who, although they lived at different times, were essentially the same as we are" (Illig-Aviles, pg. 71). Lyddie would be a terrific companion piece in a history class where the curriculum studies the history of workers' rights. Students should be made aware that workers may have turned a blind eye to doing the right thing, because they feared losing a job or getting on the wrong side of a superior. Students could also connect their learning to modern day situations and evaluate why children are taken advantage of in the workplace (i.e. cheap labor, intimidation). Exposing students to child labor could be done on a national as well as international level.
While analyzing Lyddie's strong character, at times I thought about Junior from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. Both characters wanted to better themselves academically and show determination and courage in choosing education. Junior goes to Rearden High School to get away from the school on the reservation, while Lyddie buys a copy of Oliver Twist to teach herself how to read. There's a part in Junior's story where he befriends a student at Rearden named Gordy. Gordy teaches Junior, "And no matter how much you learn, you just keep on learning there is so much more you need to learn" (Alexie, pg. 97). Like Junior, Lyddie begins her journey with disadvantages. Where Junior is impoverished and lives on a reservation, Lyddie is poor, uneducated, and has no parental guidance. Lyddie's character grows from a hardworking farm girl turned factory worker into a young woman who realizes that there is much to be gained from the world. I liked how Lyddie ends with her decision to go to college in Ohio, instead of her deciding to marry Luke Stevens and become a farmer's wife.
I thought Katharine Paterson's research for the book was impressive in its scope. Not only did she need to be familiar with the history behind the Lowell Mills and the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association, but she had to understand the mechanical workings of a mill and be able to explain it to an average reader. "Threading the shuttle was, if anything, worse. Lyddie popped the full bobbin into the shuttle and then as always, put her mouth to the hole and sucked the thread through, pulled it to length, wrapped it quickly on a hook of the temple, dropped the shuttle into the race, and restarted the loom" (Paterson, pg. 110). Her description of the mill's operations deepened my comprehension of what a typical shift was like for Lyddie and how absurd the working conditions were. Even though I haven't yet read the assigned work on the Shirtwaist Triangle Fire, I would imagine that both books could be used jointly to teach about unfair working conditions. I think students would be curious to read about Lyddie's story; a girl their own age forced to work to provide for her family is a compelling read. When students can relate to characters in historical fiction, those situations have become alive for them and successful connections to literature have been made.
I could not agree with you more in your appraisal of historical fiction and how such fiction enables young people to relate to characters "who have lived earlier and makes the era in which these people lived come alive" for our present day students. I used this particular historical novel on many occasions while I was teaching at the middle school level and it spurred much interest and research on the part of my students about life in the mills: the structure of the mills (why built on rivers?), the workings of the textile mills, the machinery used, the various jobs held by the girls in the mills, the structure of the factories (fire traps) and the lives led by the young woman who worked in the mills. My students came to understand why labor unions were started and why and how child labor laws came to be written. You are correct, Katherine Paterson did an excellent job of researching life in the New England mills.
ReplyDeleteI believe that our students can learn the importance of independence, of believing in oneself and of hard work. Another issue this book forces our students to consider is the short life span, until recently, of many people in this country. It was not unusual for young people to be left as orphans at a very young age. Lyddie refused to allow her family to be torn apart and assumed the role of the mature parent at a very young age. That was not unusual at this time in history and has changed only recently with the introduction of new medicine. You are correct............Junior and Lyddie were cut from the same cloth, but their lives were not easy. The climb out of poverty is surely not easy thus our students need to also be made aware of the sacrifices of others who came before them and the fact that those sacrifices have made their lives easier today. I refer, of course, to child labor laws and compensatory education laws. Dr. Ries
I really love the parallel between Lyddie and Junior. Like Junior had Gordy, I think Lyddie had Diana. Neither of them have ever experienced the love of a friend until they received these friends. Though others thought these people were either bad or quirky, they were both significant influences.
ReplyDeleteIndependence is definitely a theme throughout the novel. Alough, at times, I was very turned off to Lyddie's stubbornness. Yes, she wanted to save the family farm, but I thought her ways were too tunnel-visioned.
Going along with Dr. Reis, it is very interesting to read about child labor and how young women worked so hard for their wages in such awful conditions. It reminds me of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle; I read this in college and though it is too much for middle school, I think it is an appropriate read for high schoolers interested in the topic of factory work.