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Making Decisions In Lyddie By Katherine Paterson

765 Words4 Pages

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. Moreover, Lyddie returns from a secret trip, and in result, she is told that she has been fired. Lyddie ( at this time ) is now adventuring off to become a factory girl being told she could make a …show more content…

Lyddie is already making more money than the other factory girls, and through the summer, in Chapter 12 ( I will Not be a Slave ) everyone in the factory work extremely hard, however, Lyddie is putting in greater effort than everyone else. With most factory girls gone, Lyddie is even more dedicated and this is shown through how much she gets paid. “The pay reflected her proficiency. She was making almost $2.50 a well above her $1.75 board. While the other girls grumbled that their piece rates had dropped so that it had hardly been worth slaving…” ( Paterson, p. 86) The implication is, Lyddie is not paid by the hour, but also from how much fabric she makes. Other factory girls are not even increasing their pay, in fact their pay is only lowering. In addition to the other girls not even going to budge working because of their low pay, Lyddie has a chance to get the money she needs to reunite with her family. Therefore, if Lyddie were to sign the petition, her pay will only decrease. Lyddie is already making a good amount of money, signing the petition will only slow her down, and even worse, Lyddie could be dismissed leaving her with debt. Making the decision to avoid signing the petition is the most logical decision, because Lyddie is making a good amount of pay and signing the petition can/will only result in

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