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Katherine Paterson's Lyddie Sparknotes

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Life is not fair but if you desire something you have to try to achieve it. The fictional novel Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson. Fallows a girl named Lyddie sheś been taking care of her family until a bear attacks her home her mother is crazy and thinks it's a sign that the end of the world is coming. So she takes Lyddieś younger sisters with her so Lyddie and her younger brother take care of the farm until her mother sends her to work at a tavern and her brother to be a mill boy. She works in the tavern for a while until she realizes she is being held there under her own will so she leaves to go to Lowell to be a factory girl. While sheś there she makes some friends one is Diana Goss she is part of a group that circulates a petition and Lyddie is left with …show more content…

Ex. shelter, food, clothing, safety. The girls at the concord corporation are forced to go to church. “Lyddie did not attempt to go to church. Her body wouldn't cooperate if she had the desire to go.” ( Katherine 98 ) Lyddie and the girls that go to the concord corporation have to go to church but since Lyddie works to long she's too tired to go. The corporation makes the girls work 13 hours a day with only 2, 30 minute breaks to eat. “ It ain't right for this lace to suck the strength of their youth then cast them off like husks.” ( Katherine 113) Lyddies friend Betsy has been working so hard and long every day she obtains a cough and has to leave because of how long she works she had to leave her dreams behind. Lyddie was being mistreated by her overseer. “Her whole body was on fire she needed a cold cloth on her head and yet he kept holding on to her.” ( Katherine 129 ) Mr Marsden aked Lyddie to stay with him till all the girls left then he grabbed her tight and when she said she wasn’t feeling right he had a big huge grin he leaned and then Lyddie stomped on his foot. Lyddie should sign the petition because of the living conditions she’s

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After her mother died, Day had given her and her brothers up to Ethel and her husband Galen because Ethel supposedly wanted to help the family by taking care of them. Instead, “Henrietta’s children had grown up hungry” because Ethel fed them a cold biscuit in the morning that had to hold them up until dinner. Ethel would wake the children at dawn and make them “clean the house, cook, shop, and do the laundry” but in the summers she would send them to Clover to “pick worms off tobacco leaves by hand”. When Deborah was ten, her and her brothers moved out of Ethel’s house and in with their oldest brother, Lawrence, and his wife, Bobbette. The abuse had stopped for her brothers but Deborah had to endure molestation from Galen.

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Within the reading, I caught that, “She did not go to work the next day or for many days thereafter. Her fever raged, and she was out of her mind with it.” This shows that the fever affected her badly, and kept her from going to work for several days, as it rages on. Also, throughout Chapter 17, it stated, “It had been two weeks since she fell ill, and Dr. Morris still refused to let her return to work.” which also shows that Lyddie has been ill for a long time.

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Others might argue that Lyddie should not sign the petition, to earn money enough to pay off her family's debt. But the book states, “uncle Judah’s bound to determined to sell”(Paterson 143). Uncle Judah is determined to sell the farm to be repaid for taking care of Mama and the babies. Therefore there is no debt to be repaid and no farm to return to. In addition, Lyddie got a letter that states, “we regret to inform you of the death of Maggie M. Worthen”(Paterson 159).

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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.

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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

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She is constantly searching for her husband, hoping that she can turn “any of you boys seen Curley” into a conversation starter (38). In some cases it works, but she is usually quickly shut out. The only time she manages to get in more than a few words with the men is in the barn with Lennie, where Steinbeck reveals a side of her not seen elsewhere in the book. Throughout the rest of the story she is put together and composed, a mirage sent from Old Hollywood, but here she is blatantly upset, wondering “what’s the matter with me?”(43). A part of her shines through that isn’t usually seen.

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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.

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I´m worn out Amelia, Were all worn out.(91)¨ Betsy pointed out how long the hours were at the factory and that everyone is tired and worn out. The petition would let the children working in the factories have reasonable hours. Brigid, a new worker at the factory, is being taught how to work the loom with the reluctant assistance of Lyddie. ¨Forget everything else but the loom.” ¨But I canna forget,¨ Brigid cried out.

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Decisions may be tough, you either go right or wrong about what you choose. In the historical fiction book, Lyddie started working in a factory to earn money to pay off her family's debt. Her mother got in a bit of a situation and Lyddie had to take care of Rachel (her sister). Now Lyddie has a decision whether or not to sign the petition. If she does, she will get better wages and less hours.

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Lyddie Argument Essay In the book Lyddie written by Katherine Paterson, Lyddie the 13 year old girl works hard for her family, around 13 hours, and is surrounded by disease, low pay and is being watched over all the time. But when she is sent a way to work she finds a mill, then she meets Diana, who started a petition and who wants something more than her factory life. Lyddie thinks about joining her and signing her petition. There may be consequences but i think it will have a good turn out for lyddie, This is why...

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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.

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1077 Words | 5 Pages

Through the long and impactful novel Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson, a 13-year-old girl was forced to leave her family and beloved home that she loves. Due to her distant mother 's decision to sell her off to a mill because of problems with money. Also, for the actions of her husband who left the family in search of good mines. A troubling family goes through many setbacks to hopefully unite the once full family the Lyddie once had. Lyddie should sign the petition because she works long hours with little pay under the watchful eye of the overseer who could be classified as a child molester.

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757 Words | 4 Pages

And what was she to do with Rachel?”(122) Lyddie worked hard for the money she needed to go back home. When she finds out she can’t even do that, she doesn’t know what to do. Even though she doesn’t know what to do now, she should not sign the petition! She instead should wait it out until she knows what to do.

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So, this is why Lyddie is not free. Lyddie considers herself not free because she works long hours at the mill. “Even when the girls were free at 7:00,it was to push and shove their way across the street to their boarding houses,bolt down their hearty breakfast,and rush back,stomachs

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The Columbian Exchange was a very significant event, yet it had many benefits and consequences. One of these benefits was that the entire global economy spiked. A benefit for traders was the amassment of goods that came from the New World. On the other hand a consequence of this was that diseases were spread a lot faster. This caused a lot of Europeans to contract new world diseases such as syphilis and Native Americans to contract diseases such as smallpox.

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