People are faced with hard choices everyday. Everybody has had some sort of dilemma in their life at one point or another. Sometimes people are faced with a choice to help society or their own family. Katherine Paterson wrote the novel “Lyddie” in 1991. The novel takes place in the 1840s, and is about a ten year-old-girl named Lyddie who goes to work at the factory in Lowell, Massachusetts, to pay off the debt on the family farm. While there, she is given the choice to sign the workers’ rights petition. The petition asks for shorter hours, better pay, and safer working conditions. Some people say Lyddie should sign the petition in order to improve factory life. Lyddie should not sign the petition because of the compensation she is receiving
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“The pay reflected her proficiency. She was making almost $2.50 a week above her $1.75 board.” This quote shows that she is working hard and for a long period of time to make $4.25 a week. If they get the 10 hour work days, and better conditions, she will not be working as hard, or as long, so she will not make as much. Later in the novel it states “‘But we’d be paid less.’ Couldn’t Betsy understand that? ‘If we just work ten hours we’d be paid much less’” This shows that because of the shorter hours not as much fabric will be made. As a result, the workers would not make as much money. In a letter to her mother, Lyddie writes “Everwun is kind and the food is plenty and tasty. I am saving my muny to pay the dets.” Lyddie shows in this letter working hard to to earn enough money to pay off the debt on their farm. If she signs the petition she will not have as many hours to work so will not get paid as much. As a result, she will not be able to keep the family farm in the family. Due to the compensation she is receiving at the moment, signing the petition would not be the best idea for her short term goal, of paying the debt on the family
“The pay reflected her proficiency. She was making almost $2.50 a week above her $1.75 board.” This quote shows that she is working hard and for a long period of time to make $4.25 a week. If they get the 10 hour work days, and better conditions, she will not be working as hard, or as long, so she will not make as much. Later in the novel it states “‘But we’d be paid less.’ Couldn’t Betsy understand that? ‘If we just work ten hours we’d be paid much less’” This shows that because of the shorter hours not as much fabric will be made. As a result, the workers would not make as much money. In a letter to her mother, Lyddie writes “Everwun is kind and the food is plenty and tasty. I am saving my muny to pay the dets.” Lyddie shows in this letter working hard to to earn enough money to pay off the debt on their farm. If she signs the petition she will not have as many hours to work so will not get paid as much. As a result, she will not be able to keep the family farm in the family. Due to the compensation she is receiving at the moment, signing the petition would not be the best idea for her short term goal, of paying the debt on the family