The Song Of The Shirts By Thomas Hood

This is comparable to the tone in ‘At a Potato Digging’. Here we have a tone of detachment and monotony in relation to the labourers and the dehumanizing effect of their work. This is achieved through synecdoche; in stanza three the workers are referred to simply as body parts: ‘Heads bow, trunks bend, hands fumble…’ This loss of identity strips the worker of personality and emphasises their servitude.

Kate Chopin again writes another short story with a way of getting the attention of the reader in a short period of time. “A Pair of Silk Stockings” is based in early to mid 1900's in a average town. Shops, a theater and such lies in the center of town. The author tells of a widowed mother that is not so well off, that discovers a sum of money and is taken away in her own shopping spree and perhaps her own dreams.

Economic Pressure was used in the speech regularly to show the large division between the rich and the poor. The speaker refers to ‘the rich unnaturally elevated’, ‘weight of taxation, misrule and oppression’. ‘Destitution in horrid form stalks through street, lane and thourghfare’ ‘emaciated frames’. The terminology reflects on the economic pressures that the poor endured, high tax and poor working conditions that often led to illness and death. He emphasised how the richer of the society, the aristocracy, were ‘in exclusive possession of power’. This speech would have stirred the emotions of the crowds as they heard how hard their lives were to those belonging to the upper classes. The speaker creates horrid, desperate images of the poorer classes ‘insufferable despair,’ toll of the death-bell’ to highlight how hard their lives were. (Briggs, 1959, P.50) a secondary source reflected how Chartism ‘seems to have been strongest in the two kinds of places… centres of decaying or contracting industry’ and ‘new or expanding single industry towns’. Briggs ‘s writing shows that Chartism was prominent in only certain areas such as those of industry. Whereas, ‘almost non-existent in completely agricultural villages’.

Cikovsky uses historical references to conclude his point of the misrepresentation of “ Old Mill” ( or so called “ Morning Bell). After stating his main idea he starts to analyze the piece in comparison to the piece “ The Morning Bell” by Anonymous, (after Winslow Homer-dated 1873),from Harper's Weekly. The very piece in which was used as comparison to date “ Old Mill”. Cikovsky writes “suited to the tasks and culture of factory work. The situation depicted in Old Mill is, however, precisely the opposite. As one wrote, "that comes over us (there is no use in denying it) when we hear the bell calling us away from repose that tired nature loudly claims-the feeling, that we are obliged to go.(Cikovsky, 14). He later deepens this argument by stating “[T]o be called and to be dismissed by the ringing of a bell, savors of compulsion and slavery, and cannot cease to produce mortification.They are driven like slaves, to and from their work, for fourteen hours in each day, and dare not disobey the calls of the factory bell."(Cikovsky, 14) What these quotes mean is the true symbolism of the piece “Old Mill”. “Old Mill”’s symbolism is a comment on the implication of factory work on women of the 1870’s. It is a comment on the manipulation of time and

In the poem “William Street” Slessor explores the poverty within the streets of Kings Cross that demonstrates the everyday struggles that people within the community go through searching for employment. This is shown through, “the dips and molls with flip and shiny glaze (death at their elbows, hunger at their heels)” uses imagery and slang to depict the criminal activity due to poverty. This creates a visual representation of the pickpockets, drunks and

In Florence Kelley’s speech she states ”Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy”(Kelley 18). She delivered this speech in front of the National American Woman Suffrage Association to bring attention to the two million children who are working in order to help support their family. Kelley continues to point out the flaws within the government as their are not many regulations that protect these children. She also talks about women suffrage during the time. For example she expands on how women can not vote and then points out of mother would vote for

This glaring contrast between imagination and reality—between the imagined world of the song and the horrifying world of the slave—evokes an overwhelming sense of horror. How can one not recognize the desperation in these escapist songs? The dichotomy between freedom and imagined freedom is the very reason why the slave song cannot be a “happy” one.

Smith-Yackel’s essay illustrates the grieving process while on a phone call with the Social Security Office to collect potential benefits from her mother's passing. While placed on hold, she reflects the life her mother had lived. During this period of reflection, this is when Smith-Yackel exemplifies the use of imagery within a narrative. She creates vivid images about the hardships her mother once faced. For instance, when her mother and father first got married, they began farming. Farming created a wide variety of new tasks, “She carried water nearly a quarter of a mile from the well to fill her wash boilers in order to do her laundry on a scrub board” (Smith-Yackel 115). Her mother had to not only become physically fit but mentally fit in order to take on the challenges their farm created. Her mother was relentless in making sure her children were well taken care of. In another section of the narrative, imagery is used once again to show the sacrifices her mother made. Smith-Yackel states, “In the winter, she sewed night after night, endlessly, begging cast-off clothing from relatives, ripping apart coats, dresses, blouses, and trousers to remake them to fit her four daughters son” (Smith-Yackel 116). On top of all the other chores their mother did during the day, she also worked through the night to ensure her family’s comfort. Also, another rhetorical strategy within

Before reading this poem one doesn't completely realize the details and stories behind an object as basic as a shirt. I had no idea that so much detail could be found in such a simple object, much less an entire poem. This poem presents a very good example of how we can easily overlook terrible things which happen, but choose to ignore. Even though we know bad working conditions exist in small countries which produce products we need, we choose to buy these products and support the inhumane working conditions. The poem does a good job of making us aware of the hardships people when through in the past years and opens of eyes in part of history for example, the Triangle shirtwaist fire.

The author of A Pair of Silk Stockings explores female roles based on what other people believe due to stereotypes. In this short story Mrs. Sommers finds $15 which is a sizable about of money to her in New York. She and her family are on the poorer side of New York. At first Mrs. Sommers has no clue on what she should do the money she had just come to. She is thinking about her children and that they could use new skirls because she had seen a beautiful new pattern in a market window, or caps for her boys and sailor-caps for her girls (Chopin 1). She thought of them due to the fact that that is what mothers and wives do in the 1800’s, they but their children and husband before thinking of themselves. She thought back to the time when she wasn’t

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard is caught in a cold marriage and a constrictive house. The same goes for Sarah Penn in Mary Wilkins Freeman “The Revolt of “Mother.’” Despite the fact that both stories share the topics of imprisonment and control, physically and inwardly, the ladies in the stories have diverse responses to their circumstances. Sarah battles the confinements without holding back, taking her opportunity, while Mrs. Mallard adopts a motionless strategy and is just liberated through the death of Mr. Mallard.

The novel is set during the Victorian era and explores the social norms, beliefs and values of popular Victorian society. The setting alternates between the east European Transylvania which represents the world as it was before the scientific and Industrial Revolution, and Victorian London where the effects of science and technological progress are evident in the social and intellectual zeitgeist of the period.

“I Stand Here Ironing” written by Tillie Olsen is a short story that reflects on the struggles of a single mother who looks back on the past and tries to assess the effect her decisions and circumstances had on her young daughter, Emily. “This story is part of the awarding-winning collection, Tell Me A Riddle, which was first published in 1961” (Wolfe). “This story is considered the most autobiographical of Olsen’s literary works (Piedmont-Marton). The title of the story is taken from the stories opening line, “I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron” (Bauer, Olsen). The story is one of the best examples in literature, and certainly one of the first, to offer readers a glimpse into the lives of the working-class women and families from a woman’s perspective. (Piedmont-Marton) This story “illustrates Olsen’s particular concern with the difficulties faced by women”. (Wolfe) As the story unfolds, Olsen uses distinct character traits, imagery, tone, and style to create a dramatic sense of the mother’s internal debate of her own feelings.

In Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, the simmering tension between the striking mill workers of Milton and their employer John Thornton come to a head in Chapter 22 “A Blow and its Consequences”. The millhands, enraged at Thornton’s hiring of Irish workers while they are on strike, descend in a mob upon Thornton’s mill and home. This chapter is also pivotal in the relationship between Thornton and the novel’s principal character Margaret Hale. In the novel, Gaskell parallels the conflict between Thornton and his workers with the conflict between Thornton and Margaret. Both relationships erupt in this chapter leading to consequences throughout the rest of the novel.

The short stanzas containing powerful imagery overwhelm the readers forcing them to imagine the oppression that the speaker went through in