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| "The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes)," (1872-1875) by Adolph Menzel Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany. |
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Happy ending?
. . . the setting was
. . . desolate. . . as Davis notes, there was “not air, nor green
fields, nor curious roses,” but after his end, old Hugh Wolfe’s blood runs
free, and true, colored, and surely, it yields his escape from the mill, from
the darkness, from the colorlessness he knew in life. “There was coming now
quiet and coolness and sleep. His tense limbs relaxed, and settled in a calm
languor. The blood ran fainter and slow from his heart. He did not think now
with a savage anger of what might be and was not; he was conscious only of deep
stillness creeping over him. At first he saw a sea of faces: the
mill-men,–women he had known, drunken and bloated,–Janey’s timid and
pitiful-poor old Debs: then they floated together like a mist, and faded away,
leaving only the clear, pearly moonlight.”
Question: How are
we supposed to feel about Wolfe’s suicide at the end of the story?
Amusing?
Davis has the ability to create such well-crafted and vivid
scenes, for example “. . . He looked at the furnace-tender as he had looked at
a rare mosaic in the morning; only the man was the more amusing study of the
two.”
Question: Does art empower empathy or does
art objectify its subjects?
Pontius Pilate Christians
I was surprised to find so many references to the scriptures
in “Life in the Iron Mills,” as I was not expecting this to be a religious
text, considering the title.
“. . . the talk of social issues, such as slavery, and
blacks and whites come up often in the text, as well. The text even reads, “‘I
do not think. I wash my hands of all social problems,–slavery, caste, white or
black’” (Harding Davis). This is said by Kirby . . .
Compare with Matthew 27:24: “When
Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he
took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of
the blood of this just person: see ye to it.” King James Version (KJV)
Consider: Luke 16:19-31 (“Lazarus and the Rich Man”)
Question: What kind of Christianity does the text
endorse?
I am a canary
“Here, inside, is a little broken figure of an angel
pointing upward from the mantel-shelf; but even its wings are covered with
smoke, clotted and black. Smoke everywhere! A dirty canary chirps desolately in
a cage beside me. Its dream of green fields and sunshine is a very old dream,–almost
worn out, I think”.
To me, the complexity and tragic [beauty] of the story is
summed up in this sentence. We see reflections of Hugh and Deb in the canary
[:] their aspirations being dashed before their eyes. For Hugh, he was taken
out of his cage by the gentlemen who visited the forge [, only] to be shoved
back in immediately. Hugh’s bird song is his [sculpture], his feeble [attempt]
at beauty in a barren cage. The dirt that is on Hugh’s wings is the system in
which he was raised. Deb has a different set of circumstances. Her bird song is
the love and kindness that she continues to offer to Hugh. The dirt that clings
to her is the same system, but it hates her.
If your eyes are as free as mine . . .
So many times, the author speaks directly to the audience,
asking thought-provoking questions and, oftentimes, questioning the audience’s
own morals in regard to this tragic story.
Consider: “I dare make my meaning no clearer, but will only tell my story. It will, perhaps, seem to you as foul and dark as this thick vapor about us, and as pregnant with death; but if your eyes are free as mine are to look deeper, no perfume-tinted dawn will be so fair with promise of the day that shall surely come" (1278).
Question: Why might the author choose not to make
her meaning clearer?
The American Way
The way Davis paints her story is beautifully
horrifying: “Fire in every horrible
form: pits of flame waving in the wind; liquid metal-flames writhing in
tortuous streams through the sand; wide caldrons filled with boiling fire, over
which bent ghastly wretches stirring the strange brewing; and through all,
crowds of half-clad men, looking like revengeful ghosts in the red light,
hurried, throwing masses of glittering fire. It was like a street in Hell.”
This excerpt describing the iron mills captures the tormenting labor of the
19th century. I think Davis wrote this as a call to action as she saw a country
failing to recognize the humanity in one another, which is why her description
is not earthly. The idea in America is that we all have equal opportunity, and
all you have to do is work hard for success. It’s the “Pull yourself up by your
bootstrap” mentality. It’s a false hope promised to Americans to keep us going.
Society vs. The Human Spirit
I personally believe this passage serves as a very accurate
critique of both capitalism and the symptoms of a capitalistic society,
including how they have begun to affect things deeply sentimental to us, like
our identity. For example, there aren’t many identity options available to
someone living the following life[:] “I look on the slow stream of human life
creeping past, night and morning, to the great mills. Masses of men, with dull,
besotted faces bent to the ground, sharpened here and there by pain or cunning;
skin and muscle and flesh begrimed with smoke and ashes; stooping all night
over boiling caldrons of metal, laired by day in dens of drunkenness and
infamy; breathing from infancy to death an air saturated with fog and grease
and soot, vileness for soul and body” ([Davis]).
It’s interesting to see that both passages we were assigned
to read seemed to place some emphasis on how much societal life seems to break
down the human spirit, like with Ishmael’s need to leave for sea and the dreary
dread the mine workers live their lives through.
Workers of the World Unite
Davis intended … "to make [readers]understand just how
hopeless and worn-out the immigrant laborers were. How wretched the conditions
they had to live and were in were. In doing this, she was aiming to shine a
light on how the immigrant laborers were being exploited by major industrial
factories. During the time that she published this book, in 1860, there [were]
millions of people just like that, being worked to death in factories. However,
It was taken by society as the norm. They accepted it as it was, because it
kept the economy going. The immigrant laborers were overworked and underpaid,
but in the name of capitalism it was accepted. In writing this book, Davis
challenged the idea that this was necessary and acceptable. By shining light on
the situation millions were enduring, she opened a new doorway for realism in
literature. As well as questions of if this was something that should be
allowed to continue.“
Consider: Marxism
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