“This is what I want you to do. I want you to hide your disgust, take no heed to your clean clothes, and come right down with me.”
“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.” Rebecca Harding Davis.
In the story “Life in The Iron Mill,” the author Rebecca Harding Davis describes how money has a crucial rule in the American society and how a nation can pay for it. From a window of her residence, the speaker describes the sights, sounds, and smells of the polluted industrial atmosphere in the nineteen century. By her description, the reader pictures the town and the streets like “hell” as she says herself. The quote above, expresses the speakers feeling about the industrialization and capitalism in the society. I feel that the reader has a sense that the speaker is almost screaming, asking for help.
The difference of the social class also creates a notable division between the poor, powerless workers and the powerful, businesspeople and professionals. Davis tries to point out since the beginning, how it is to work and live in “Iron Hill”, focusing on industrial work, poverty, capitalism and exploration of the immigrants. The speaker describes the characters as uneducated and lower class immigrants, working hard in this industry and having a miserable life. Deb,which in the story tries to make justice and help her cousin, in the story is described couple of times as “hungry” but her hunger is not for food, her soul starves for love, change and respect. Unfortunately, the story shows that many people, talented men, women, has no place in the society, has no opportunities or any chance to do what they want and like. Instead, they are forced to retend to be someelse, life by the rules, and be just another worker in the Iron-Mills industry.
