Life In The Iron Mills Analysis

When conducting research about an author, it is crucial to understand why and what the author is writing about. Literary realism depicts things as they truly are, which is exactly what my chosen author, Rebecca Harding Davis, did when she wrote. Growing up, Davis worked hard to pursue her education despite the ideal that women should work solely in the household. Davis fought for social changes with minority groups such as african americans, women, the working class, etc., and I find it admirable that she did not attempt to sugar-coat what was happening among these groups. The two novels that I have selected for my Research Project include Davis’s most famous work, Life in the Iron Mills, and Margret Howth. Published in April of 1861, Life in the Iron Mills startled readers everywhere as Davis depicted the horrible situations mill workers were placed in. When conducting this research paper, I think that I will be addressing how this piece of literary realism prompted a change in working conditions. Furthermore, I will also be addressing some other connections with literary realism historically and the effects that they had on society. For example, in
Davis’s Life in the Iron Mills describes the dreadful working conditions of immigrants and I will be making connections with how immigrants are still experiencing oppression today and how literary realism has prompted changes throughout history. Furthermore, analysing Davis’s Margret Howth I will be discussing the oppression of women back in that time period and comparing it to the oppression of women today with explanations of how literary realism also prompted a change within the women minority. Both of these novels have similar goals to reflect the oppression of minority groups and I think it will be interesting to look at these pieces of realism and see how they affected