Lyddie Analysis

Imagine how it feels, having a delusional mother, being abandoned by your father at the age of 13, and being the only one your siblings can look up to. Your hands are tied and you're forced to work in a feeble attempt to keep the thread your entire family is hanging by, intact. Well that's exactly what happens in Lyddie by Katherine Paterson. After her father left in search of “vain riches”, Lydia Worthen must now take charge as head of the family, which means she has to work to pay off her father’s debts. To do so, she goes to work at the Lowell Mills, with an unwavering ambition to reunite her family. At the mills Lyddie befriends Diana, a young woman that’s working towards better working conditions by getting signatures for a petition. Lyddie is reluctant to sign, fearing that she’ll jeopardize her job. I say it’s worth it, because honestly, what has she got to lose?
Betsy has already succumbed to sickness and Diana’s been crippled by the factory’s own abhorrent disease. Maybe if Betsy’s job was less strenuous and she had more time off she would’ve had a different fate, how many more girls must submit before Lyddie, or anybody, realizes a change must be made? By simply offering her signature Lyddie will be paving the way for girls like her, revolutionizing, and bringing honor to the life of a factory girl.
Worst case scenario she gets blacklisted and has to forfeit her job, so what? What does she have left to work for? Her mother is dead, her own brother abandoned her and took Rachel with him, so what’s the point? Perhaps this is Lyddie’s blessing, she’s no longer duty-bound to pay off the debts so she can finally live her life for herself now. Though she may no longer have the farm, she can always marry Luke Stevens, a wealthy and kind-hearted