American Literature

Fanny Ferns the Working Girls of New York reveals the terrible condition of women workers during her era to which she described this condition as extremely terrible that no one would spend even five minutes in that room where these women were working. According to the author, You could not stay five minutes in that room where the noise of the machinery used is so deafening and the room they occupy is close and unventilated, with no accommodations for personal cleanliness (Fern 220). With very clear and perhaps with first hand knowledge of the condition of the working girls, Fern provided a concrete image of the working condition faced by American working women not only in New City, but through America during this period. But was Ferns depiction of the past working condition appropriate In order to answer this question, this paper will compare and contrast the two articles, one being Ferns Working-girls of New York and the other is Rebecca Harding Davies Life in the Iron Mills. In this work, Rebecca Harding Davies depicted the lives of people in the claws of poverty. This paper therefore will attempt to compare and contrast these two authors especially on their views on the existing realities and how they expressed these views in their respective works. At the onset, these writers depicted differing perspective on the existing realities of life during this period, but both portrayed the struggles that these people were treading.

Similarities between these writers
One of the similarities between these authors have been in the context by which they dramatized the hard realities those people in abject poverty was confronting. Both author depicted the oppressive atmosphere by which women were subjected and were utterly dominated by the circumstances reduced their rights as a person to the level of the inhuman condition. Both author also portrayed the tolerance of the society regarding the exploitation on the working women by the capitalist through their utter disregard of the womens health condition as most of these working girls worked in an atmosphere where ventilation is poor, sanitations were virtually non existent, were working longer hours, and most importantly they were portrayed as classless people. Though Davies seemed to differ with Ferns in her portrayal of the realities which women faced, but ultimately, like Ferns, she vividly portrayed that women were victims of the existing conditions which were terribly oppressive to women during their time. Davies stated, If you could go into this mill where Deborah lay, and drag out from the hearts of these men the terrible tragedy of their lives, taking it as a symptom of the disease of their class, no ghost horror would terrify you more. A reality of soul-starvation, of living death, that meets you everyday under the besotted faces on the street(Davies, 19). Davies depicted the women condition in the character of Deborah in the same way Ferns depicted the women condition in the character of Lezzy and the twenty five working women.

Another similarity between these two authors was in their depiction of the character of the women in their respective works. Ferns described the character of the working women as determined, hardworking, and focused. They were undistracted by the extremely poor working condition, by the noise of the machineries, and by the utter lack of personal necessities. Ferns herself was amazed by such determination as she expressed it as follows, Why these young creatures bear it, from seven in the morning till seven in the evening week after week, month after month, with only half an hour at mid day to eat their dinner of a slice of bread and butter or an apple which they usually eat in the building, some of them come a long a distance (Ferns, 221). This description of the working womens character was much by Davies description of the character of Deborah wherein, even in the midst of a heavy rain would go to bring food to a starving relative. Though the context differs, yet the women character being described depicts strength, determination, and focus.

Finally, both author described the grinding poverty which was greatly affecting women more than men. That is, the lack of recognition of womens rights relegated women to a very low status. They were inferior with men, stricken with poverty, and uneducated. For her part, Ferns depicted that the only hope of women to escape from her predicament was, if she could marry a stable man, unfortunately, this also proved unreliable as couple often end up in a quick separation. While Davies seemed to have not offered any solution to the grinding poverty which women suffer, she also clearly depicted the impact of poverty on women more than on men. Quite contrary with how Ferns sees the general condition between men and women living in an atmosphere of poverty, Davies sees that men like women also suffers poverty in the same degree with women. Davies stated Nature had promised the man but little. He had already lost the strength and instinct vigor of a man, his face, (a meek, womans face) haggard, yellow with consumption (22). But generally, both see the impact of poverty on women more than on men.  

Their differences
There were quite a number of differences how these two authors come up with own views regarding the existing condition during their respective period. Among these differences is the context by which they based their writings. In the case of Ferns, she was particularly concern on the literal condition of the working women during her era. Judith Harper pointed out that, The rapid industrialization of the war years created economic conditions and labor practices that decreased womens earning power (236). Harper stressed that during this period, women earned less than fifty percent of the wages men received for the same work. Harper stressed, Falling wages and harsh practices pushed women to collaborate to demand higher wages and better working conditions (236).

The condition therefore which Ferns depicted was a real scenario wherein both the society and the government tolerated the harsh and unfair practices which factories and companies applied to their women employees. Davies on the other hand, though was also depicting the harsh realties which women faces during this time, she was not actually talking of an actual scenario. Hers was more on figurative description of the realities.

Another difference was that Fern was particularly talking about the condition of the working women while Davies was simply depicting the general scenario in which she seemed to imply that of the impact of the grinding poverty among poor people, women were more affected and suffers more, whereas, Ferns exclusively talked about the condition of working girls only in New York. Thus, the context by which Ferns was talking was the condition of women in the work place and not in the general sense. In this case, Fern was more specific and very particular in her discussion. Her ideas were clear and straightforward in the sense that she has a concrete knowledge of the situation she was depicting. Davies for her part seemed to have had some degree of difficulties in depicting the condition which has portrayed. In some sense, her ideas was not so straightforward or clear enough although one can have an impression that she was actually talking of the general impact of poverty among the poor people.

Finally, these authors differ in the way they convey their message. Apparently, Ferns was more concern on the nature of the problem these working young women faced. That is, the message being conveyed seemed to be that the problem can be solved easily yet it was tolerated and accepted as the norm of the industrialization. In this sense, it appears that though Ferns noted the conditions of women during this period, she seemed to also accept the existing mind set that the working condition of women in New York was indeed, because even there were laws and labor regulations regarding the work place condition, these were not followed but the practice of the factories of strict labor policies of longer working hours, poorly ventilated building, lower salaries, fines for lower production, etc, were the norms of Industrialization. Davies on the other hand seemed to convey a message that poverty is endemic and its effect was devastating on both men and women and that many are living in abject poverty. Hence, the context by which these two authors demonstrated their ideas was in a sense, opposite, one discussing the general condition of people in poverty during this period and the other discussing the particular context of working girls.

While there are similarities and differences between these two writers, they obviously presented important discussions through which the present generations can have a glimpse of what was the condition of the American people during the middle of the early and nineteenth century. These conditions indeed, can help every American to realize the struggles of the early forefathers in order to give the present generations the comforts they now enjoy. Through this, they might learn to value hard work, the prosperity, and the freedom which every Americans enjoys. Furthermore, the discussion opens ones mind to the fact that the great industrializations which America has achieved during this period was achieved through hard work, through perseverance, through discipline, and importantly, through sheered values of determination to achieved the goals.

In view of this, these writers not only provided the present generation with a picture of the past, but also of the vision for the future. That through their hard work and determination, they can also achieved what has been achieved by their forefathers.