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Prompt 1
Prompt 1
Society Rules
Society Rules
π₯"Sometimes that was enough in society, to have that much money. Sometimes it wasn't. Miss Millhouse was very eager for Jane to understand all the rules and unspoken rules of society. But the rules mostly made Jane feel like she was about to break out in hives." (39)
π₯"Why isn't Miss Millhouse accompanying you?" (63).
π₯"But she felt guilty, as if Father wouldn't approve if he knew the whole truth" (64).
π₯"(What did father think of women's rights?) Or if he knew that she and Eleanor and Eleanor's friends had gone to an ice cream parlor afterward that maybe wasn't perfectly clean and wasn't perfectly socially acceptable" (64).
π₯"Ever since her father had forbidden her to go to college, everything seemed like a cage" (91).Β
π₯ "'Surely you realize that would be much too dangerous for a girl!' Surely she did. Surely she realized exactly how many ways she was caged" (94).
π₯"She was supposed to be as easily controlled as an ashtray" (194).
π₯"Go home. Tell your father you love him no matter what. Tell him you just feel sorry for the poor girls who don't have wonderful, rich fathers like him. You play your cards right, I'm sure he'll come around!" (202).
The Weaker Sex
The Weaker Sex
π₯"'My father says college is too taxing for a girl's delicate constitution. Not to mention that education would be completely wasted on a female'" (42).
π₯"Does she perhaps have a brother?" (65).
π₯"'We'll have to be very careful with this matter,' father said. 'It will be important for you to make a good match. Something like that could make a big difference in my business'" (67).
π₯"So- marrying me off could make a big difference in his business? Jane thought. What about the difference it would make in my life? He does think I'm chattel just something to trade for something else he wants more!" (67).
π₯"'College?' Father growled as though he'd never heard of such a thing, even though he had his own Yale diploma hanging on his wall" (p68).
π₯"'Why, that's preposterous,' he said. 'Almost as preposterous as women wanting to vote'" (68).
π₯"Somehow it made Jane feel that he'd always see her as he saw her when she was five: a frilly, useless, annoying girl in a frilly, useless, annoying dress" (69).
Privileges of Social Class
Privileges of Social Class
π₯"'Don't worry,' Miss Pike said, because some of the other girls were looking a little pale as well. 'The police have been very respectful of us. It's just those poor factory girls...'" (116).
π₯"Do you know what it is like to work in a shirtwaist factory?' Yetta asked [...] What can I do? I'm just one girl" (119).
π₯"This was something Jane could relate to. Being locked in was like being caged" (120.)
π₯ "Jane had been thinking, Those are such small amounts of money; what are they talking about? Until Bella chimed in with their salaries, which were small too" (216).
π₯"It was strange: What was poverty to Jane was untold riches to Bella" (222).
π₯"I'm not some ignorant immigrant shirtwaist girl, frightened out of her wits. I can think about this logically and reasonably" (299).
π₯"The tragedy of the workers' condition threatens us all. Jane had heard the Vassar suffragist say that during the shirtwaist strike, back when Jane was just a foolish rich girl in a frilly dress. She hadn't understood the words then, any more than she understood the fire now (303).Β
π₯"All of them were dying together" (304).Β
Prompt 2
Prompt 2
Timid and Naive
Timid and Naive
π₯"He didn't forbid it. He just called women's colleges preposterous, and you were scared to say anything else" (92).
π₯"Jane had not supposed that it would be any different than that, working in a factory. But she hadn't really thought about it before" (119).
π₯For the first time in her life, Jane grasped the handle of the car door herself, opening and shutting it without her driver's assistance" (139).
π₯"But Jane crept timidly away when the police came; she'd done nothing but watch" (140).
π₯"Without maids, she was as helpless as a five-year-old" (213).
π₯"'I'm not like you,' she said. 'I'm not brave and courageous and strong [...] I'm useless. I was raised to be totally dependent on others'" (217).
π₯"Jane clutched her shoulders. 'Where do we go? What do we do?' Jane asked (287).
π₯"Look! she wanted to tell someone. I did this! I didn't fall into a dead faint at the horror of it all! I didn't scream hysterically for a servant or a man to help me! I put out the fire all on my own!" (299).
Growing Respect for Workers
Growing Respect for Workers
π₯"This time Jane saw beyond their ragged clothes [....] These girls didn't just look cold and grim. They looked determined" (116).
π₯"Even then, behind bars, with blood and whiskey and spittle smeared across her face, Yetta held her head as high and proud as an Astor, as a Vanderbilt, as the loftiest society grande dame" (121).
π₯"Bella and Yetta aren't vagrants,' Jane said stoutly. 'They're working girls'" (160).
π₯"Suddenly she could see how all the glitter and elegance, all the excess and opulence, had been built on the backs of workers like Bella and Yetta, workers calling out for justice" (198).Β
π₯"But another voice in Jane's head, the one that was getting stronger, said that it was incredibly kind of Sadie-across-the-hall to loan her best hat to a stranger" (223).
π₯"I'm Jane Wellington. I'm from a rich family. I'm the Blank girls' governess. I'm planning to go to college. I'm due a grand tour of Europe. What did any of that matter? Why was her life worth more than anyone else's?" (301).
Growing Awareness of Class Struggle
Growing Awareness of Class Struggle
π₯"They craved luxuries too. They were poor girls, but they were still girls; they wanted the frilly dresses and ruffly skirts and glorious hats that Jane had always taken for granted" (222).Β
π₯"Were you starving back in Russia, like Bella was in Italy? Did you live in fear of being killed because you were Jewish, like Rahel and Yetta? Were you a shirtwaist girl when you first came to America? Did you work in a sweatshop? Did you live in a tenement?"(225).Β
π₯"What was she going to say? I'm Jane Wellington. I'm from a rich family. I'm the Blank girls' governess. I'm planning to go to college. I'm due a grand tour of Europe. What did any of that matter? Why was her life worth more than anyone else's?" (301).Β
π₯ "The tragedy of the workers' condition threatens us all. Jane had heard the Vassar suffragist say that during the shirtwaist strike, back when Jane was just a foolish rich girl in a frilly dress. She hadn't understood the words then, any more than she understood the fire now (303).Β
π₯"She'd learned to appreciate a single red rose with Yetta and Bella (304).Β
Finding her Voice/ Taking ResponsibilityΒ
Finding her Voice/ Taking ResponsibilityΒ
π₯"I did something! Finally! For once I'm not just standing around watching..." (140).
π₯"'Miss Milhouse! [...] You... are... fired!'" (161).
π₯"Jane had forgotten about the whole rigmarole of presenting an engraved name card, of waiting to find out whether a friend was 'at home' to receive guests- it all seemed so unbearably ridiculous that Jane didn't even feel embarrased" (199).
π₯"Jane could hear what Miss Millhouse would say to Jane now" (212).Β
π₯"I need money. Money of my own" (215).
π₯"I don't know if anyone would hire me as a governess. But I will try. I will try" (220).Β
π₯"Jane stamped out the fire licking at the bottom of her skirt. And then she was so proud of herself: Look! She wanted to tell someone. I did this! " (299).Β
π₯"I did not fall into a dead faint at the horror of it all. I did not scream hysterically for a servant or a man to help me I put out the fire all on my own!" (299).Β
π₯"'I will not think your thoughts anymore, Miss Millshouse!' she screamed, her voice miraculously back again" (300).
π₯"Jane made sure that she moved her hand to the top of the pile, so that anyone who found them would see her signet ring, would see that it wasn't just poor people who died" (303).
π₯"She'd gone from lying uselessly in bed, to standing on the picket line watching, to taking in Bella. And then she'd stood up for herself, she'd taught Harriet and Millicent- Oh, Lord, I hope I taught them something-" (304).Β
π₯"I am finished, Jane thought, but it wasn't like she was giving up. Giving up would have been marrying whatever boy her father picked out for her, drinking tepid tea the rest of her life with women she didn't even like. This was more like a blaze of glory, seeing all her choices tallied up, seeing what her life had meant" (304).
π₯"I was alive, she thought. I lived. I mattered" (304).Β
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