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Prompt 1
Prompt 1
Working Class
Working Class
π₯"Who hasn't been charged for the electricity, for thread, for needles? Who hasn't been charged for torn shirtwaists that the contractor himself ripped?" (59).
π₯"This wasn't quite living either- spending her life hunched over a machine, a supervisor always yelling at her, the work always piling up" (60).
π₯"In the factory, she was little more than a machine herself" (60).
π₯"Don't you know anything? In America, money is God" (86).Β
π₯"'But the New York Times mainly just wrote about Miss Dreier being arrested,' Rahel said bitterly. 'Poor girls being arrested don't count'" (104).
π₯"'He can make up any excuse he wants but if he doesn't want to pay me what I am owed, he doesn't have to. What can I do? I'm just one girl" (page 119).
π₯"She needed food to be able to think clearly enough to decide how to buy food" (134).
π₯"Please, you were once poor immigrants yourself..." (134).
π₯"'You couldn't pay me any amount of money to live in that house, with that woman,' Yetta said. 'A million dollars wouldn't be enough!'" (165).
Not Taken Seriously as a Girl
Not Taken Seriously as a Girl
π₯"'Oh, you know they'd never let a girl be in charge,' she said. 'Those big union men, they look at us like we've got fluff for brains, and they pat our heads and say, 'Now, now, you know it's impossible to organize girls. They're just working for pin money, working until they get married. Girls can't be depended on in a union'" (59).
π₯"Her parents and the matchmaker would have married her off to someone just for the status he could bring her family" (60).Β
π₯"The strike leaders had decided that it was best to have the girls picket, because they would attract the most sympathy" (81).Β
π₯"It was all of a piece, somehow, with the men back in her shtetl praying, 'Thank you, God, for not making me a woman.' Men thought women were worthless, stupid, easily cowed (90).Β
π₯"You can't fire me! You're just a girl. You're nothing. Just a big of fluff your father's going to use to marry off, to enhance his business. That's all you're worth. That's all any girl is worth. That's why these girls' -she gestured condescendingly at Yetta and Bella- 'these girls are worthless'" (162).
π₯"Back home, girls weren't supposed to learn much about religion. We were just supposed to keep the house and fix the food and earn the money so the men could be holy enough for all of us" (170).
π₯"'But what if I want to vote all by myself? Cast my own ballot?' Yetta asked. 'Stand on my own two feet? It's like... dancing. Why does the man always get to lead?'" (238).
Attacked on the Picket Line
Attacked on the Picket Line
π₯"'Leave the workers alone!' one of the women screamed, slamming her fist directly into Yetta's jaw" (84).
π₯"But the woman pulled out Yetta's own hat pin, from Rahel's beautiful hat, and stabbed it into Yetta's arm" (84).
π₯"But she'd never been in a fight like this herself" (85).
π₯"She kept trying to push the women away, but they were right back at her, right away, punch after punch after punch..." (85).
π₯"'Wait a minute! That's not fair!' Yetta complained. 'They attacked me! I didn't do anything to them! Look- which of us is bleeding?'" (85).
π₯"The policeman jerked on the handcuffs. Making them rub against Yetta's sore wrists. 'You're a striker, aren't you?' he asked. 'Yes, but-' The policeman looked back and forth between Yetta and the prostitutes. 'Then I can't see much of a difference'" (85).
Prompt 2
Prompt 2
Views on Voting (Suffrage) Changing
Views on Voting (Suffrage) Changing
π₯ "Yetta was starting to come around to the suffragists' point of view. If these women could vote, they would vote to help her. And if Yetta herself could vote..." (150).
π₯"Back home I couldn't have chosen my own husband. And here I'm thinking about choosing presidents, governors, mayors, laws..." (151).
π₯ "'How can I join your cause?' Yetta begged. 'How can I help?' [...] Yetta gave out the flyers until they were all gone" (250).Β
Stubbornly Determined
Stubbornly Determined
π₯"Somebody has to tell the ninth floor!' she screamed back. 'I have to!'" (276).
π₯"But oh, God, I tried so hard, I wanted so much to change the world..." (298).Β
Gratitude Before Death
Gratitude Before Death
π₯"Yetta felt a surge of gratitude for the firemen who angled the net so carefully, who ran to the exact right spot to catch two immigrant workers falling from the sky. These men were trying to hard to save her life" (298).
Views on Society Women ChangingΒ
Views on Society Women ChangingΒ
π₯"'But the New York Times mainly just wrote about Miss Dreier being arrested,' Rahel said bitterly. 'Poor girls being arrested don't count [...] the police released her at the station right away" (104).Β
π₯ "Yetta was sick of society women and college girls. They came down to the picket line in their fancy cars, cooing and simpering and wrinkling their noses in distaste [...] as if the strike were being put on just for their entertainment" (132).Β
π₯"There was, actually, one outside girl who'd shown up at the strike that Yetta liked [...] Yetta liked it that Jane knew that, that she understood that the strike was for the strikers, not society women who were just bored with trying on dresses and throwing parties and whatever else society women did" (133).Β
π₯"Yetta decided she liked this Inez" (152).
π₯"She has this huge room. And she feels left out and jealous just because she doesn't understand two immigrant girls speaking Yiddish? Suddently Yetta didn't feel so bad about the holes in her boots (158).
Negative Views on Scabs
Negative Views on Scabs
π₯ "They were so rabbity, Yetta could almost feel sorry for them" (84).
π₯"'She's your fellow worker!' 'No- she's a scab!'" (150).
π₯"'You said yourself you don't think she understands about the strike or the union,' Rahel argued. 'We can't know the troubles she's seen- imagine, if that were our family'" (150).Β
Views on What's Possible Changing
Views on What's Possible Changing
π₯"I can walk the picket line for hours on end, she wanted to tell Jane. I can go without food. I can defy the bosses as long as they defy us. Or I can pick this girl up, soothe her in her grief, take care of her. Don't you see? I cannot do everything" (137).
π₯"What is wrong with me? Yetta wondered. Would it have killed me to say yes?" (236).
π₯"Jacob bowed to Yetta as elegantly as if they were about to launch themself to the floor instead of into thin air. He would have been a good dance partner, Yetta thought with an ache. And then they jumped" (297).Β
π₯"Oh Rahel, I am so sorry I was mean to you. I never met your baby, never gave your husband a chance... I shouldn't have expected you to be like me, shouldn't have thought we had to be the same... And oh, Jacob, what if I'd gone dancing with you sooner?" (298).
π₯"She saw now that so much more was possible than she'd ever believed. She could have danced at a thousand weddings, all at once" (298).
π₯"Oh, Bella, you were smart to go looking for love. And, Jane, you were looking for all the right things, too. But oh, God, I tried so hard, I wanted so much to change the world..." (298).
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