Problem
After reading Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis, discuss the following issues:
a) How does Harding tie her readers of whatever class, race, age, gender, and religion with the characters and events of her story? Why? What's her intent?
b) What role, if any, does art, artistry, and the artist, play in this story? Why? How do you know?
c) What mysteries or hidden messages does the story describe versus mysteries it resolves or solves? Why? How, and to what end?
d) What is the role of women in this work? Do women have a role in "bettering" the factory-workers lives? Are women central or marginal in this story? Why? How do you know?