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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lyddie, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bravery, Endurance, and Hope
Labor, Enslavement, and Racial Prejudice
Biological Family vs. Found Family
Written Language and Power
Gender Inequality
Summary
Analysis
Though Lyddie cannot get Betsy’s chant out of her head (“I will not be a slave”), she will not align herself with the radicals. Lyddie distances herself from Diana, and when the “ten-hour people” start putting out a newspaper, Lyddie does her best never to read it. Sometimes, Betsy mocks Lyddie for being so desperate for money that she refuses to listen to the protestors. Lyddie, embarrassed, recalls all she has been through: the poor-farm and Agnes and the bear.
Almost subconsciously, Lyddie seems to agree with Betsy and Diana’s clarity about the injustice of the mills. But Lyddie is so terrified by her past—the threat of poverty, the loss of her sibling, and the symbolic threat of the bear—that she cannot trust her own instincts, instead doubling down on her work and distancing herself from the colleagues she cares about most.
Themes
Lyddie writes letters to Mama and Charlie, showing off her new spelling and grammar skills. Lyddie also sends a dollar to Mama for Rachel. Lyddie is careful to call Charlie by his full name, knowing he must feel grown-up now. But as she signs off to Charlie—writing “we can still hop”—Lyddie gets a blob of ink on the letter, and she decides not to send it after all.
On the one hand, Lyddie wants to be hopeful (or “hopful”), trying to reconnect with Charlie despite his lack of a response. But Lyddie still feels so much shame, having been denied the education that Charlie (perhaps because of his maleness) has more easily received. As it did before, Lyddie’s lack of perfect literacy thus directly correlates to her isolation.
Themes
The looms speed up, and Mr. Marsden gives Lyddie a fourth loom to tend. Now, Lyddie is too tired to read or even attempt to go to church. Lyddie doesn’t notice that the food is less plentiful now, or that the potatoes taste moldy. And she barely even notices the way Mr. Marsden keeps looking at her or touching her arms.
Themes
Betsy, who is working to pay her brother’s tuition at Harvard, is eager finish at the factory—her brother is almost done with school, and then it will be her turn to go to college at Oberlin. Before Betsy goes, she wants to sign Diana’s petition. Amelia pleads with her not to, and Lyddie, too, asks Betsy to stay. But Betsy just laughs: “I’d be gone a month and a half before you’d even notice,” she tells Lyddie.
Themes
Get the entire Lyddie LitChart as a printable PDF.
The overseers get offered premiums for girls who produce more, so the machines get even faster, and it gets harder to take time off. Many of the original girls quit, and they are replaced by Irish immigrants who live in the Acre, far from the boardinghouses. The Acre is rundown, not part of the tours businessmen give to foreign dignitaries of the “model” manufacturing city of Lowell.
Themes
By December, Lyddie believes all the mean rumors about the new girls—that they “[breed] like wharf rats” and wear dirty clothes—and she is hesitant to help train them, even as Diana patiently teaches each new girl about the machines. There are two deaths at nearby mills, both accidents born of poor working conditions.
Themes
Girls at Concord start getting injured, too. Diana takes up a collection for these girls’ medical fees, but Lyddie cannot bear to part with any of the money she is so desperate to save. Christmas comes and goes, and Lyddie does not get any gifts (other than a note from Triphena, thanking Lyddie for repaying the loan).
Themes
One day, Lyddie’s mind wanders at work, and before she knows it, she is lying on the floor; groggily, she realizes she has been hit in the head by a flying shuttle. Diana arrives, asking Lyddie if her stomach hurts and if she can see. To stanch Lyddie’s bleeding, Diana rips her apron, though Lyddie protests (“aprons cost money”). Lyddie falls asleep, and when she comes to, she sees a handsome doctor—the man she’d seen Diana with months ago.
Themes
