109 pages • 3 hours read
Katherine PatersonLyddie
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1991A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Children’s Role in the Family
Lyddie has been forced to assume a level of responsibility uncommon to children even in her own historical period. While children of the 19th century frequently did have more household responsibilities and obligations to function as caregivers for their family members than their 21st-century counterparts, Lyddie is responsible for an exceptionally demanding set of expectations because of her father’s departure and her mother’s incapacitation.
Child labor was prevalent in both domestic and industrial contexts in the mid-19th century. Children were viewed as an extension of and as the property of their parents. It was common for children, especially in rural areas, to work and live outside the home when they reached a certain age and to devote their earnings to the common family good. In Lyddie’s case, she singlehandedly takes responsibility for becoming the head of household with her father gone and her mother a nonparticipator.
As the novel progresses, it becomes apparent that Lyddie is the only member of the Worthen family who cares about retaining the family farm. Lyddie learns early on that if she wants to hold onto her inheritance, it will be up to her to do so, and the efforts that she and Charlie make are a testament to what they can accomplish even at 10 and 13 years old. While her mother is unable to think of her children’s well-being, she does have the presence of mind to evict them from the farm so that she can profit from their labors. Mattie has no sense of loyalty with respect to how much effort Lyddie has put forth to ensure their survival up to this point, and no appreciation of the fact that Lyddie has earned the right to stay on the farm and ensure that it does not fall into disrepair. That Mattie’s letter asks for money before it informs Lyddie that her sister Agnes has died indicates Mattie’s priorities.
Lyddie, however, retains a sense of loyalty to and responsibility for her mother. Despite Mattie’s ineffectual parenting, Lyddie never considers returning to the farm with only her siblings and leaving her mother with Judah and Clarissa. Even after Judah tells Lyddie that they have confined Mattie to an asylum, Lyddie immediately says that she will collect her mother from the asylum when she is ready to go home. Lyddie seems to have an innate sense of duty that has not been derived from anything her parents have taught her.
Most of the women and children working in the mill live in boardinghouses because they are recruited from rural areas. The “mill girls” handle their own money in a way they could not if their employers were paying their wages to their parents. Although many of the workers send their earnings back home, Lyddie is working toward a goal she has set for herself. Given the prior arrangement with Cutler’s Tavern, as well as Judah and Clarissa’s documented greed, it is evident that Lyddie’s mother, aunt, and uncle would take all of the proceeds from her earnings if they could. However, Lyddie signed the contract with the Concord Corporation herself and receives her own wages. Still, Lyddie is loath to spend any of her earnings on small pleasures for herself; Oliver Twist is the first purchase she makes that is for sheer enjoyment. She saves as much money as she can, still with the mindset of the sole supporter of her family even though they have been scattered throughout New England. Betsy is in a position similar to Lyddie’s: she is laboring away to support her brother’s education at Harvard. Betsy is forced to put her own pursuit of education on hold, sacrificing her health and her future only to find that her brother is not as appreciative of her efforts as he should be.
There is a level of maturity and responsibility expected of children and young adults of this period that is not present in the 21st century. Rachel is very young when Lyddie wants to secure her a position as a doffer, but Lyddie and the other employees are not much older than she is. The fact that Rachel is accepted despite her age and her frailty speaks to the willingness of the mill to take for granted the youth of their employees. In many ways, Lyddie’s experience is typical, but in other ways it is an extreme example of what young people in the 19th century might encounter. Lyddie is remarkable in her tenacity and her ability to conquer all that she encounters despite her doubts, and her story is compelling because she both embodies and supersedes her peers.
Slavery and the Pursuit of Liberty
As a rural New Englander living in relative isolation for all of her 13 years at the beginning of the novel, Lyddie’s exposure to the notion of slavery is limited. Her mother is dismissive and suspicious of the Stevens family because they are abolitionists, but Paterson does not indicate that Lyddie has any feelings or opinions of her own when she first begins thinking about the concept of slavery. Her first thought on the matter is that she herself is somehow enslaved when she arrives at Cutler’s Tavern and knows that when she crosses the threshold, she will be in service to others without earning a wage.
Later, she learns about the $100 rewards that are being offered for reporting the whereabouts of people who have escaped slavery. A pivotal moment for Lyddie is when she meets Ezekial. Ezekial is the first Black person she has ever seen, let alone had a conversation with. Her immediate shame at considering that she might turn him in for the reward money indicates a conscience that is uniquely her own. Lyddie feels that her role at Cutler’s Tavern is exploitative, but when Ezekial suggests that there are similarities between Lyddie’s situation and his own, it makes her uncomfortable. His observation legitimizes what she was thinking on a deeper level, and from that point forward the notion of slavery is never far from her mind. One of the first books she purchases is Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, an indication of her interest in the experiences of someone who spent part of his life in slavery and wrote an honest account of that period. This purchase indicates Lyddie’s ongoing interest in understanding the experiences of enslaved people.
When Betsy sings the labor organization song about being unwilling to be a slave, Lyddie’s reaction is fierce because she equates her job at the mill with a kind of independence and self-determination. Lyddie does not see her job at the factory as a form of enslavement; she sees it as an opportunity to gain her freedom and to take full governance over what will happen to her farm. To hear Betsy make that comparison is an affront to her perception of having come a long way toward changing her fate since arriving in Lowell.
In a sense, though she has some interest in the subject, Lyddie doesn’t truly appreciate what enslavement means, nor will she ever. The comparisons she draws are a far cry from any possible estimation of the reality of living as an enslaved person in the American South. Despite her compassion and the value of drawing similarities between her experience and those of enslaved people, Lyddie is far from being able to empathize with those who have truly suffered this level of oppression. For Lyddie, there is a comparison between marrying Luke and surrendering her freedom, especially because of the connection she has to her family property and Luke’s future ownership of it. She is offended by the notion that marrying Luke would exchange her liberty for what she has wanted most in the world all her life. The irony of this comparison lies in the fact that the Stevens family is antislavery in the most sincere and active fashion as conductors on the Underground Railroad.
The Value of Education in Various Forms
Over the course of the novel, Lyddie pursues a literal education, in the sense that she strives to improve her literacy and begins to expand her exposure to literature and nonfiction. She is also educated by her experience of what life has to offer and the possible dangers it can hold. Lyddie’s growing understanding of the politics and dynamics of the entwined social and professional spheres she occupies allows her to assess and navigate the challenges she faces at the Concord Corporation. She learns these lessons through difficult and heartbreaking experiences, discovering where she can exert power over what happens to her and where she must use her cleverness to survive within social parameters that reinforce biases against her age, gender, and socioeconomic status.
Mr. Marsden is constantly watching the girls he oversees. He understands the social dynamics in the mill; he knows who is close with Diana and knows about her reputation as a social reformer. He targets Lyddie in part because he is aware of her dedication to and dependence on her job. Lyddie retaliates against his advances, but it never occurs to her to say anything about his behavior to any of her friends. She mentions it only after she becomes worried that stomping on his foot might cause her to lose her job, and even then it is not to issue a warning to her peers but out of concern that her job is at risk.
What happens when Lyddie intercedes for Brigid indicates a shift in where Lyddie’s values and loyalties lie. When Mr. Marsden accosts Brigid, he makes the mistake of approaching someone who has friends and for whom Lyddie has developed protective instincts. Lyddie, who has complied with every unrealistic demand from the factory without complaint, is finally pushed past her limit by the cumulative abuse of Mr. Marsden and the mill. Her decision to retaliate against Mr. Marsden by trapping his head in the water bucket expresses her values of freedom, power, bodily autonomy, social power, and gender all in one gesture.
In an echo of selling the calf and refusing to give her mother the proceeds, Lyddie feels the sense that nearly everything has been taken from her and her friends, but that Mr. Marsden will not take their consent from them too. Mr. Marsden bests her in using a term she does not understand in Agent Graves’s office, but Lyddie proactively seeks out the definition in her new dictionary and refuses to accept defeat. Through her writing proficiency and growing worldliness, she is able to write the letter to Mr. Marsden’s wife, knowing that he wants to hide his own “moral turpitude” and that keeping his secret is leverage to make him leave Brigid alone. Lyddie’s education in Lowell inspires her to seek more of this enlightenment, demonstrated by her commitment to attend Oberlin at the end of the novel.
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By Katherine Paterson
