Hugh Wolfe's Life In The Iron-Mills

The story Life in the Iron-Mills expresses the difficulty that many low class people had in life. The main purpose of the narrator of the story Life in the Iron-Mills is to communicate the readers the lives of the poor overworked men in the iron-mills. This story shows the readers the conditions in which the workers lived every day. These hardworking people that work in the iron-mills are illustrated as people that live in poverty and in extreme harsh situations. For example, Hugh Wolfe a hardworking man exhibits his suffering and desperation every time he is working in the mills. These people live in circumstances that cause despair. In this story the narrator begins by comparing the climate conditions that day and the terrible conditions …show more content…
Hugh Wolfe would sculpt in his time off. This was an unseen talent that Hugh possess. He didn’t know this was an art that he owned. He shaped with his knife figures made out of korl. Korl is a waste product from iron smelting. When the visitors went to the iron-mill they saw a statue in the darkness. They were curious enough to get close to observe. They believed it was a working woman with oversize proportions. As stated by Davis, “There was not one line of beauty or grace in it: a nude woman's form, muscular, grown coarse with labor, the powerful limbs instinct with someone poignant longing. One idea: there it was in the tense, rigid muscles, the clutching hands, the wild, eager face, like that of a starving wolf's” (par. 31). The woman was in uneven proportions, no mark of beauty was in it. It was a completely different view of a normal woman. I believe that the statue that Wolfe created represents the difficulty of people like Wolfe go through. The visitors did not understand what Wolfe meant by his art, they consider the statue a simple working women. I believe they did not understand what he meant because they are not living what Wolfe is living. This statue represented a working-woman with signs of starvation, it symbolizes the harsh circumstances poor people lived. Wolfe denotes the poor working woman like Deborah, with this sculpture. In my view, I believe that this figure not only represents the hunger but represent the over-worked woman and men in

Show More

Rebecca Harding Davis's Life In The Iron Mills

School: Human and Wolfe Essay

Hugh Wolfe's Life In The Iron-Mills

Related Documents: Hugh Wolfe's Life In The Iron-Mills

Rebecca Harding Davis's Life In The Iron Mills

School: Human and Wolfe Essay