24 pages 48 minutes read

Rebecca Harding Davis

Life In The Iron Mills

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1861

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Essay Topics

1.

What is the relation of the narrator to the events that take place in the story? How does this relation color the readers perception of these events? 

2.

The story’s final paragraph invokes a “Dawn” (65), one that seems both actual and metaphorical. It implies a hopefulness that can be gleaned from the grim events that take place in the story. Where do you think the narrator sees cause for hopefulness? Does the reader share in this sentiment?

3.

A mysterious understanding seems to arise between Mitchell and Hugh Wolfe: not precisely friendship, but a kind of “recognition” (39). What is it that you think the two men see in one another? How might both men interpret their brief exchange? Cite textual evidence.