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In Life in the Iron Mills by Davis (1861), the possible function of mixing two modes of fiction is to highlight the moral importance of the story for readers while making it very real to the audience. Being focused on the truthful representations of life, realism supports the author in describing the unpleasant reality of poverty and tiring work. At the same time, it can be supposed that the elements of sentimentalism, such as attempts to demonstrate the narrator’s feelings about telling the story, prevent the entire work from being overly impartial and objective. In her rather sentimental introduction, Davis (1861) expresses her fervent desire to make the story of Hugh Wolfe “a real thing” to the audience (p. 3). To achieve this objective, the author then proceeds with realistic descriptions of everyday struggles associated with being born into poverty in capitalist economies. Thanks to the combination of these rather dissimilar literary styles, Rebecca Davis manages to create a literary work that communicates the actual challenges of the working class effectively.
Realism is an aesthetic mode that rejects elements that contradict recorded history or the known natural laws. The detailed portrayal of everyday occurrences and unflattering circumstances is among its key characteristics. In the story, this element of realism finds reflection in the extensive use of detailed but unembellished descriptions of being a lower-class citizen, thus helping to convey the theme of poverty and exploitation. For instance, exhaustion and alcohol abuse in an attempt to relieve stress gain much attention. In one of the passages, the fact that Deborah abstains from drinking too much deserves a special mention since “most of her companions would have been found [drunk] at this hour” (Davis, 1861, p. 4). Instead of romanticizing poverty and inventing arguments to defend the position that happiness does not depend on financial well-being, Davis (1861) avoids painting the lived reality of laborers in brighter colors. Thus, she explicitly states and expands on the attributes of lower-class families’ life, such as “incessant labor, sleeping in kernel-like rooms, nights in jail,” and consuming low-quality alcohol (Davis, 1861, p. 3). Thus, the realistic descriptions of poverty support the author’s communicative goal.
Sentimentalism allows advancing emotions and attempts to appeal to the reader’s feelings belong to its characteristics. In the work, this element helps the author to discuss the detrimental influence of unequal access to wealth on people and increases her chances of being understood. Particularly, before introducing the key characters, the author uses a range of means of expression to encourage the audience to “come right down” with her and hide their disgust (Davis, 1861, p. 2). It seems that she is aware of the more literate social groups’ negative feelings about the poor. Therefore, she appeals to the sense of guilt and justice and persuades them “to look deeper” instead of simply concluding that some people deserve their social position and poverty (Davis, 1861, p. 3). Aside from that, Davis (1861) expresses her hope that the story will be read and that her readers’ eyes are as free as hers to avoid superficiality when it comes to the problem of poverty. It helps the writer to prevent the audience from stopping reading because of their misconceptions about the lower class and the reasons behind these people’s spiritual poverty.
Reference
Davis, R. H. (1861). Life in the iron mills or the korl woman. Web.
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