Life In The Iron Mills

All men are created equal. It has been proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, spoken with conviction, but it fails to mention the asterisk associated with it. All men are created equal **if you were born as a male, if your skin color was white, if you were born with a silver spoon and land to call your own. While some men may have been given land or opportunities at the time, it has not ever been an all-encompassing statement applying to all men. All men are not equal when one is born perched on a pedestal, while another one stares ahead at an endless ladder to reach that same height. The novella, “Life in the Iron Mills” by Rebecca Harding Davis focuses on this divide between men by illustrating numerous interactions between characters …show more content…
His reaction is one that believes justice has been served. He thinks that nineteen years in prison for theft “serves him right! After all our [their] kindness that night!” (Davis 50). The kindness that they supposedly exhibited was superficial as no real action or help occurred. After this event of controversy and scandal, the door is opened for them to express their true opinions. Now, it is quick and easy for him to dismiss Hugh as a thief. He did not see it as Hugh viewing the money as a lifeline, a lifeline that he greatly debated keeping, and one that he did not even steal himself. Hugh viewed money as the one thing to connect him to the top, to bridge the gap. His wife groups Hugh along with others who she views as ungrateful as “a kind of people” (Davis 50). By making that distinction and grouping them together, the humanity of the situation is decreasing. They are dismissing them as different, not as individuals each with a different story or reasons behind their actions. Doctor May does not view the world through the same lens as Hugh Wolfe. Doctor May has not lived the entirety of his life looking up at the steep divide between the classes. Instead, he easily tosses words of encouragement towards them with no real action to help, and when an unfortunate incident occurs involving someone of the lower class, he is quick to condemn them. Dr. May and his wife are able to merely begin talking about something else, meanwhile Hugh and others are stuck living this life. It may be a negative topic that stirs something within Dr. May, but Hugh cannot simply change the subject. That subject is his reality. This one-dimensional perspective of Dr. May shortens his sight of the systematic oppression that has kept this class structure in place and the lack of conversation about it. Dr. May is able to change the subject because he is not living

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