Sweatshops and Sweethearts: How Cahan Uses Realism Realistically

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1 Landon 1 Nathan Landon Professor Fraily ENG-233-IN1 2 September 2013 Sweatshops and Sweethearts: How Cahan Uses Realism Realistically On March 25, 1911 a horrible fire broke out in Manhattan. It started on the eighth floor of the Asch Building, but its flames quickly licked their way up to the ninth and tenth floors (Linder). Most of the workers on the eighth and tenth floors escaped, but 145 of the girls and women working on the ninth floor died. Some preferred to jump to the sidewalk below rather than be consumed by the fiery flames (Linder). This horrible disaster took place in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company sweatshop. It was due in no small part to the cramped, dirty, and dangerous conditions that had been developing in sweatshops for years. Abraham Cahan wrote "A Sweatshop Romance" in 1898, thirteen years before the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. In "A Sweatshop Romance" Cahan writes a story about the romance of two young men and a young woman who work in a small sweatshop; both men want to marry the young lady, Beile, and her decision is made easy after a showdown with her boss. In "A sweatshop Romance" Cahan not only describes the poor working conditions of the characters, he also brings the characters to life by looking at their thoughts and thought processes. Cahan sets "A Sweatshop Romance" in a realistically described sweatshop of the 1890s. Cahan starts off his story with a description of "a very small shop", which gives "employment to

Landon 2 Figure 1 Photo by Jacob Riis of a sweatshop circa 1890-1891. a single team of one sewing-machine operator, one baster, and one finisher" (Cahan, par. 1).

2 Landon 2 Figure 1 Photo by Jacob Riis of a sweatshop circa a single team of one sewing-machine operator, one baster, and one finisher" (Cahan, par. 1). This intro puts the story in a clear historical-cultural category, and Cahan goes on to describe the shop in detail. In paragraphs 2-3 he describes it as small, cluttered, cramped, and piping hot (Cahan). This description matches pictures of sweatshops from the 1890s. Figure 1 shows a picture of a sweatshop that is croweded with sevearl people making what aprear to be coats. The picture was taken in 1889, but its similar to what we would expect of a small sweatshop in When the naroator in Cahan's story describes the sweatshop, he says, "Bundles of cloth, cut to be made into coats, littered the floor, lay in chaotic piles by one of the walls, cumbered Mrs. Lipman's kitchen table and one or two chairs" (Cahan, par. 2). In figure 1 cloth is stacked up on chairs and is lying on the floor, much like in Cahan's story. Both of the sweatshops (the one in the picture and the

3 Landon 3 one in "As Sweatshop Romance") are cramped and rough looking. It seems then that Cahan does a realistic job explaining what sweatshops of the time were like. Cahan not only acuratly described what sweatshops looked like in the 1890s, he also described with humour and realism how they worked. Cahan explictly explains how the pay system works for employees in paragraph 20: Lipman's was a task shop, and, according to the signification which the term has in the political economy of the sweating world, his operator, baster, and finisher, while nominally engaged at so much a week, were in reality paid by the piece, he is invariably a pieceworker, pure and simple. Lipman's employees (Lipman is the owner of the sweatshop) are paid not by the hour, week, or year, but rather by how much they produce. According to Amanda Wilson, who wrote an article for Atlantic International Studies Organization, the term sweating "was used to describe the system of subcontracting by which competing manufacturers farmed work out to contractors, who in turn farmed out their work to competing contractors and sub-contractors". At the very bottom of the chain were the employees, whom contractors "sweated" work from. (Wilson). One way that contractors could get more for their money was by paying employees by the piece, this led to very low hourly wages. David, the baster in Cahan's story, supposedly makes $12 a week; but he explains it quite differently. David says " Now a working week has six days, but--hem-- that 'but' gets stuck in my throat--but a day is neither a Sunday nor a Monday nor anything unless we make twelve coats" he goes on to say that " day has twelve coats" (Cahan, par. 27, 29). What he means by all this is that since he gets paid by the piece, instead of by the hour, he ends up

4 Landon 4 with lower wages than it appears. Cahan wittily uses this dialogue to show the weakness of the piecework pay system that was actually being used at the time of his writing. Cahan doesn't just give the reader an accurate picture of a 1890s sweatshop; he also paints with vivid colors a portrait of people. Real people that have real lives, feelings, weaknesses, and strengths. Cahan paints this portrait by watching the character's thoughts as a story unfolds around them. The story that Cahan uses is not incredibly complex; it revolves around Beile and the changing relationships she has with two men at the sweatshop, Heyman and David. Beile and Heyman court for several months before a conflict at the shop causes David and Beile to walk out on their jobs. Through this turn of events Beile loses her respect for Heyman and turns to David instead. Near the beginning of the story Cahan dives into Beile's thought about Heyman. In paragraph 41 the narrator tells us how Beile is in love with Heyman, and is attracted to him (Cahan). This serves to connect the reader to Beile, who is experiencing commonplace emotions and feelings. Her thoughts continue on, with one idea leading to another. Beile wonders why Heyman doesn't treat her to the occasional soda, and ultimately, why he still hasn't proposed to her (Cahan, par.43). Cahan writes of her worries, concerns, and emotions in a manner that is similar to an actual train of thought. This helps the reader to see Beile as a realistic person, someone who they might meet in real life. Cahan next examines Heyman in a manner that shows him to be exposed to the same concerns and fears of other people. Paragraph 45 in particular details how Heyman is ready to propose marriage to Beile, but he can't quite bring himself to do it. Many times when Heyman took his leave "the proposal lay on the tip of his tongue, and that lacking the strength to relieve himself of its burden he every time left her, consoling himself that the moment was inopportune, and that 'tomorrow he would surely settle it'" (Cahan, par. 45). Cahan shows the reader that

5 Landon 5 Heyman is suffering from a bad case of fear. He fears rejection and lacks the courage to proceed. Cahan uses these feelings and fears to relate Heyman to reader and show the reality of the people working in sweatshops. Fear is a universal experience for people and by showing the reader Heyman's fears Cahan connects the reader to the story and the character. Cahan not only writes of the thoughts of Beile and Heyman, he also observes the progression of events in David's mind. In Paragraphs 37 and 38 David is engaged in a sort of conversation with himself, all of which takes place in his head (Cahan). David examines each of his coworkers and determines what they look like. While David's conclusions are bizarre and often unkind, his train of thought seems systematic and categorical. When David tries to find a suitable digit to represent Heyman he runs through "all the digits of the Arabic system, and even the whole Hebrew alphabet, in quest of a counterpart to the young man," yet he fails "to find anything suitable" (Cahan, par. 38). This systematic approach to thinking is certainly representative of how some people actually think; yet it seems different from the train of thought seen in Beile's head earlier. David finishes one idea and then moves on to the next; while Beile lets one idea lead to another in any sort of order. Cahan might have used the exploration of these two characters thought process to connect them with different types of readers. In any case, the effect on the reader is to show that the people working in sweatshops are unique individuals, and have the same sorts of emotions, fears, and concerns as all other people. Cahan's "A Sweatshop Romance" is chock full of realism; and much of it is very realistic realism at that. Cahan writes of a sweatshop that could have very well existed in the 1890s and the conditions are what would be expected. He uses character dialogue to explain and even make fun of the piecework pay system used by sweatshops, and explains why it creates low wages. But Cahan isn't content to simply show the reader what sweatshops are like. He goes on to place

6 Landon 6 realistic people inside the sweatshop, and observes their thoughts and thought patterns as their story unfolds. All this combines to show the reader of "A Sweatshop Romance" not only the difficulties of life for immigrants like Heyman, David and Beile, but also the similarities that the readers share with them.

7 Landon 7 Works Cited Cahan, Abraham. "A Sweatshop Romance." The Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Web. Linder, Doug. "The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Trial." UMKC.edu Web. 2 Sep Riis, Jacob. "Sweat Shop in a Ludlow Street Tenement." The Jacob A. Riis Collection Museum of the City of New York. n.d. Web. 2 Sep Wilson, Amanda. " Sweatshops: A Dirty History of Discrimination and Ignorance." Atlantic International Studies Organization. n.d. Web. 2 Sep

Education programs in conjunction with the exhibition Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York s Other Half are supported by:

Education programs in conjunction with the exhibition Jacob A. Riis: Revealing New York s Other Half are supported by: The exhibition is made possible by: By examining a selection of photographs and textual