Summary

In New York, Clara is denied work as a tutor and grocer, but is accepted to work at a sweatshop making clothes, where she will work seven days a week, 10 or more hours each day, to earn six dollars each week. Looking at the demographic of working girls, she feels discouraged realizing that the factories exploit younger girls “who will work longer days for less pay” (143). After her first day of work where the girls are slapped for talking or humming, every worker is invasively pat down to ensure no one is stealing fabric from the factory. Though she is exhausted, Clara attends two classes at the free school before returning home to her father who bursts with anger that she did not return immediately after her shift to help her mother with the housework. Clara is emboldened to talk back against her...