Summary

In this section, Clara describes that after two months of striking, the factory bosses forced an end to the strike by creating divisions within the striker’s unity by manipulating the Italian women into believing that the strike is to “be rid of them,” causing them to abandon the picket line (299). As the leader of the cause, Clara is blacklisted from returning to work at any New York factory, forcing her family to eat non-kosher food and causing Nathan to leave school to seek work himself. In her limited English, she begins to implore upper-class shoppers at Herald Square to realize their clothes come from circumstances that endanger vulnerable people, imploring them to act for change.

Clara solidifies a job at a factory owned by Louis Leiserson, a man who rose to higher ranks from the lowest societal rungs, giving Clara hope she...