Summary:
Flesh&Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy is a non-fiction novel by Albert Marrin; it is a powerful true story about the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which remained New York’s deadliest workplace incident until the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. It also explored the lives of immigrants and workers in the early 1900s and the harsh conditions they faced in factories. The book explains how the garment industry grew, why factory work was so dangerous, and how people fought for better working conditions. Later, these events and tragedy led to a turning point for labor rights, leading to essential changes in workplace safety laws that marked a new era for fair and safe working conditions…
Notebook pages:
Lesson 1: “Central ideas”
Here, I explored the multiple main ideas of the book and how they relate closely to society at that time, which clearly showed the troubling reality of the government’s effect on society, which they insisted on mainly ignoring the needs and lives of the workers and immigrants.
To summarize a few examples: The dangerous working conditions led to many deaths, with few protections in place (p. 5)& the Immigrants also faced injustices from the citizens, being wrongly labeled as “uncivilized” and a majority struggling to afford even just the basic needs. (p. 9, p. 35). Also, the low wages kept not all but many in poverty, as the rent and living costs took a big chunk of their earnings, forcing most to live in terrible situations and conditions (p. 36, p. 38). This page also perfectly aligns with how the book shows the urgent need for society and the government to focus on the rights and needs of these people and take action to address these unfair situations.
CENTRAL IDEA NOTEBOOK PAGE (EMBEDDED-click this to relocate to Onedrive share image)
Lesson 5:’ CER & Town-hall preparation page’
Next, I created a notebook page that focused on preparing claims, evidence, and reasoning to help me prepare for the upcoming town hall. I found several pieces of robust evidence that support this central idea/theme, along with an introduction and summary of our topic on why “you should NOT sacrifice your life, risking it to an unfamiliar land, just to hope for a better life,” emphasizing three significant risk factors of living in America at that time: work, transportation, and living. Below, you can see a clear mind map and thought process of our group as we prepared for this formative:
TOWN HALL PREP PAGE (EMBEDDED- click this to relocate to onedrive share image)
Lesson 7: “Making Connections” (AKA’Expecting parts to connect’)
In this lesson, I focused on how parts of different social issues connect with essential themes in the text, such as poverty, labor, unhealthy environments, diseases/injuries, etc.
One example of a significant issue I identified is how girls from low-income families are often undervalued. For instance, girls frequently had to leave school to help support their families, as shown in the quote, “When I had to quit school in the fifth grade, I felt terrible…but had to accept it as part of life for a girl of a poor family.” This highlighted how society naturally gave boys more chances for education and success in the book, forcing the girls into roles that limited their growth.
The harsh working conditions for laborers were another key theme in my book. The text states that “the city owes its subways mainly to former peasants who earned a dollar a day for dangerous, back-breaking work,” highlighting how workers risked their health for very low pay. Additionally, many more were also faced with terrible environments where their fundamental rights were ignored; for example, they were often locked in work with no privacy, which also led to the spread of diseases like tuberculosis spreading quickly among workers.
The above is a brief overview of some issues that show the struggles of many during that period. There are many more examples of social problems, which you can read in more detail in my notebook page below, which generally shows the central idea about how unfair treatment and these social issues impacted both genders, marginalized & domestic communities.
making connections notebook page embedded- click here to access
Lesson 8- “Analyzing Descriptive passages”:
On this page, I found two of the most appealing descriptive passages in the book, of two different unpleasant perspectives, highlighting the hardships workers/ immigrants had to face at that time to pursue livelihood and opportunities in New York.
The two different descriptions of the tenement fire and Rosenfeld’s experience in the workshop both show the harsh realities immigrants faced while living and working; they resemble one another. The fire scene creates a feeling of fear and helplessness, as “the fire had swept up with a sudden fury,” leaving many with no way to escape. This is also sharply similar to Rosenfeld’s experience in the workshop, where he feels like “a machine” caught in a never-ending cycle of work.
These realistic portrayals highlight and emphasise the dangers of life back then and the struggle and vulnerability that defined the immigrant, showcased with unique and descriptive language.
descriptive passage notebook page embedded- click here
Here are two examples of real pictures taken in the 1900s that highlights the first-person perspectives in the poorly conditioned tenements and workshops of New York, which deepens our understanding of the character’s real setting and emotions:
1:
(Picture of New York’s tenements in the early 1900s- a living hell)
2:
(Working Conditions at 77 Cornell street, Kingston, New York)
As you can see, both have extremely poor conditions as conveyed in the book: “Flesh blood so cheap” . Which all reflects on how their lives are undervalued, leading to these dangerous working environments and inadequate living conditions.
Thank you for reading my blog, have a great day! ♥️
