Henry Mayhew from “Watercress Girl”

So I am on a worker conditions kick right now but for me this is what defined the industrial age for every European nation and the United States. Here we have Mayhew giving the perspective of living as a poor worker in the narrative of an eight year old girl. Mayhew does not miss an opportunity to show how responsible this child is in trying to earn money. Like any poor worker at this time they would be forced to work several jobs in order to have basic necessities. Mayhew uses an eight year old girl for several reasons. First, it gives of a sense of innocence. At the age of eight there is no corruption in her mind that an adult would have. Second, it gives a sense of honesty. Compared to a report of conditions, such as Engels, an eight year old girl who has never seen the parks would have nothing to compare her life to and would only tell what was going on. By doing so we get an honest idea of what life is like. There is no tainting of the minds image of what life should be. While we read this we have an idea of that life should be and are appalled over the conditions of the workers. Overall I think this is the best way to show the conditions of the workers. This is probably why Upton Sinclair uses the narrative of a family to show the horrid conditions of the factory worker. There is a brute sense of honesty that is achieved though narration that is hard to obtain though a simple recanting of facts and saying “this is what I saw.” Instead if you show though the eyes of someone else you get a better understanding of what the day in the life of these people may be.