Q). How does Katherine Paterson cast her female characters in Lyddie as potential role models to whom Twenty-first Century female readers can relate?Katherine Paterson is an American author of young adult fiction novels. Her novel Lyddie, published in 1991, is written from a historical perspective and the major characters either face oppression directly or face a threat of oppression. The characters in Lyddie are not always female, though most are, and they are all minorities in the sense that they stand, in some conventionally acknowledged way, on the relatively powerless side of some powerful or powerless social dichotomy. Lyddie promotes the idea that there is within each of us the ability to inspire those around us by living a life that is more outward focused than inward focused. By being selfless, Lyddie can do her part to make the world a better place, spreading love and hope through her daily actions.
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Young people have no respect for authority nowaday...
Young Women (organization)It is not only by what she says but more importantly by the life that she lives out that shows what each of us is made of. Lyddie offers young female readers a unique insight into the real courage of females in the world, an area so often neglected in literature.
Set in 1843, the novel tells the story of Lyddie Worthen, an impoverished farm girl whose father has been gone for three long years, and whose mother has left her to fend for herself. Feeling that she is little more than a slave to the neighbors who have taken over the family farm, Lyddie decides to improve her lot by taking a job as a factory worker in a nearby town. Though the living conditions in the company boarding house are far from ideal and the working conditions in the mill are dangerous, Lyddie at least has a...