When we are children, our parents constantly remind us to be appreciative for the things we have because there are those less fortunate that are incapable of receiving the essentials needed to live. When we are adults, we often ask ourselves, ‘to what degree would we go too if we lost it all.’ It is difficult to fathom what it means to be ‘desperate’. In Life in the Iron Mills, Davis portrays the life of backbreaking, ‘desperate’ workers who experience the meaning of poverty. Davis establishes this slimy and stagnant setting absent of “green foliage of apple trees” (Davis 2764). This depressing setting and the social misfortunes associated with it establish the movement away from an agrarian economy toward an industrial-based economy and the deadening lifestyle it inflicts upon its workers. I believe through both deprivation and desperation, one develops a strong sense of vulnerability as a result of the hardships experienced.
Life in the Iron Mills encompasses the impoverished existence of Hugh and Deborah, a mill-worker and his cousin. Concealing her unreciprocated love for Hugh, Deb, a “deformed, almost a hunchback” (Davis 2766), delivers to him every night a supper of bread, salt pork, and ale. She looks to love to motivate her to live through her “pale life” (Davis 2766). In addition to Deb’s deformed body yearning for food, her soul hungers for love and spiritual support. The denial of love and feeling of hunger leaves Deb to have a “face more ghastly, her lips bluer, her eyes more water” (Davis 2766). As the readers see, the result of deprivation from love and food ultimately portrays her to be extremely vulnerable.
In addition to Davis portraying Deb as a vulnerable character, she also draws a connection between the physical labor of the iron mills and the depletion of the workers masculinity. The iron mills has caused Hugh to lose his energy and strength that he ultimately becomes vulnerable: “He had already lost the strength and instinct vigor or a man, his muscles were thin, her nerves weak, his fake (a meek, woman’s face) haggard, yellow with consumption.” (Davis 2769). Adjectives such as ‘thin’ and ‘weak’ are the same adjectives that described Deb earlier on in the short story, drawing a parallel between the two characters and their vulnerability. Characterized as a girl-man, Hugh was often referred to by the others as “Molly Wolfe” (Davis 2769), once again shining light on Hugh’s weakness. As the readers can see, Davis highlights how one develops a strong sense of vulnerability as a consequence of the hardships experienced.
