Uprising (2007) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

show spoilers

• Bella Rossetti: Fifteen years old immigrant from Calia, Italy, unable to speak English. She had a job at the shirtwaist factory and was trusting others to send part of her pay home to family to help them put food on the table. The family consisted of three brothers, one sister and her widowed mother.
• Yetta: Jewish girl, around 15, an immigrant from Russia whose older sister came to America first. She's been in America only two months and is going to night school to learn English. She works in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and is the first girl Bella knows there. she has dark hair and dark eyes, with lustrous dark brown hair. Yetta is avid for reform in the workplace.
• Jane Wellington: Sixteen years old, from a wealthy family, living in a large home. Now motherless, she has a hired chaperon ruling her life. Her father is really uninterested in Jane's life, relying on that companion for that. Well educated in female things, she can speak three languages, one being Italian. Jane is beautiful with green eyes and shining dark hair pulled back with a ribbon. She slowly becomes interested also in women's and workers' rights.
• Rahel: Yetta's older sister, 19, who has been in America 3 years, long enough to earn more money and have a small apartment in NYC's Lower East Side. She, also, has dark hair. Rahel formerly was a revolutionary in Russia.
• Pietro: Bella's handsome 17-yr.old distant cousin who's been in America a year and is helping her adjust to a new country. He had dark hair and eyes. He got Bella her job at the factory, walked her to and from work, was sending Bella's money to her family in Italy. His job was digging ditches; Bella developed a romantic interest in him.he has a very loving heart
• Miss Milhouse: Jane's chaperon for the past seven years; a tall, stiff woman with cold eyes and silvery hair, who is very proper and requires Jane to live up to the rules of society.
• Sally: A new Irish maid at the Wellington home whose job was to do Jane's hair. She had red hair and a pale, freckled complexion. She was easily replaced.
• Eleanor Kensington: A cousin to Pearl Kensington, one of the rich girls at a tea party Jane attended on Washington Square. Eleanor was a student at Vassar and was interested in some of the new, modern thinking; she attended many lectures and invited Jane.
• Mr. Wellington: jane's father,a well-to-do man of business who once owned a factory and had to make decisions.
• Signor Carlotti: One of the bosses at the factory; a slave-driver who used unfair work practices.
• Charles Livingston: A young law student who was asked about the legal side of unfair work practices. He was 18, had chestnut hair. He helped Bella out of the factory and later became a labor lawyer. His family figured heavily into the later part of this story.
• Mr. Corrigan: The Wellington's chauffeur. Kind and caring, about 50 and bald with a bushy gray mustache. A father to seven children, he knew he needed to keep his job.
• Rocco Luciano: Two years younger than Bella, he also acted as protector for Bella. He was often out selling newspapers or shining shoes, so until she needed him as protector she didn't see much of him. He later developed a romantic interest in her and figured heavily in the final part of this book.
• Signora Luciano: The mother of the Italian family where Bella and Pietro boarded. She was stout, her children - 4 small ones and a 10-yr. old boy - were dirty. Her fear of poverty made her an angry shrew, always loud. She had a home business making artificial flowers for hats and several boarders who brought in some money.
• Harriet Blanck: Daughter of one of the owners of the factory. Jane is hired as her governess when Harriet was 5 yrs. old. When she was 21, she had dark bobbed hair and a trim figure. She hired detectives to find Bella.very kind and sweet in a spoiled way
• Millicent: Harriet's older sister, daughter of one of the factory's owners.
• Signor Luciano: Father to Rocco and other children in the Italian home where Bella and Pietro boarded. Shared walking Bella to/from work. He was as grasping as his wife.
• Jacob: A cutter in the shirtwaist factory who became interested in Yetta and asked her out to a dance. He had brown curly hair and honey-colored eyes.
• Samuel Cohen: Tall, in Rahel's English class. Rahel is interested in him, later they marry and have a daughter.
• Jane: A wealthy heiress who realizes there is more to life than fancy hats and elaborate gowns
• Bella: An Italian immigrant who recovers from a shocking devastation with the help of her friends.she is kind and loving and loyal
• Mademoiselle Michaud: She is governess to the Blanck girls, takes them places, teaches them proper behavior, etc.
• Mrs. Blanck: A short, heavyset woman, mother of two girls - Millicent (12) and Harriet (5) - and the wife of one of the factory's owners. They are of the new money set and not used to that position, so she has many concerns for her daughters. She hires Mademoiselle Michaud as governess to them.
• Mr. Blanck: One of the two wners of the shirtwaist factory. They were both called the "Shirtwaist Kings". His office was on the 10th floor of the factory building. Although he was a money-grasping and disreputable owner of the workplace, he was a good father.
• Mr. Harris: The other owner of the factory, he also was called the "Shirtwaist King".
• Mr. Kline: A contractor at the factory. He had to pay his workers out of whatever he received.
• Mr. Kline: i think after many years he still grieves and hes a very sensitive man on the inside with his own opinions
• Mr. Bernstein: A manager at the factory; he fought with Kline over working conditions.
• Mr. Elfuzin: Another contractor; he sided with Kline in the dispute over working conditions.
• Mrs. Livingston: Mother to two daughters, Yetta (4) and Jane (2).

Quotes edit see section history

• “Not in this part of the city. There are hoity-toity rich people just around the corner. They think fire escapes are ugly.”

  Pietro to Bella

• “If you want to join a union, join the Triangle Employees Benevolent Association. You join any other union, you're gone.”

  Signor Carlotti to Bella

• “They'd never listen to me. I'm nobody and nothing. But someday ... someday ...”

  Rocco Luciano to Bella

• “But it's all one in the final analysis, isn't it? The tragedy of the workers' condition threatens us all. And if women have the vote, then society as a whole will be enriched. We would not allow such abominations to occur, such as these girls being forced to work for pennies, for hours on end. These are our sisters!”

  Violet Pke, Vassar grad 1907, to Jane's Vassar friends

• “And whom do you think he'll believe? Moi, his longtime faithful servant? Or you, his useless, troublesome daughter, who wants to consort with guttersnipes?”

  Miss Millhouse to Jane

• “But it was like a riot of skeletons. Did you see how feeble everyone is becoming? I wager, not a single girl there had a decent meal today. ....”

  Rahel to Bella and Yetta

• “I will go back to Triangle. I'm not done fighting there. I don't know how I'll do it, but I'm sure -- I can still do something to change that place.”

  Yetta to Rahel

• “That's how the world works! Some people are rich and some are poor, and by God, if I can be on the rich side, that's where I'm going to stand!...”

  Jane's father to Jane

• “It was strange. What was poverty to Jane was untold riches to Bella”

  Comment in the prose.

• “Don't you want more out of life than potatoes and bread?”

  Yetta to Bella

• “But we should all keep learning things -- Jane, at her college level and Bella and me at our beginner level ---”

  Yetta to Jane and Bella

• “When women have the vote, fathers will want to send their daughters to college, just like boys.”

  Jane to Bella and Yetta

• “Extras? Something that could have saved one hundred and forty-six lives is an extra?”

  Mrs. Livingston to Harriet

• “The world is not a perfect place even yet.”

  Mrs. Livingston to Harriet

• “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Triangle Waist Factory: Where women's shirtwaists (blouses) were made. Asch Building on the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street. The factory occopuied the 8th and 9th floors of a 10-story building, with the owners' offices on the 10th floor. It had two elevators. There were many safety violations in place such as a locked door, another door that opened inward and an unsafe fire escape that didn't go all the way to the bottom.
• The Luciano apartment: On the second floor of a 5-story building with a tiny courtyard and dark hallways and stairs. It had a fire escape. Clotheslines for each floor were outside.
• Wellington home: A mansion near Washington Square in NYC, with servants such as a maid, chauffeur, housekeeper. It had a long, curving driveway leading up to it. Inside, there was a marble foyer and marble floors, high ceilings and a grand staircase. Mr. Wellington's study was on the lower floor; it had dark wood and leather chairs along with his desk. Jane's bedroom was a large room which held a large bed and a white desk with gold trim.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• "Vendichero la mia famiglia": Avenge my family, in Italian
• "Comari de triangle": Three female friends; a triangle is the strongest shape

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Discrimination: Women and immigrants face discrimination in America in the early 1900s.
• Poverty: The huge difference between the rich and the poor. Holes with boots and fresh flowers in a blizzard. If everyone spread out the wealth, no one would be poor.
• Sufferage: Describe this theme.
• Workplace safety

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Margaret Peterson Haddix (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award (Finalist, 2012: Grades 6-8)

Notes for Parents edit see section history

A good read for young girls, perhaps 6th grade and up, interested in this era. A compelling story that will engage girls in the drama of the women's movement of the time while intertwined with the battle of immigrants, factory workers, and friends struggling to survive.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Children's Books › History & Historical Fiction › United States › Fiction › 1900s
• Books › Children's Books › People & Places › Social Situations › Friendship › Fiction
• Books › Teens › Authors, A-Z › ( H ) › Haddix, Margaret Peterson
• Books › Teens › History & Historical Fiction › Historical Fiction
• Books › Teens › Social Issues
• Books › Children's Books › Literature
• Books › Children's Books › Issues

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Official Website of Margaret Peterson Haddix

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history