Ashes Of Roses

“A whole new world was stretchin’ out before me, and I wanted a chance to savor it before I was weighed down with babies like Ma.”

This passage highlights Rose’s excitement to begin a new life in America and seize the many fabled opportunities that have brought her and her family to New York. She knows that if she were to stay in Ireland, the choices for her life would be very limited, and she would most likely she end up marrying at a young age and having children. However, the eagerness of her tone also implies her inexperience and naïveté and foreshadows the disillusionment that awaits her.

“’Rose,’ I repeated, assertin’ my new American independence.”

When Rose chooses to drop the “Margaret” from her name, the decision signifies her desire to forge a new identity separate from her mother’s and different from the person she would have been if she had stayed in Ireland. Ironically, she later realizes that her new name is quite a common one, for there are 17 women named Rose at the Triangle.

“I had thought the gateway to America would be more grand than this, with trumpets and fireworks to usher us in. Instead, nobody bothered to look up and take notice as the Nolan women passed through the gate to a new life. But it didn’t matter to me. We were in America at last, and I could hear the trumpets in my own head.”

These musings reveal that Rose expected to be met with a degree of fanfare that would adequately reflect her idealized view of the United States, but she soon realizes that the fabulous stories she heard about the wealth of America were greatly exaggerated. Instead, she supplies her own welcoming fanfare, as her arrival represents the start of a new life and new opportunities for her.

“We’d been in New York for only a few minutes and already we’d been given some money. The stories we’d heard back in Ireland were true. The streets in America were indeed paved with gold.”

An Irish police officer gives the family some coins to buy train fare. This incident surprises them for several reasons. They are taken aback to see someone of similar background in a position of authority in America, and the incident also supports the mythic idea of America as the land of opportunity.

“Except for Uncle Patrick, they all looked on us as foreigners, and dirty ones at that. I should have felt safe here, but I had a strange dread about our stay with our new American family.”

Patrick’s German wife and daughters treat Rose and her family with cold disdain. They fail to attribute the family’s unwashed state to the conditions on board the ship, instead seeing their relative poverty as a broader moral failing. Their attitude represents the Nolans’ first encounter with the prejudices that many immigrants face upon arrival.

“She spat out the word ‘Lutheran’ with so much contempt, ye would have thought Uncle Patrick would be waltzin’ his wife and children into a house of ill repute.”

One of the difficulties Ma faces in America is the fact that many of the traditions she holds dear, such as remaining loyal to the Catholic Church, are being abandoned by those who assimilate more fully into American society. When even her brother-in-law now considers the tenets of her religion to be examples of “the old ways” that are no longer worth following, she does not feel that America reflects her values. This growing sentiment is further reinforced by the bitter fact that she was forced to separate from her baby and husband even before entering.

“It seemed to me that the person who could make a fine dress was just as good if not better than the person who merely sold it. After all, if the dress was poorly made, the saleswoman would be hard-pressed to convince anyone to buy it.”

At a fancy department store where Rose seeks work, she is turned away because she does not appear to be of a higher, more privileged class. She also grapples with the inherent unfairness in the fact that the wealthy customer who buys the dress is more valued than the salesperson, who is in turn more valued than the craftsperson who made the dress.

“Could everyone in New York tell that I had just stepped off the boat from Ireland? And why was that something to be ashamed of?”

When Rose learns the term “greenhorn,” which refers to a newly arrived immigrant, she cannot understand why the word holds such negative connotations. Her confusion, while logical, serves to highlight the extremity of her inexperience, and it is clear that she has many lessons to learn before she will be able to overcome the Social Inequalities Among Immigrants.

“If the Irish ran the city, why did people treat me with so little respect when they found out I was from Ireland?”

Tessa tells Rose that earlier Irish immigrant were looked down upon, but now many are in respected positions of power, while Italians are still treated with disrespect. However, Rose cannot reconcile that fact with the poor treatment she receives while looking for a job. At this point in her journey, she has yet to apprehend the finer nuances of the Perceptions of Class Difference that characterize the United States.

“My family wouldn’t let me work in this place because they feared for my safety, yet these girls came here every day and left long after dark. Wasn’t there someone at home who feared for them?”

This is one of Rose’s first inklings about the various levels of privilege and disadvantage that exist within the wider immigrant community. Although she is not yet so desperate that she must accept work in a dangerous neighborhood, the other women in the flower-making shop have little choice. This scene also demonstrates one of the novel’s first explicit forays into the larger issue of workers’ rights.

“And even if I had a mind to be marryin’ at a young age, most of the boys in Limerick didn’t have the brains God gave a turnip, except for Dennis O’Reilly […] There was only one small thing wrong with Dennis O’Reilly. He blossomed out with boils and carbuncles so often, I thought his insides must be packed full of pus just lookin’ for a way to get out of him. […] Da had said there were more Irishmen in New York than in Limerick and Dublin put together. […] When the time came, I’d have my pick of an Irish husband, but for now, I had better things planned for myself.”

With the wry and humorous tone of these reflections, it is clear that Rose criticizes the traditional path that many of her female peers have taken in life, and she wants something different for herself. She never explicitly states what those “better things” might be, but they involve making her own money and determining the course of her own life. As she takes her first steps into her new country, her determination to find solutions to benefit her family and take charge of her future imply that no matter what challenges she encounters, she will eventually find her way.

“I’d not have her growin’ up ignorant. I knew one thing. To make yer way in this country, ye needed to be smart.”

Rose battles with Maureen to keep her in school, but she eventually loses the fight. After the disaster at the factory, Rose will realize that “being smart” also means advocating for one’s own rights and the rights of others. Thus, she will eventually learn powerful life lessons from the series of injustices that she encounters in her first few months in the United States.

“‘Nobody would do this job if it stayed so painful.’ ‘They would if they wanted to eat,’ Maureen said.”

Despite her young age and inexperience, Maureen shows an understanding of the pragmatic forces at play in the work world, and her simple retort reflects an even deeper comprehension of certain realities than does Rose’s unthinking complaint. Rose will soon learn that if people are desperate enough, they will endure all manner of pain, discomfort, unfair treatment, and danger.

“It almost killed him to have his daughter in trouble with the law. This sort of thing just isn’t done by women in the old country. Father thinks I should keep quiet, but when I see something wrong, I want to change it.”

Gussie’s bold statement reveals her strong, outspoken character and highlights an ongoing issue for immigrant families who find themselves ideologically divided. As younger generations develop new perspectives on how best to live, their adaptability often surpasses that of older generations who cling to the way things were done in their home country. Ma also represents a prime example of this dynamic, for she quickly decides that the need to reunite with her husband and son supersedes the importance of her attempt to make a new life in America.

“One person might not have the courage, Rose, but when there are hundreds, it’s not so hard. Even if you get hurt or jailed, there are many to help. We even had the support of some of the most important women in New York. It’s one thing to have poor working girls in a picket line, but when you have society ladies, well, that’s a news story.”

Gussie tells Rose about the women’s labor strikes of 1909, which was called the “Uprising of 20,000.” The society women who lent support to the cause were known as the “Mink Brigade,” and newspapers voiced more concern over the rough treatment that some of these ladies received from the police than they did for the many dangers that poor female workers must face on a daily basis. With these words, Gussie also urges Rose to think beyond herself.

“And when that boss decides not to pay you, you’ll run away and find another job, won’t you? There are people running sweatshops all over the Lower East Side who would love to hire a meek little greenhorn like you.”

Gussie goads Rose into confronting Moscovitz and demanding the payment that she has earned. Gussie emphasizes that remaining quiet and accepting poor treatment only encourages employers to perpetuate such treatment. Gussie forces Rose to realize that condoning such behavior allows employers to pay their workers less and less, and this trend eventually worsens conditions for all workers.

“The law says there has to be two hundred and fifty cubic feet of space for each worker. The Triangle gets around that because of the high ceilings. They have the right number of cubic feet for each of us, but it’s all above our heads. What good is that? We’re jammed in hip to hip at the floor level.”

This is one of the worker safety violations that were well-known at Triangle even before the factory fire. The overcrowded conditions contribute significantly to the high death toll, but when Gussie first tells Rose about the owners’ willful flouting of the law, she dismisses her friend’s concerns, finding the conditions cozy. The author also uses this moment to more fully set the stage for the deadly fire that occurs in the climax of the novel.

“One of the male machinists called us ‘a beautiful bunch of Roses.’ One day we counted all the girls at the Triangle named Rose. Klein made a list and came up with seventeen.”

While having the single name of Rose would have made Rose unusual in Ireland, it turns out to be a very common name in America. This line emphasizes the closeness of Rose to her new friends, who also named Rose, and it also underscores the novel’s recurring symbolism of roses. Before long, several of these 17 Roses will become metaphorical “ashes” in the factory fire, further emphasizing the somber imagery of the novel’s title.

“I had wanted to leave Ireland to avoid bein’ a mother at a young age. A lot of good that had done. Now, instead of carin’ for a sweet little baby, I was tryin’ to be mother to a headstrong, big-mouthed girl.”

This passage highlights Rose’s frustration with her circumstances as she acts as a caretaker and mother figure to her younger sister. Rose’s primary motivation for staying in America is to transcend the limited roles of early marriage and motherhood. However, Maureen’s decision to stay puts Rose in a caretaking role that she is ill-equipped to fill.

“The other thing that slowed us down was that we all had to go through the one unlocked door with the guard to have our purses checked. What would we steal anyway? All any of us had was one part of a shirtwaist. What good was that?”

The owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory lock the doors to prevent unauthorized breaks and to punish workers who arrive late in the morning or after lunch. The habit also serves as an anti-theft measure. However, it becomes one of the main factors in the high death toll of the fire, and as well over a hundred people burn or fall to their deaths in desperation, the true extent of the owners’ thoughtless and dangerous practices is revealed.

“Girls were comin’ down like torches.”

The matter-of-fact simplicity of this simile invokes an intense horror that the most elaborate sentence could not convey, and it is clear that Rose can do little more than observe as she sees her coworkers fall flaming to the sidewalk below. The description also echoes real-life witnesses of the fire, who described the victims as “torches” falling to their deaths.

“‘There’s nothing here for him now. […] He said America’s streets weren’t paved in gold after all.’”

Leah says this of Mr. Garoff, who plans to return to Russia after Gussie’s death. His American Dream failed after poor working conditions ruined his eyesight and strength, making him dependent on Gussie, who dies tragically in yet another set of abysmal working conditions.

“Moscovitz might have cheated his girls out of a few dollars and stolen a few kisses, but the owners of the Triangle stole the lives of one hundred forty-six people.”

Rose fought Moscovitz for his violations, but she brushed aside those of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory when Gussie told her about them. Now she understands the importance of worker safety and is dedicated to the broader vision of ensuring fair working conditions for everyone.