Responsibility

This novel is about a young girl whose mother has become too ill to work. The young girl, fifteen-year-old Ruby, must go to work to make the income her mother cannot. In the time in which this novel is set, there were not programs such as welfare that helped families that for reasons beyond their control could not care for themselves. For this reason when Ruby's widowed mother became so crippled by arthritis that she could not work, Ruby had to go to work to support the family.

Ruby is not resentful of having to quit school because she did not enjoy school. Ruby made bad grades and skipped classes more often than not. However, the burden of work is difficult for Ruby. Ruby dislikes the work, having to fill glass jars with brine and pigs feet because of the difficulty of the work and because of the...