Question

Read the final paragraph of Nellie Bly's essay "As a White Slave: Her Experience in the Role of a New York Shop-Girl Making Paper Boxes." The work was tiresome, and after I had learned all I could from the rather reticent girls I was anxious to leave. I noticed some rather peculiar things on my trip to and from the factory. I noticed that men were much quicker to offer their places to the working-girls on the cars than they were to offer them to well-dressed women. Another thing quite as noticeable, I had more men try to get up a flirtation with me while I was a box-factory girl than I ever had before. The girls were nice in their manners and as polite as ones reared at home. They never forgot to thank one another for the slightest service, and there was quite a little air of "good form" in many of their actions. I have seen many worse girls in much higher positions than the white slaves of New York. Which of these is revealed about the author of this paragraph? She has little respect for women. She was wealthy. She enjoyed her work at the factory. She was a social advocate.

Answer 1

I would say that the correct answer is D. She was a social advocate. Even though she was just a "box-factory girl" at the time (or maybe precisely because of it), it didn't stop her from being quite an observer of social relations, class differences, and men's treating of women. She is both a feminist and a discerning advocate of social equality among people. It is far from the truth that she had little respect for women, as the first option suggests. On the contrary, she had much respect for her own kind, but noticed how little respect men had for them. The lower a woman's social standing is, the less respect will she get from men. We can't infer that she was wealthy - after all, she was a working-class woman. Nor can we say that she enjoyed her work - a slave never enjoys their work, even if they are a white slave.