Changing Cultures in the book North and South :: essays research papers

The way of life in England was quite different depending weather a person was in the north or the south. From the types of houses to living standards, working conditions to types of jobs, who you talked too to they way you buried the dead, the north and south had completely different ideas about how a person should live. The book North and South depicts the changing cultures of the north and south of England through the industrial revolution in the mid eighteen hundreds. In the town of Milton, which is in the northern part of England Strikes have aroused throughout the factories. The strikes were the immediate cause of the social unrest. The people in Milton are dissatisfied with the working conditions of the factories. They work long hours in bad breathing conditions, children and women work, and they are paid extremely poorly. These factors created a causal chain which led to the strikes. The class distinctions are the remote effect of the North and south. In the South the predominant class is the middle to upper class. It is the people who can afford to have servants. The minority in the south is the servants. In the North the predominant class is the factory workers. They are the lower class. They have a hard time making enough money to buy enough food to put on their families tables, even Edwards 2 though normally in a family the father, mother and most children work. Class distinctions are more then just working conditions they are also how the people conduct themselves. For example in the higher class when someone dies, the women do not generally attend the funeral because they are stereotyped as being too emotional to attend. Also in the higher class they do not observe the body after it has died. In the lower class everyone attends a person’s funeral. It is almost rude not too attend a person’s funeral, they celebrating the person who has just died not morn over them. The lower class also has a viewing of the body for friends and family. The Industrial Revolution played a major role in the creation of the North and of the South. Until factories started being built everything was rural. Once factory town started being built ways of life changed and class standards changed.