Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
The fictional narrative of the shirtwaist factory fire, Ashes or Roses, shows the story gruesomely through the tale of Rose Nolan, a teenage Irish immigrant. After crossing the sea with her family in hopes of a better life, she is later left with her sister Maureen in America upon their refusal to leave with their family back to Ireland. They struggle to make do, Rose working in a sweatshop to support her sister as she goes to school. Later on, they were taken in by a Russian family. Rose is helped by a fellow teenager, Gussie, to gain a job in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. She makes good money there, and later on gets her sister a job. In the end of the book she wears her beautiful dress, made for her by her mother, to work. The pattern was Ashes of Roses. The book ends in tragedy after she is caught in the blaze of the fire in the Factory. With gruesome detail of her escape from the fire, and the deaths of all of her friends and her sister, we come to a better understanding of the fear and horror the young girls went through on that day.