ABSTRACT
Evangelical preaching is quite a radical departure for Sip. For most of the novel, before Catty's death, when Sip speaks out, she speaks not of Christ or God but of workers' rights. She frequently laments the punishingly long work days and poor factory conditions under which her and Catty's mother worked, even while pregnant—conditions that likely contributed to her sister's physical and mental incapacities in utero, that cause Catty's incurable blindness halfway through the novel, and that continue to threaten, oppress, and "twist" Sip's entire generation of millworkers. This chapter focuses on the disability studies work of Rosemarie Garland Thomson. It also focuses on the form and content of Catty's words aims to chart her role in Sip's transformation into an evangelical preacher and to explore the contours of the "poor folks' religion" that is epitomized by Sip's emerging spiritual practice over the course of the novel.
