Union Street by Alice Barker is a novel about different stages in women's lives. It starts out with a young girl who gets raped and ends with a dying old lady on a park bench. We get to follow the women through their problems such as bad marriages, money problems and getting old. The novel is written in the 1980's and is set in the poorer parts of London. This essay is going to discuss if this novel is the same text as Wigan Pier Revisited, which is a text about poverty and politics in the 80's where the biggest losers are the women. It is going to look into three areas that is the bigger part of a woman's life at this time and place. This essay is going to examine following features, marriage, money and the problems that comes with getting old.

In Union street most of the women are "forced" to get married to men they do not love. Mostly because they are pregnant but also because they feel like they have to get married to make it into a better life style. In most cases this ends with a disaster, where the women are abused and supposed to stay at home to take care of the children and the household, not to work. In Wigan Pier revisit

To conclude, I argue that Wigan's Pier Revisited and Union Street are not the same text. In Wigan's Pier Revisited you can sense that the women have freed themselves a bit more and that they are fighting for better work, a better life and they do not have such a harsh sight on single mothers. In Union Street you are almost doomed if you have a baby without being married, the women stay at home and do not go to work after they got married and you cannot sense the fighting spirit, they just accept their "destiny". In my opinion Union Street is a rather depressing book although it has its bright spots. Wigan's Pier Revisited shows us to the facts that teenage mothers can make it on their own that women work and that there is an interest in politics, they are trying to change their situation.

id not want to take care of her they decided to put her in one; this ended in Alice taking her own life. In Wigan's Pier Revisited it says that "today's generation of old women may be the last to live a lifetime of socially accepted wagelessness." This is showing us to a change in the society, where women no longer will be at home working as much as they used to; they will start working, and as a result to this there will be no old ladies without pension. In Union Street there is no sign showing that there is going to be or is a change coming.

Getting old is a real problem for women at this time since they have not been working they do not get a pension and have therefo

Some common words found in the essay are:
Pier Revisited, Union Street, Street Alice, Alice Barker, Wigan Pier, pier revisited, union street, wigan's pier revisited, wigan's pier, Wigan's Pier, wigan pier revisited, wigan pier, union street alice, pier revisited text, bring home money, street women, women home, street alice, home married, care children, home money,
Approximate Word count = 995
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)