Dorothy Day was and still is an inspiration to many people. She devoted most her life to the community that she served, and to the poor and needy. Her movement for human dignity, prayer and works of mercy were uplifting to people who thought that no one cared for them. In good times and in bad, Dorothy had deep appreciation and learned to trust God. She passed on her incredible faith and gratitude to everyone she met and the Catholic Worker Movement.
Dorothy Day's autobiography The Long Loneliness expressed Dorothy's search for spiritual satisfaction, trials of growing up, search for happiness, birth of her daughter Tamar and the Catholic Worker Movement and her friend Peter Maurin. .
Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn and grew up in a conventional middle-class home before the time of World War I. (Allaire and Broughton, pg. 2) Her father made his living by being a journalist, which later funneled Dorothy's interests in writing. Dorothy started going to church around ten, but never got real serious and involved in the church until later in her life. (Loneliness pg. 20) At sixteen, she won a scholarship and enrolled at the University of Illinois. (Loneliness pg. 40).
During the two years that she attended the University, she struggled to make it through college. She helped Nanny and house clean to stay at college and have a place to live. Dorothy started to write and got a job as a journalist. She began to see conditions that she did not like and went to many riots and protests. One significant situation that changed Dorothy's life was being jailed for protesting about women's suffrage. She was jailed and participated in a hunger strike for the inhumane treatment and the cruelty for being put in jail. Emotionally and physically drained from being locked up, she asked for a Bible to provide some comfort and strength. However she did not ask for God's help or seek God at this point in her life.