Monday, February 17, 2014
blue collar brilliance and from nickel and dimed
Blue collar Brilliance by Mike Rose is basically about achieving the so desired "American Dream" he talks about hard work and dedication. He even talks about how his mother, with barely any education was still able to live a good life as a waitress and excel at her job. He explains how his mother got so good at her job she could even read the costumers body language and was able to multi-task like no other. He also talks about how his uncle barely made it passed 9th grade and started working on the railroads in Pennsylvania and later on joined the navy to protect his country. After the navy, he returned to the railroads which were on decline and later on joined his brother at General Motors where he started working on the assembly of the cars and throughout a 33 year carreer there he moved up in ranks all the way to supervising the paint and body department. That right there is a great example of the "American Dream" because he worked so hard until he finally reached a position where he was able to make an impact in a big company while making more money. America needs people like them, people that have passion for what they do and are willing to do whatever it takes to get somewhere. He concluded with "This is a model of the mind that is worthy of democratic society". By this he means that society needs to appreciate what hard working people do, even though Joe and Rosie weren't CEO's of a big company or anything like that they still work hard for their goals and tried their best to make an impact and they deserve respect for that. In Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehreirich, is about a woman who hates the fact that the company she works for, charges 25 dollars per hour to clean a house while the maid who cleans it gets barely over 6 dollars an hour, she goes into detail on how much she hates her new job, she is so unhappy and describes it as "mental and physically draining" . Basically throughout the whole reading all she does is complain about how hard she works and never gets anything out of it. She ends it with saying that she say someone playing a song and at the end she gives them a dollar, the equivalent of 10 minutes of sweat and hard work. Sometimes in order to achieve the "american dream" you also need luck and she did not have it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
There is a very huge difference between this two writers in both their style and their beliefs. They are similar only in the way that they both have hard working jobs that they have to give there all at. But that is it, when it comes to Mike Rose belief on how work is and what it means he completely goes for hard work and dedication and with this he believes and has proof that you can go far and achieve the American dream that everyone desires and wants. It is not about luck it is not about what kind of life you were born into that effects how you can live you’re life it all depends on how hard you try and how much you are willing to give for you’re dreams. Barbara Ehreirich, seems to have a very different view point when it comes to this. She is one of those people that just complains on and on about how bad something is and instead of ever look at the positives she only sees the negative in both her life and her work and the people around her. It is a very low way to live you’re life. Unlike Rose she is digging a rut for herself that she will not be able to get out of unless she changes her state of mind and decides on her own to achieve something more if she is so unhappy in the place she is at. You may not ever become a CEO of a big company or make millions of dollars but if you believe and you strive you can build a life for yourself that you can be proud of. This is what Rose is trying to get across and what Ehreirich will probably never understand. She believes the world is out to get her and he believes that the world is his ouster. Two very different people living different lives just based on their state of mind alone.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the examples you used from blue collar brilliance. I think it shows that hard work and dedication do not directly correlate with education. After reading blue collar brilliance, I came to the conclusion that doing a low paying job like being a waitress or owning a small gardening business can require just as much hard work as being an attorney or CEO. I like how he built up from the bottom and got a good paying job after working hard with little education. I also agree that america needs more people that value hard work instead of strictly power or the size their paycheck will be at the end of the month. the idea of the american dream really does represent Mike Roses story. In Nickel and Dimed, I agree that it is obnoxious for the maid actually doing the work to get less money than the higher up people. It really does come down to the people who had the idea in the first place. They arent going to pay someone who just makes the idea a reality. The person who does the work deserves the most money, but thats not how it works in most places.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading both essays I can say that depending on how and where you were raised, blue collar can come with the same ideas as these authors have. Both authors realize that although they do have blue collar jobs and it may not pay as much as a CEO position of a major company, they at least were provided with the opportunity to have an income; which is a lot more than some can say. Both authors also show what blue collar working is like in America. Slogans to catch peoples eye and promises that are not fulfilled because of time restraints. In contrast, these two essays are different in the way each author personally describes their job. Rose believes that his skills will aid him in the future, give him certain advantages when applying himself to different situations, and believes that not feeling sorry for yourself will help your outlook on life. On the other hand, Erhenreich portrays the job to be lousy, and mentions several times that she almost feels degraded and belittled. While I do agree that some jobs are ridiculous when asking their employee's to do certain things to attract customers, I also believe that as an employee you have to go above and beyond of what they are asking if you ever want to be promoted. It isn't always about the job title you hold, its about getting what you want out of the job. (i.e. money, experience, or skills)
ReplyDeleteMike Rose’s “Blue Collar Brilliance” extols the immense mental, physical and social capacities that are required to excel at blue collar work. Although Rose doesn’t spend much time expressing his opinion about the ethics and/or mind-set of the typical blue collar worker, he does, however, heavily discuss the ability of blue collar workers to accomplish difficult tasks without much formal training. Similar to Rose’s piece, in “Nickel and Dimed”, Barbara Ehrenreich illustrates the grueling physical demands of an employee of a cleaning service. The connotation behind her language, in many areas of her piece, criticizes the conditions under which employees of the cleaning service are required to work. Nonetheless, she highlights the fact that working for a cleaning service, a blue collar job, requires both mental and physical endurance. The two authors disagree on the outcomes of blue collar work; however this clashing of opinions is not unwarranted. Rose discloses the fact that his uncle had been promoted after working for over a decade at an automobile manufacturing plant. Ehrenreich includes in her account the fact that one of her superiors, Tammy, was once a maid and had been promoted. Although both authors disagree on the personal details of blue collar work, they both agree that working for a long time can result in advancement in any given field. In short, views and opinions about blue collar work and the right of a worker to express grief about his/her job and/or economic situation are completely circumstantial. The secondary account of one man’s relatives and the account of a maid cannot possibly illustrate the “right way” to view blue collar work as it relates to economic status and work conditions.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteafter reading both essay I can say I have some of the same views as you do, like how people who neccesarly have the best education or any education at all can still work their ass off and achieve some sort of respect from others and make a name for them self's such as joe and rosie who didn't have very much education and still worked their way up the ranks in their jobs to gives themselves some kind of title that someone else can respect, which is the American dream having some sort of power and enough money to live comfortably while making changes and a difference in the world and do better than your parents did, the American dream ultimately is to move up in the world and do better for your self and your family....
ReplyDeleteBoth readings of work show how blue collar jobs can be very demanding and a lot more difficult than people seem to think. In “Blue Collar Brilliance” the author shows how both Rosie and Joe are passionate about their jobs and they seem content with working where and how they do. The author sheds light on the jobs that most of us would not want to work at for the rest of our lives. He shows how they have learned so much and grown to be almost experts at what they do. The author also talks about how blue collar jobs such as waitressing, hairdressing, and working as a mechanic actually require a good amount of knowledge to be successful at it, even though most people working these jobs are not fully educated. He describes Rosie and Joe as smart, skilled people even though they were both dropouts. This piece seemed positive for the most part. As for the other reading, “From Nickel and Dimed,” seemed quite the opposite – on the negative side of the spectrum. The author paints a vivid picture of what it is like to work at a blue collar job as a maid. Everything that the author describes is awful. Her work is demanding, difficult, and low-paying. She is always rushed, tired, and sweaty. She talks about all of the various rules of her job, most being extremely ridiculous. She talks about the way she performs many duties of her job. And mostly she talks about how underpaid she is at her job. The author made this piece about a blue collar job very negative.
ReplyDelete