Blue Collar Working

In “From Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich and "Blue-Collar Brilliance" by Mike Rose, there are both similarities and differences between these two essays.

As far as similarities go, there aren’t that many huge similarities. Both the female characters have these jobs that are taxing and pay them minimally. Rose’s mother is a waitress and she has all this ripping and running to do around the restaurant as well as maintaining a good relationship with the guests. Ehrenreich’s main character, which may be her in fact, spends a lot of time cleaning houses at a quick pace regardless of their size.

These stories differ quite a bit for me.  Rose’s stories is almost a success story. His uncle starts with a menial blue collar auto job and then is able to work his way up to make a nice living for himself by challenging himself mentally to problem solve and make innovation happen. However, there is no silver lining for Ehrenreich’s character. She is at the bottom and she stays there for the whole of the story. Rose spends a large part of his story talking about the intelligence and how it is incorrectly measured because those who work blue collar jobs have an intelligence that is pertinent for the jobs their working that isn’t possessed by those with white collar jobs. Ehrenreich’s characters all seem to be stuck with this job. It is not that they have possessed this brilliant knowledge of cleaning homes and are in the place that they were meant to be. Rose’s story has this undertone of fulfillment but Ehrenreich’s absolutely does not.

I agree more with Ehrenreich’s story just because I am a waitress and it’s not the way that I want to make my living for the rest of my life. I feel that it is degraded and unnecessary with its methods that are assigned like her narrator does. It’s merely a means to an end because I’m in school and I am not educated enough to work a white-collar job that I’d enjoy. I also kind of agree with Rose’s story, too, though. I enjoy my waitressing job and I agree that it takes a certain kind of person to be able to do it and do it well. Multi-tasking and problem solving aren’t strong suits for everybody but it’s still a hard thing to do when you are serving other people food.