Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty
In his play "Waiting for Lefty" Clifford Odets attempts to stir up the weary American public of the 1930s by providing examples of everyday people who, with some coaxing, rise above the capitalist mess they've inherited and take control of their destinies. In his work, Odets paints the common man as honest, sacrificial, and exploited, while big business and the government are portrayed as the proletariat's enemies, anonymous corporations of rich men intent on shattering dreams. Odets makes his point clear: in order to survive in the cutthroat world of Depression-era America, one must band with others, make necessary sacrifices, and live for oneself, not for a paycheck or in a deluded fantasy-state.
The play's centerpiece, the gradual movement towards a strike for a group of taxi drivers, begins with an anti-striker, aptly named Fatt both for his physical and fiscal qualities, delivering a speech railing against the notion of a strike. Using unity as a means to coerce the dissatisfied workers into sedation, he proclaims, "I'm against the strike. Because we gotta stand behind the man [FDR] who's standin' behind us!" (5) As Fatt and a man branded a communist by Fatt debate the strike, Odets plunges into a short episode about a taxi driver and his wife, intended to relate to the common man as much as possible in its simple names, vernacular, and emotions. Joe's reluctance to strike for more money, based mostly on fear of being blacklisted, is criticized harshly by wife Edna: "They'll push you down to three and four a week before you know it. Then you'll say, "That's somethin' too!...I know this - your boss is making suckers outa you boys every minute." (9-10) Joe remains unconvinced until Ode...
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...nce of a youth that dreams of more. Their state of abjection is summed up by Sid: "If we went off together I could maybe look the world straight in the face, spit in its eye like a man should do. Goddamnit, it's trying to be a man on the earth." (20) The overwhelming sense of isolation and impotence he feels is brought to a boiling point when he and Florence breakdown (22) as they become increasingly aware of their rutted existence. Their wretchedness becomes an Odetsian admonition to resist escapism and surrender.
Odets returns to the taxi strike at the end with Communist connotations: "AGATE: WE'RE STORMBIRDS OF THE WORKING-CLASS. WORKERS OF THE WORLD." (31) With a resounding chorus of "STRIKE," (36) Odets has placed a challenge for blue-collar America to rise past individual fears, place faith in mass demonstration, and possibly adopt a Communist revolution.
...He insists that the laboring classes of New York City have been betrayed by self-seeking politicians. Evans tells his fellow workers that they are equally entitled to a just and satisfying life and to use all lawful means to attain it. Many other issues disturbed workers: lack of (or charges for) children’s education, poll taxes, and the wealthy’s escape from militia service. Labor parties faded quickly, and after that workers usually joined the Jacksonian Democrats.
"an unjust law is no law at all."- quote by St. Augustine who was an Christian theologian and philosopher, whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity. Martin Luther King Jr. was a baptist minister and civil rights leader that made advancements for civil rights peacefully, exclusively for African Americans in America. Mohandas Gandhi was a non-violent leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule. Accordingly, both MLK Jr. and Gandhi were leaders for civil rights that practiced and preached non-violent approaches for their freedom.Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi were both valid in their judgment to break the law for their peaceful protests.
The political crucifiction of the early blue-collar industrial worker was directly caused by organized labor. Before such ‘organization, existed, workers flew under the political radar in the best of ways. They were allowed to live peaceful lives and given the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In fact, the commodore Andrew Carnegie had achieved the American dream in his rags to riches advancement and he offered the same opportunity for each of his workers. However, the arrival of the ‘organized’ labor movement drowned the worker’s chance at mobility. A cursory run through central terms of the question begs us to answer what is considered “organized” and “labor”. Organized can be...
A second major similarity between the two women is their personality of being non-confrontational. Both women, in a sense, let others “walk over them”. Ruth is dominated by her husband, Walter, for the most part and Stella by her husband, Stanley, and sister Blanche. When situations are tense, both characters try to avoid the confrontational subject or shy away when it is brought up. For example, when Walter adamantly keeps trying to force Ruth into supporting his business ideals at breakfast-which she doesn’t agree with-she tries to change the subject by repeatedly telling Walter to eat his eggs (Hansberry 1.
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man 's needs, but not every man 's greed.” As humans, we work countless hours in order to have a greater opportunity to succeed in life to fulfill our wants. F Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, utilizes effective language and punctuation in the text in order to accomplish his purpose: Illustrate what material goods does to a society. From a rhetorical standpoint, examining logos, ethos, and pathos, this novel serves as a social commentary on how pursuing the “The American Dream” causes people in society to transform into greedy and heartless individuals.
During the industrializing era in the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century, unskilled laborers and skilled blue-collar men struggled to even put food on their tables; the emerging middle class struggled greatly as well, but had little trouble feeding themselves in this time period. It was the wealthy elite who prospered in this period, dining and living lavishly. Labor leaders and reformers tried to used many tactics to persuade prosperous Americans to concern themselves with the issues of the day; the main tactic used was the manipulation of emotion to get others to join the reformers’ cause. This trend was part of a greater global pattern of economic insecurity in the United States, which only heightened during the Great Depression in the decades to come.
Stories about life 's struggle to survive in everyday America can make one think twice of the American dream. In David Shipler’s book The Working Poor, David tells many different tales of people living in poverty and also analyzes what 's wrong and why. The book’s portrayal of the poor is not for the meek however, as one reviewer exclaims, “Through a series of sensitive, sometimes heart-rending portraits”, (Lenkowsky). In the book a lot of American ideologies are turned on its head as The Red Phoenix explains how our poor are viewed as, “Wealth and decadence are the tell-tale signs of hard work and brilliance paying off, while poverty is a sign of laziness, irresponsibility and a disposition or work-ethic undeserving of the
... stealing, and sleeping with random women, there was no way they could help make the United States a better place. The commercial class needed such people in order for their own business’s to prosper, yet they still disapproved how the lower class spent its free time. Instead of helping change the lower class’s lifestyle, the commercial class just complained about it.
The American stock market took a turn for the worse in 1929. This infamous crash left many Americans monetarily starved. This is poverty is seen in stories such as As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner and “Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. However, Americans were poor long before the Great Depression. The Modernist movement, which started at the end of the First World War, showed how postwar Americans experienced an absence. In As I Lay Dying and “Babylon Revisited”, the theme of poverty is used to represent the absence that Americans were feeling during the Modernist movement.
The lack of verbal communication between his father and himself can be seen in his poem "Those Winter Sundays." The overall impression of the poem is that love can be communicated in other ways than through words; it can be communicated through everyday, mundane actions. For example, in the poem, the father awakens on "Sundays too" to warm the house with a fire and polish his sons shoes. There is a sense of coldness in the beginning of the poem through the lines:
Some poets see their father with a new found appreciation. For example, in Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays,” the narrator expresses his appreciation for his father when he poses the question: “What did I know, what did I know / of love’s austere and lonely offices?” (Hayden 13-14). As a child, it is hard to gain an appreciation for one’s father because one does not think about how much a father does for his child. When the speaker grows older, he reflects on his childhood and realizes how much his father has done for him. Everything that the father did for his son and family was done out of love, and the father did not gain any recognition at all. One example of the father helping his family is when he builds the fires to keep the household warm:
Love is not just a feeling, but a commitment and sacrifice as well. In “Those Winter Sundays”, author Robert Hayden tells the story of a hardworking father waking up in the cold to kindle a fire, while his indolent son ungratefully slumps from his warm bed. The relationship between these two show that love can be shown in a variety of ways, but the diction and figurative language used by Hayden convey that sacrifice is the most subtle approach.
Thousands of workers poured into the street. Due to the careful planning and preparation, the entire trucking industry was shut down. Nothing moved without union permission. The socialist leaders developed the ingenious idea of cruising pickets in order to achieve a total shutdown of the trucking industry. Strikers were stationed at payphones throughout the city.
...restrictions in the forms of laws or minor regulations. So too does Alex express this interest. Although among today’s youth it is not common to be rioting or embarking on a homicide spree, Alex feels this is his way of living a carefree life. However, as a result of his liberty being “denied,” he attempts to vent his anger by committing suicide. Again, today’s teens do not generally veer towards those extremes. The parallel reaction in today’s youth to Alex’s reaction would be the excessive usage of innuendo, free use of the vernacular, indulgence in pleasure of any and all kinds, and the exhibition of mock violence to alleviate angst. It is interesting that there is such a shocking similarity between our world and that of the novel because the novel was written in 1963, at which time there were certainly many differences between teens’ views then and those of today.
In preparation for this reflection paper, I read the texts, reflected on my life experiences, and then identified the following key theme. David Shipler’s “The Working Poor,” The fact that people in the social welfare system do work at menial jobs and not necessarily because they are required by welfare to do so, shows that most people do want to contribute and be a part of working society. While reading the about the families in New Hampshire, I was reminded of the classism that occurred between the two worlds of rich and poor. In stark contrast to rural New Hampshire, southern New Hampshire where I grew up is an hour outside of Boston, the area I lived in was filled with pilots and executives. Besides being rich everyone had the expectation that their child would go to college. My town looked like a Norman Rockwell painting and for its size boasted two country clubs. Upon turning sixteen teenagers would receive the newest sports car. This in contrast to the rural New Hampshire people in Shipler’s book, who are a captive audience to the mill’s opening and closing or downsizing and ultimately the victims to the corporate bottom line. Likewise what struck me was how people in my town used to refer to the northerners, making fun of them (and this was the adults), Now, I can see that a firm link between making money and being good was established for me growing up where I did and with the class of people I associated with. Furthermore, when I read “Glass Castles” by Jeannette Walls, the family had moved to Welch one boy in particular was determined to put Jeannette and her siblings in their place by shouting “ Garbage! You live in garbage ‘cause you are garbage!” How does this relate to “The Working Poo...