Maggie Holmes And Dave Bender's Perceptions Of Work By Studs Terkel

Studs Terkel published a nonfiction Working which consists many interviews among different people’s descriptions of their jobs. Through this book, Terkel demonstrates the meaning of work to different people and how their work experiences shape their attitudes about their lives. Among these interviewers, Maggie Holmes is a domestic while Dave Bender is a factory owner. Although their wages are different, Maggie Holmes and Dave Bender’s attitudes about their works are contradictory. People who love their works are passionate and happy about their lives and express less complain than those people who do not like their jobs. People’s attitudes about their works can influence their views of lives. In Maggie Holmes’s interview, she keeps

Holmes describes, “If you work in one of them houses eight hours, you gotta come home do the same thing over… you don’t feel like… (sighs softly)… tired. You gotta come home, take care of your kids, you gotta cook, you gotta wash” (Terkel 115). By using the word “gotta” repeatedly, Holmes conveys her helplessness about the inescapable housework. She feels pessimistic as a domestic because she has to do housework not only for her host but also for her family. But the only difference is that she can get pay by cleaning for her host while doing housework at her house is a responsibility for her family. Therefore, she becomes indifference and even painful about her life. In contract, Dave Bender views himself as an engineer who has new thoughts and creates inventions. Bender keeps emphasizing “I love my work” in his interview and he works from six to five thirty per day. Sometimes, he works on Sunday and he says that vacation “is the worst

For example, a person usually has a negative point of view about the people who treat him or her unjustly when he or she works for them. Consequently, this person would feel dissatisfied with his or her work or even hate it. Maggie Holmes reveals that when she worked at her host’s house, her host says she does not have a mop. But the true is that she hides the mop in the clothes closet. This is the reason “why many black women here got rheumatism in their legs, knees” when they use their knee to mop the cold floor many times (Terkel 113). Holmes’s host not only lie to her but also try to call Holmes “nigger”. As a result, Holmes indicates that “most time I don’t call her” (Terkel 115). Through a series of unjust treatments on Holmes, she begins to feel unfair about being a domestic, especially when she talks about her kids. She illustrates “I don’t want my kids to come up and do domestic work… You can’t see no tomorrow there” (Terkel 116). From Holmes’s description about her work experience, audiences can feel that Holmes’s depression, but she needs this job in order to survive. On the other hand, Dave Bender would like to be called Dave instead of Mr. Bender. “When they called me Mr. Bender, I think they’re being sarcastic. I don’t feel like a boss to them. I feel like a chum-buddy” (Terkel 396). Perhaps some people might say the Bender is phony because he doesn’t