What Work Is Jim Grayson Analysis

1537 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Ethos and pathos and logos how is it used in essay

If you’ve worked in your life then you know that working takes effort, dedication, and hard work. Work for many can also be a struggle just like it was for the main character in “What Work Is” by Philip Levine and for Jim Grayson’s in his interview in “Working” by Studs Terkel. Both the man in “What Work Is” and Jim Grayson are struggling with their experiences with work. The man in “What Work Is” cannot find a job and his brother is overworked, Jim Grayson has a job but it 's very tedious and he doesn’t spend much time with family. Work is a struggle as proved by Philip Levine and Jim Grayson, they conveyed this by using ethos, pathos, and logos as well as literary elements and techniques. Jim Grayson and Philip Levine both realize that …show more content…

Jim has a young son and a wife but “ My alarm clock goes off in the mornings when I go to school. I come back home...put on some other clothing. I go to ford and spend the night there”(Terkel 227) His schedule is so packed that he goes from school straight to his job. We guess that time does not allow much interaction between him and his family. He probably misses them but it is a sacrifice he must make in order to provide for his family. Jim struggles balancing the important things in his life. Now Philip Levine uses pathos in “What Work Is” because the main character misses his brother. He does not see him and he imagines him in other people. He does not remember the last time he told him he loved him …show more content…

Both Jim and the main character of the poem need a job. They need a job in order to survive. Jim has to endure hard labor and the man from the poem has to wait in line for a job for hours. That is why the man is struggling because he knows that there aren’t any jobs available but he so badly needs one. It is logical that they need the money, they need food and a home. If they have a family they have to support them, they have to take care of all their needs especially if they are young children. Working is struggling but not working also causes a struggle. Either way work is necessary to

Show More
Related

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

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Foster Portfolio By Kurt Vonnegut

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    Vonnegut construes Jim’s occupation is evaluating bond value and handling large sums money for a living, as a result he is superficial and judges based on the bountifulness he sees. Although he does not seem to have acquired any substantial amount of money, he adopts the appearance of a victorious businessman because of the desperation he has that one day he will become one. “Since I don’t have a portfolio, my job is a little like being a hungry delivery boy for a candy store” (Vonnegut 59). He puts on a clean fake façade of the man he really wants to

    Read More

  • Andrew Curry's Why We Work By Barbara Ehrenreich

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today’s society you either have to work hard to live a good life, or just inherit a lump sum of cash, which is probably never going to happen. So instead a person has to work a usual nine to five just to put food on the table for their families, and in many cases that is not even enough. In the article, “Why We Work” by Andrew Curry, Curry examines the complexities of work and touches on the reasons why many workers feel unsatisfied with their jobs. Barbara Ehrenreich writes an essay called, “Serving in Florida” which is about the overlooked life of being a server and the struggles of working off low minimum wages. Curry’s standpoint on jobs is that workers are not satisfied, the job takes control of their whole life, and workers spend

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast How Not To Get Into College 'And'somnambulist'

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem describes workers to be “Killing the overtime ‘cause the dream is your life, / Refusing to take holidays or go home to your spouse, / But for many the overtime comes, ‘cause the work is not done. / Deadlines to be met. So you continue to dream like a war vet, / Having flashbacks to make you shiver and scream” (Jones, stanza 7, lines 2-6). Jones reinforces that overworking for an incentive of money does not give one a sense of gratification, and it also distracts them from the values that should matter more to them than anything else. Both Kohn and Jones have a similar approach to showing the reader the effect that overworking can have on a person, and how it will change their values in life, causing unhappiness. Many students go through school dispirited and do not join various clubs and activities for their own enjoyment. A friend of Kohn’s who was also a high school guidance counsellor had a student with ‘…amazing grade and board scores. It remained only to knock out a dazzling essay on his college applications that would clinch the sale. “Why don’t we start with some books that

    Read More

  • Out of this Furnace, by Thomas Bell

    1145 Words  | 3 Pages

    Working in the mills is physically demanding. The work that men due are dangerous and accidents and injuries take place at the mill. Life in the steel towns involves the same twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week. Every week there is a shift of working days and nights. On turn days the men work a twenty-hours straight, which leads to tempers and accidents. “Hope sustained him, as it sustained them all; hope and the human.” (Bell, 47) They hoped that the jobs would be there and the money would steadily come in. As Pervosky says, “No work, no pork, no money, no boloney.” (Bell, 268) Without work the men would not be able to provide for their families.

    Read More

  • Dorianne Laux's What I Wouldn T Do

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is safe to say that work comes in many different forms. Whether it be a fast food or a corporate, the people that surround an individual make a great impact on the way he or she may work. Singapore, by Mary Oliver, is about a young woman working as a custodian in an airport who although works alone, enjoys her work and the people she meets. Dorianne Laux’s What I Wouldn’t Do, introduces another young woman reviewing the jobs she has had throughout time and reflects on those that she liked and disliked. Hard Work, by Stephen Dunn, exemplifies a young boy working in a soda factory during his summer break. Searching for happiness in life and work is just what these individuals are doing.

    Read More

  • Work In An Industrial Society By Erich Fromm

    1647 Words  | 4 Pages

    Currently, human beings are thinking more on the line of they need work in order to make a living. For that reason, work has become meaningless, disagreeable, and unnatural. Many view work as a way to obtain money and not a meaningful human activity that one does for themselves. The author states that there are two reactions of the alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of the modern industrial work. One being the ideal of complete laziness and the other, hostility towards work. Fromm believes the reason why people have animosity regarding work is due to their unconscious mind. Subconsciously, a person has “a deep-seated, hostility towards work and all that is connected to it” says Fromm. I believe what Fromm is saying to be true, after all I witness it everyday. Millions of people each day goes to a work which they are dissatisfied with and that can negatively impact their attitude

    Read More

  • C. Wright Mills' The Sociological Imagination

    1763 Words  | 4 Pages

    An ordinary man may get depressed about being unemployed and automatically accept it as his own personal problem. He will be condemned as being ‘lazy’ or ‘work-shy’ and labelled simply as a. The ‘scrounger’. The ‘scrounger’. However, there are thousands of other individuals also. unemployed, Mills argues it should then be treated as a ‘public’.

    Read More

  • The Working Poor Summary

    1315 Words  | 3 Pages

    Poverty is a tremendous problem in the United States. Unfortunately, many of the families who are living in poverty have much more difficulty finding good jobs than those who are not. In The Working Poor, by David Shipler, there are many different circumstances that cause people to get to that point. Many of those in poverty have too many barriers in their way for them to be able to rise above the poverty line and support themselves. Some circumstances that cannot be avoided like disabilities or being born into a poor household can create biases that make it more difficult to get employment. Seeing what causes many to become impoverished and how some people were able to rise above the poverty line may be beneficial to others and possibly prevent

    Read More

  • Serving In Florida Rhetorical Analysis

    886 Words  | 2 Pages

    Work. How many different ways can there be to write about work? Well, the author of "Serving in Florida", Barbara Ehrenreich, lives a privileged lifestyle which gives her the option to leave her low income job allowing her to be more critical and judgmental of low income jobs in comparison to Lars Eighner, the author of "On Dumpster Diving", who is trapped, being homeless, so he is more accepting of people who have low income jobs, or no jobs at all. Although, there are many similarities between these two pieces, the author's background plays a large role in their writing style and opinions of similar topics.

    Read More

  • What Work in Canada Will Look Like in the Future?

    1847 Words  | 4 Pages

    Watson, T. (2008) The Meaning of Work. The Sociology of Work and Industry. London: Routledge.

    Read More

  • Persuasive essay on Hard Work

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hard work is challenging work. But why does it have to be challenging work? Because challenging work, when intelligently chosen, pays off. It’s the work that people of lesser character will avoid. And if you infer that I’m saying people who avoid challenging work have a character flaw, you’re right… and a serious one at that. If you avoid challenging work, you avoid doing what it takes to succeed. To keep your muscles strong or your mind sharp, you need to challenge them. To do only what’s easy will lead to physical and mental flabbiness and very mediocre results, followed by a great deal of time and effort spent justifying why such flabbiness is OK, instead of stepping up and taking on some real challenges.

    Read More

  • Good Times of My life

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many instances in the poem that suggest the narrator was in an economically disadvantageous situation. His/her father was paying the rent for him/her. “The light is back on” clearly suggests that the electricity was cut off more likely because he/she was unable to pay for the utilities. In addition, the insurance company agent probably came to make sure that the family could afford the insurance for the house. All these add up to prove that the family was poor and living a difficult life.

    Read More

  • Rational Organizational Design

    1503 Words  | 4 Pages

    DONKIN, R (2001) Blood, Sweat and Tears: The Evolution of Work London: Texere. (Ch. 11 – Western Electric Discovers Motivation).

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of What Work Is By Philip Levine

    1156 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem, “What Work Is” by Philip Levine is an intricate and thought-provoking selection. Levine uses a slightly confusing method of describing what work actually is. He gives the idea that work is very tedious, however necessary. It is miserable, however, it is a sacrifice that is essentially made by many, if not all able-bodied members of society. Many have to sacrifice going to a concert or a movie, but instead works jobs with hardly a manageable salary. This poem seems to have a focus on members of the lower-class or middle-class who live paycheck to paycheck and are unable to put money away for a future for their children or for a vacation and how difficult life can be made to be while living under this type of circumstance. Levine

    Read More

More about What Work Is Jim Grayson Analysis

Open Document