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Reflection on the work ethics
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Recommended: Reflection on the work ethics
As I was growing up I learned my work-ethic from watching the way my father worked, at his job as an engineer and around our home, which taught me that work is hard but necessary and that you get what you earn. The poems that I liked most and contained figurative language, perspective, and/or scene are “To Be of Use”, “Men Throwing Bricks”, “The Jobholder”, and “My Father Teaches Me to Dream”. Throughout my life I have been surrounded by, and been a part of the working class and know the problems faced when people who don’t understand their problems are in charge. I believe that the working class should receive the respect that they deserve and the world should change from just accommodating the rich.
When I first read these poems I had some beliefs that I had gathered from my own personal experiences such as giving the working class the respect that they deserve and that the world was made for the rich. The working class is largest percentage of people in the world and they should be treated with respect instead of being thought to be lazy workers. If you wouldn’t fight to have a specific job, then you should respect the person that would; especially if it is a less glamorous job. The other belief is that richest people run the world and this is a belief that is backed up by effects of current events, such as the maximum limit on campaign funds being eliminated. These beliefs, along my readings of the poems, leads me to the idea of equality being defined by having an equal say in decisions that affect us no matter how much money you make in a year. But the truth is that the more money you have the louder a voice you have on specific issues, which is the exact opposite the democratic process.
Since my earliest memories I have loo...
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... our actions will face them as well, no matter how rich they are.
Work has been a part of my life since before I was old enough to understand what work was, which is how I learned my work-ethic from my family. In the poems the use of figurative language, scene, and the perspective provide a look at the goods and the bad consequences of work. As I was reading these poems I started thinking about the ways that the poor are represented in the government and the way that the wealthy have molded the world for their own benefits. One of the poems that I didn’t discuss proved this point for me very well is “Guys Like That” which shows the ways the richer half uses its wealth to grow wealthier at the expense of the poorer. My beliefs in work can be changed based on my experiences and are based in facts from my own life, but my beliefs will change to accommodate new facts.
Coming from an “unconventional” background, George Saunders is readily able to relate to the circumstances the everyday working laborer goes through (Wylie). However, Saunders has an advantage to spread out his ideas and concerns about life in the U.S. via his short stories and novellas. Because of neoliberalism and capitalism and its correlation to the huge wealth gap in the U.S. Saunders focuses his protagonists’ view from a proletariat standpoint, allowing the reader to see the life of consumerism has impacted our society. Saunders does not use conventional methods to portray this reality. Instead, Saunders emphasizes on the “absence” of certain moral human characteristics in order to take the reader away from viewing into a hero’s looking glass— to set a foundation of a world where our morals become lost to our materialistic and inherent need of money (Wylie).
Life is not always easy, at some point, people struggle in their life. People who are in the lower class have to struggle for a job every day and people who are in upper class also have their own problems to deal with. These ideas are very clear in Mary Oliver’s “Singapore”, Philip Schultz’s “Greed” and Philip Levine “What Work Is”. In "Singapore" a woman is likely lower class because she works at the airport and her job is to clean the bathroom. In both “Greed” and “What Work Is”, the speakers make the same conclusion about the struggle in the lower class. “Greed” furthermore discusses how Hispanics get a job first before whites and blacks because they take lower wages. All three poems deal with class in term of the society. The shared idea
Audre Lorde wrote the famous poem, There Is No Hierarchy In Oppression, because she thought that attacks on lesbian woman and gay men were a black issue. She thought this because thousands of men and women were gay or lesbian. In her poem, she discusses the importance of recognition, acceptance, and celebration of these various subjectivities, both in terms of her own well-being, and in terms of social cohesion. In her poem, it says, “From my memberships in all these groups, I have learned that oppression and the intolerance of difference comes in all shapes, sex, colors, and personalities; and that among of those of us who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children, there can be no hierarchy of oppression.” She is saying that with her experiences, she discovered that anyone could discover oppression
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
The two poems are two extreme sides of the Negro mentality. They do not leave opportunity for other Blacks to move. They are both required complete conformity. The short story was about Blacks weighting their options. It shows that Blacks can think logically about their action.
Maya Angelou’s “Equality” depicts a more patient yet tenacious rebel than described in Dunbar’s poem. “You declare you see me dimly”, she begins, “through a glass that will not shine.” Maya describes the denial of her boldness, of her rebellion; but, she continues to march, chanting “Equality and I will be free. Equality and I will be free.” She identifies herself as a shadow, unimportant to those she opposes— but she intends to repeat the mantra “Equality and I will be free” until she is heard. The sixth stanza left me in literal tears (and I am not an emotional person, thank you very
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.
Sociologists often employ intersectionality theory to describe and explain facets of human interactions. This particular methodology operates on the notion that sociologically defining characteristics, such as that of race, gender, and class, are not independent of one another but function simultaneously to determine our individual social experiences. This is evident in poetry as well. The combination of one poet’s work that expresses issues on class with another poet’s work that voices issues on race, and so forth, can be analyzed through a literary lens, and collectively embody the sociological intersectionality theory.
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
Among the individuals who live within Homestead, there are some which possess a good understanding of mechanics and engineering. While driving through Homestead, Paul’s car breaks down as he runs into a group of laborers. As Paul gets out of his, the group starts theorizing about what is broken on the car, the oldest of the group says, “Sucking in air. I knew the minute I heard you coming a mile off” (Vonnegut 70). He proceeds to fix the fuel pump and, lo and behold he was right, that was the source of the problem. This individual does not lack the intellectual ability to become an engineer, but lacks the aspiration and ambition to do so. The working class has no purpose; they feel lesser hence they do not have goals or want to be anything other than what they are. Capitalism produces a system where the value of the worker becomes deflated. They are being alienated due to the circumstances surrounding them, the fact that machines are favored gives them the ideology that they cannot compete with a machine. They look down upon themselves and see that they are trapped where they are and no longer aspire to be anything else. In “World Without Work”, the author says “Most people want to work, and are miserable when they cannot” (Thompson). This state of being miserable and depressed stops these proletariats from seeing the bigger picture. They cannot see the end of the tunnel. They become stuck in
Bartleby has raised many question is out society, whether the past or present. The story can still be relevant in our society due to alienation between the capitalist and the workers. Many argue that jobs can dehumanize individuals because if one does not work as productively as a capitalist want them then they are deemed useless and are cast aside in the society. Capitalist hide behind mask to look as good as they can in front of the public and the public are as blind as they can be. Without questioning the capitalist, they follow and let themselves be dehumanized.
...sed society with religious overtones throughout the poem, as though religion and God are placing pressure on her. The is a very deep poem that can be taken in may ways depending on the readers stature yet one thing is certain; this poem speaks on Woman’s Identity.
This lack of action continuously emphasizes the lack of empathy and care of the narrators and highlights to the reader the importance of acting differently from them. Through both of these poems the reader is shown that everyone faces struggles and how important it is to help others in their times of need because they too will face them at some
Which means we become disconnected from who we are in the jobs we do. Doing the jobs that people do to support whatever is going on in their life makes them “depressed spiritually and physically to the condition of a machine.” Karl Marx says; that in itself is an enemy against Karl Marx question “what is it to be free?” because if we are slaves to our job then are we really free? We become detached from ourselves which doesn’t allow workers to express themselves in their nature which leads to emotionally issues due to lack of emotionally expression. To make the best out of physically and emotionally suppressing jobs individuals do, Karl Marx says to “see themselves in the objects they created” which means use the objects as a positive outlet like creativity or artistic ability because it reminds us who we are at the end of the day and we share our personal qualities in the things we produce.
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