Reading “Workers”, I couldn’t help but feel a certain identification with the writer and myself. He lived a relatively privileged life, with opportunities and decisions regularly available to him; I myself having some of those freedoms, although not to the same extent. He goes into great detail about feeling different from the menial worker, the “day-laborer”, mainly as he cannot identify with them, describing them as “disadvantaged.” I share this characteristic, not ever feeling that working a menial job necessary for day-to-day living.
This isn’t to say I haven’t worked, as I would term, “crap jobs.” I worked at a gas station for four years of my life, working my way from third shift cashier to store manager in my first two. I’ve also worked as a “phone person” at a local take-out restaurant, a cashier at an arcade in the mall and a short-lived auto maintenance mechanic. Not once in any of these jobs did I feel that they were permanent careers, as I simply viewed them as a way to pay my expenses as I decided what I wanted to do with my life.
The story itself was very intriguing, as it gives the impression of a man who would be viewed as aristocratic by some. A steady theme throughout the story is that he never felt that he was on the same level as those around him, as he viewed them as disadvantaged or trapped within the confines of their own jobs. He seemed almost envious of them, however, because he found their way of life very simplistic and he felt he would never know that kind of simplicity.
2 comments:
To me, he also seemed arrogant. But I appreciate your point of view!
I especially liked the last paragraph in which you talked about the theme of Rodriguez speaking about people being "disadvantaged or trapped by the confines of their own jobs". I think that this was a very important point in the essay. Also, I think that it is an important difference in our lives that we have worked "crap jobs", but we viewed it as a means to an end, not with some kind of permanence.
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