1. Barbara Einreich chooses a hands on approach to learning about the blue collar experience. After describing the characters who she is working with, and the circumstances they work in, as a reader I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. There is literally nothing good about their situations. These people have little to no opportunity to move up the class ladder. They are bound by what they do not have. I think Einreich is trying to shine a light on the destructive cycle which blue collars workers are so often slaves to. It is easy for people of a higher class to say “just get a better job, or another job, or work harder”. But as we see in this essay, it is nearly impossible to just keep one job, and even then, it weighs on your mental health.
2. Einreich is a wonderful writer! She did an amazing job illustrating the slippery slope that is the waitressing job. After reading this, I feel like in order for a person to escape this dead end, one would have to put forth a lot of effort and take a lot of risks. Einreich has showed us in this essay, that taking risks and putting forth any extra effort is not a realistic option for these people, which is by no means any fault of theirs. If any effort is put forth to improve a person’s economic class, I think it would have to be made at a younger age, before they get stuck working a a Jerry’s, or as a housekeeper. People can use education to learn a trade, and begin to build a career. This probably seems impossible to people who do not have it modeled for them, which is why they blindly enter the cycle of blue collar work, careers which end right where they began.
Hey, Bronte.
ReplyDeleteGreat work, here. I really liked the line "They are bound by what they do not have." Spot-on thought! Indeed, many undermine the serious implications of poverty and thus underestimate the difficulty in escaping the grips of low-income life. However, it seems that the reading complimented your understanding of this complex problem.