Alienation means to be separated. In today's society, many people have jobs that they don't necessarily enjoy. However, the only reason that they keep their job is either because they know that they won't find another job with the same benefits, they have a family to support or they have other personal reasons for not leaving. In Karl Marx's excerpt of 1844, he elaborates on alienation between a worker and his labor. Within this excerpt he illustrates an example of a worker's feelings when it comes to being alienated from their job, he states "he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy..Only feels himself, outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself. He feels at home when he is not working...", it’s almost as if they're robots at work. The workers aren't allowed to be themselves while they're at their jobs; they have to maintain a certain image.  Most people have a dream career that they want as a child. However, maybe about four out of ten people make their dream come true. Sometimes their dreams change as they get older or life just gets in the way and they just have to settle for something else because it pays their bills.

    An example of alienation was illustrated in Stud Terkles book Working, a steel mill worker named Mike didn't feel any connection with the job he did. He felt that he was never given any recognition for the work and time that he put into being a steel mill worker. The alienation between Mike and his job caused him to be unhappy; in the interview he stated "my attitude is that I don't get excited about my job. I do my work but I don't say whoopee-doo", by his statement, it is easy to tell that Mike doesn't enjoy his job. When reading more into the interview, Mike also says "when I was single, I could quit, just split. I wandered all over the country. You work just enough to get a poke out of your pocket. Now I'm married and I got two kids..." by him saying this he’s basically showing the interviewer that , the only reason he stays is because he is married and has two children. When a worker feels alienated from their job it makes it harder for them to take pride in the work they that do. However, in order to survive in the economic world you have to do whatever you can just to get by.

     The concept of alienation doesn't always apply to everyone. Some workers actually take pride in their work and they don't feel a separation. According to the essay Blue Collar Brilliance written by Professor Rose, his mother Rosie enjoyed her job as a waitress. Rosie made sure that she could connect with not only her job but with the people that she served daily. In the essay professor Rose pointed out that his mother took her time to actually listen to the problems that her customers had in their personal lives, he states "the restaurant became a place where she studied human behavior, puzzling over the problems of her regular customers and refining her ability to deal with people in a difficult world. She took pride in being among the public...” This shows that his mother didn't feel alienated when it came to her job, she felt connected to the work that she did. Rosie was able to make the work she did her own, rather than having it control her.

     Karl Marx's excerpt on alienation proved to be valid in Mike's case. He didn't have the want or aspiration to do his job. The way that he described it to be was unpleasant, almost as if he was just a robot. Rosie on the other hand, took her work into her own hands and proved that not every job can make a worker feel alienated. Alienation could depend on the job that someone does but also it could depend on the kind of person the worker is. Mike could be a bitter person in general; all that negative energy would make anyone unhappy. The way that Professor Rose described his mother to be, was a friendly person, somebody that everyone would get along with and maybe that's why her customers felt comfortable enough to tell her all their personal issues. In that sense, Karl Marx's excerpt on alienation doesn't apply to all workers and their jobs.