Essay One Draft

In “who Built the Pyramids” by Studs Terkel, he interviews a guy called Mike Lefevre. In this interview, Terkel tells us how Mike feel about working. Mike was a labor worker and worked in a steel mill. He said that he can't take pride because he can't see the outcome of his hard work. He said “Picasso can point to a painting. What can I point to? A writer can point to a book. Everybody should have something to point to”(page xxxii). In others word he means that people should get recognition of what they do. Moreover, Mike hate his job because he doesn't spend enough time with his family and wish he had a twenty hour workweek. In addition, Mike believes that education gives you status. He thinks that if you didn't had any education, you are inferior of the people that did had education. So in his case, they give more status to the white collar workers and it should be given to him because of the hard work he does. Nevertheless, a guy at his job made fun of him because he had a book. Moreover, Mike tells us that he wants his son to be a effete snob. He means that he don't want his son to be like him and want him to be well educated. In addition, with Mike having a lack of status, believed that with his son having education, he will be having freedom and a better status in society.

In “Blue Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose, he talks about how his mother, being a blue collar worker, used her intelligence at work. He explains that his mother “Learned to work smart as she put it, to make every move count.” In other words he means that his mother develop new skills to make her job easier. Moreover, Rose beliefs that blue collar jobs require intelligence just as the white collar jobs. So Rose belief that you need education to gain status. Moreover, his mother drop out of school in seventh grade. Unlike Mike, his mother took pride in what she did which was being among the public in a restaurant. This gave us a sign of her status because she had a lot of responsibility dealing with customers of all kind everyday. Rose also tells us how his mother, even though she was uneducated, used her intelligence while working. Although his mother was uneducated, she developed new skills that her job required and learned how to managed her skills while working. However, even though blue collar are uneducated, Rose believe that blue collar and white collar use the same thing, brain and body. Moreover, Rose think that people get their status by class or occupation. Rose also think the status his mom has should be appreciate.