Step two

Studs Terkel's " Working" contains many very interesting interviews with people about things they do. Two interviews that I found particularly interesting were "Who Built the Pyramids?" with Mike Lefevre and "The Sporting Life" with Eddie Arroyo.

"Working" with Mike Lefevre is an interview with Mike about what he does at a steelworker plant. This interview raises many issues concerning factory workers, and some wider issues. One that is raised from the very beginning with the title of the interview is "Who Built the Pyramids?". He says it was not the pharaohs, it was the unknowns. Mike talks about feeling alienated from the products of his work. He also says that him doing the same repetitive motion a lot causes him to kind of separate his mind from his body which is another form of alienation but of his mind to his body.

Mike also brings up the issue of automation in the workplace. This is an important issue especially with the increasing prevalence of technology in more aspects of modern life including the workplace. His point of view is that if the machines would shorten his work week, or somehow assist him in his job without costing him it, then he would be O.K with more automation.

"The Sporting Life" with Eddie Arroyo is another interesting interview featuring Eddie Arroyo who is a horse jockey. This interview raises several issues like those of hazardous work conditions and what would be fair compensation to employees who became injured on the job.

Eddie believes that being a Jockey is one of the most hazardous careers at the time and he believes that Jockeys who get hurt on the job deserve more money than they normally receive from the workers union they have or from the track owners themselves.

These interviews tell us about some factors that shape the experience of work, such as work conditions, and how people may feel about different types of work.

It brings up the questions did the race Jockey conditions ever get better? Is working in a steel factory still the same now as it was then?

There are other course texts which raise similar issues like the Schossler essay about working in slaughterhouses and how the compensation for people who get injured n those factories really doesn't seem too fair. Those people also do a lot of repetitive motions which can actually lead to injury in and of itself.

One question I would like to know more about is how can these conditions be improved.

Post #5

In the interview with Rosemary Pepe by Clifton Hood, the interviewer is trying to find out information about Rosemarys Grandfather, who worked on the subway during it's early days of construction. Clifton asks questions about his life as an immigrant, the granfathers work experience, and his experience working in the early days of the NYC subway.

As far as the interviewee goes we don't see a whole lot about their personality although we learn that Rosemary was very proud of her Grandfather. We learn a great deal about the personality and experiences of the Grandfather. He appeared to be a hardworking person who went back and forth from Italy to America and worked on various jobs including tiling, and helping build the NYC Subway in it's early days of construction. From what we hear from Rosemary he was someone who cared a lot about family and gave his wife a lot of support in her endeavors.

The historical context of the interview is the early 1900's when the NYC subway was first being built. This time period was mentioned by Rossemary Pepe during the interview.

This interview had some similarities in it with the interview with Mike from Turkel, specifically Mike and Rosemarys Grandfather both expressed that they wanted their kids to have more opportunities so they didn't have to do those same kind of jobs when they grew up.