Analysis Of Blue Collar Brilliance By Mike Rose

In any successful work of non-fiction, authors employ the use of rhetorical analysis to articulate their main points and ideas. Mike Rose’s essay, “Blue Collar Brilliance,” focuses on the fact that looking down on blue-collar workers is a common occurrence in America and people fail to understand how a person can be intelligent if they had dropped out of school. Throughout the essay, he refutes this notion and explains why blue-collar intelligence may be different from the intelligence gained by years of schooling but it is of the equal stature, since it helps them in their occupation. Rose uses pathos and other rhetorical devices to inform the audience of his belief: blue-collar workers are under appreciated and overlooked as many people fail to see the difficulties and cognitive demands involved in their daily routines at work.

In past years, when people was talking about higher education, they had no hesitation to mention university immediately. When others were mentioning that college also belonged to higher education, sometimes they reacted with a wry smile, and shook their heads. Yes, even if it is for today, university gets the higher appraisal than college, and even many people think ‘‘college as America used to understand it is coming to an end.’’ As parents, they prefer their children to study in university instead of college, no matter how high of tuition the university it is. They ignore the value of college. Although sometimes college is viewed as critical by other people, we still can find its value, and how it is really beneficial for our lives, even if we don’t pursue a degree.

The story “Blue-Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose, was originally published in the American Scholar, in 2009. Rose is an American education scholar and was born in 1944. Rose has written several articles on literacy matters. He studied the struggle of the working-class America. Throughout the article, Rose used personal stories to persuade the reader blue-collar workers are very intelligent despite having a formal education. Rose’s agenda could be compared to that of Aristotle regarding their similar ideas on persuasion. Aristotle, was a well-known Greek philosopher, implemented three key terms: ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade his audience. Much like Aristotle, the author of Blue-Collar Brilliance, portrays the importance of his mother and uncle’s jobs by them showing intuition, intelligence, and multitasking thus demonstrating ethos, pathos, and logos.

In “Blue Collar Brilliance” Mike Rose starts of by telling us two stories, one about his mother and the other about his uncle Joe. They worked what people would call blue collar jobs; everybody usually perceives blue collar jobs as grunt work which doesn’t take much intelligence to work. However Rose disagrees with that notion; Rose describes to us in detail how his moms’ intellect in the restaurant work field kept the place calm, efficient and balanced. He also told us a story of how his uncle Joe worked up the ranks of the auto industry after dropping out of school in the ninth grade. One of Rose’s main points in “Blue Collar Brilliance” is that intelligence isn’t always measured with grades and tests and, that blue collar jobs take just

Writer, Mike Rose, in his rhetorical essay, “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” voices his familiarities with family members that labored blue-collar jobs as well as a few of his occurrences as a student. Persuading his audience, Rose judges that blue-collar jobs require intelligence and that intelligence should not be dignified by the amount of schooling that one has received. Mike Rose not only analyzes his mother, a waitress, but nonetheless of his uncle, who started a job working on the assembly line at General Motors and accomplished enough to become a supervisor. Comparing the lives of his family and the author’s experience in receiving a higher education, Rose describes his experience in observing

In the article, "Blue Collar Brilliance" Mark Rose shows his thought that hands on employments shouldn't be seen as foolish. Society characterizes knowledge in view of grades and IQ tests, however numbers doesn't characterize the workers in the fields. Rose points out that his mom's employment as a waitress and his uncle's occupation in the paint-and-body office are two individuals with a less education is skillful in their job by gaining hand-on experience and knowledge.

Setting the scene with including where he grew up, Mike Rose introduces where his mother works in Los Angeles in the 1950s (Rose, 2017 p.272), thus, creating an image in the reader’s head to picture how the economy was at that time. Sometimes people had to work in areas they did not want to work in order to provide for their families. Diving into the everyday life of his mother, Rose emphasized the skills she needed to be successful as a waitress. Waitressing “acquires knowledge and intuition about the ways and rhythms of the restaurant business” (Rose, 2017, p.274). His mother had to devise memory strategies in order to wait on multiple tables with multiple people.

I believe that out of the four essays that we have read, the essay that presents the best and most powerful argument is presented by Mike Rose "Blue Collar Brilliance" (Rose, 2015). First Rose describes how his mother who work as a waitress in a restaurant. He defines his mother's, Rose Meraglio (Rosie) ability, “Rosie took customers’ orders, pencil poised over pad, while fielding questions about the food. She walked full tilt through the room with plates stretching up her left arm and two cups of coffee somehow cradled in her right hand. She stood at a table or booth and removed a plate from this person, another for that person, then another, remembering who had the hamburger, who had the fried shrimp, almost always getting it right….she’d

First, in his article, Rose sets the scene by efficiently using personal anecdotes as an essential tactic to invoke the emotions of the readers to argue his claim. Rose introduces his readers to his concept by describing two short stories, on being his mother Rosie Rose and she worked as a waitress, left school to provide for her family, and used her memory and coordination when managing the diner and its customers. (pg.1033) This automatically sets the tone that the story is informal and personal, which he uses to invite the audience in emotionally and involve the reader. Namely, Rose continued the story by describing another anecdote of his uncle, Joe Meranglio, who

Blue Collar workers as the fundamental that makes up America. One such man, author Mike Rose a professor at UCLA, who wrote "Blue-Collar Brilliance," published in a reputable magazine in 2009 in the American Scholar, what Rose argues, is that blue-collar workers often overlooked. In effect, that the establishment of where you work acts as an institution of learning and those without a formal education have valuable types of "brilliance." Rose argues his claim by using pathos, logos through personal stories, credentials, and comprehensive counterarguments.

In the article, Rose use many emotional personal examples to help the reader understand the amount of hard work and intelligence a blue collar job requires. Rose creates a personal connection with the reader by describing his first-hand experience of growing up watching his mother put her heart and soul into being a waitress in a restaurant. Rose says, “She described the way she memorized who ordered what, how long each dish is supposed to take to prepare, and how she became a pro at meeting the emotional needs of her customers and colleagues alike.” From the quote in the article the reader understand that Roses mother was required to have a high level of intelligence in order to meet the needs of her customers and colleagues alike in order to do her job proficiently. Rose uses emotion in this quote to make the reader relate to his mother and understand that she was a hard worker and did everything in her power to do whatever it took in order to hopefully receive a tip that would be used to support her family. Rose also says, “I couldn’t have put it in words when I was growing up, but what I observed in my mother’s restaurant defined the world of adults, a place where competence was synonymous with physical work”. Rose uses in this quote to relate that his mother’s job

Getting a “good” job is not straightforward as it used to be. In past generations, someone in an entry-level position could work their way up the ladder simply through hard work and determination; whether or not one had credentials or a diploma mattered very little. This is not the case today. Higher education is now critical to obtaining a better job because the demand for skilled labor is rising. For this reason, the value that a degree offers is higher than that of one’s actual intelligence or merit. Furthermore, workers without college degrees will quickly be outpaced in position and salary by degree

“My mother Rose Mesaglio (Rosie), shaped her idenity as a waitress in coffee shops and family resteraunts” (Rose, 2009) This is by far one of my favorite statements offered by Rose, from my own experiences in the work field. I like Rose’s mother

He challenges widespread expectation of all middle-class Americans: “‘vocational training’ is second class. ‘College’ is first class” (Murray 632). This passage, while appearing to offer a simple definition to the reader in order for him or her to be informed of the subject matter argued herein, already states his position in the matter.

There is a Chinese proverb that says, “ Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it.” Steve Olson wrote an essay that talks about that very principle. He titled his essay “Year of the Blue-Collar Guy.” It is about the hard working blue collar guys (BCGs) living in America. Steve Olson is a writer that does not have the usual degrees, awards or publications. Though he has written several books, he says that he is a construction worker. He writes for the average American, so what is Olsen’s purpose in writing about BCGs? To accomplish his purpose I looked at what kind of modes of persuasion he uses, how he responds to the arguing side of his point, and what logical fallacies he uses.