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. Mike Rose’s introduces his argument by explaining the intelligence of blue collar workers and emphasizing his belief that blue-collar jobs require certain skills and tasks acquired by experience, and should not be viewed as menial tasks held by uneducated people. He goes on to point out that there are many people that feel “intelligence is…the type of schooling a person has…[and] work requiring less school requires less intelligence,” but then goes on to explain why this belief is simply not true. Rose starts with the story of his mother, Rosie, and describes what he has observed of her intelligence throughout the years of his childhood, as he
With the repeating influences that have given Rose this ground-breaking realization of Blue-Collar Brilliance, it is no shock that Rose not only lived by this but shared it with whoever could get their hands on it. One thing that Mrs. Mergalio and Joe Mergalio had in common was, there was not a day that went by in the restaurant or on the line, where they did not learn something new (Rose, 2017, pp. 275-277). Continuously the Mergalio’s strengthened their minds and bodies, while the majority of white-collar workers were in an air-conditioned office, answering for The Man. Rose enlightens mind’s a bit more, comparing the jobs of a plumber and a hairdresser. A plumber does not know what to expect until he arrives, he must study the scenario and prepare accordingly, both learn through experience, but hairstyling becomes routine, whereas plumbing becomes observation, and trial and error (Rose, pg. 279,
Mike Rose argues the importance of everyday cognition by reflecting on two family members’ contribution. The author has grown up watching his mother, Rose Meraglio Rose (Rosie), and uncle, Joe Meraglio, develop skills with jobs that didn’t require an education. Rose states the value the kind of blue-collared workers have and that their intelligence is not defined by their amount of schooling.
After reading Olsson’s long essay about employee’s treatment and pay-rate, I’m glad she began her essay by describing one of the worker’s life. By describing her life, Olsson gives the reader a chance to relate to the worker and to imagine this experience in their own life. By doing this, I easily picture her experience and immediately found myself agreeing that this treatment is unacceptable. Through starting the writing with the worker’s story, the writer later continue to quote other employees of Walmart to get their personal point of view, which unsurprisingly is similar to the first employee described in the introduction. Olsson requote McLaughlin words saying "It's stressful," she says. "They push you to the limit. They just want to see how much they can get away with without having to hire someone else." Through these words, Olsson immerge the reader in his situation and seek their compassion and justice to change this treatment, which is very effective. Mallaby began his essay accusatorily. He immediately put me in a defensive position because he said “Only by summoning up the most naive view of corporate behavior can the critics be shocked -- shocked! -- by the giant retailer's machinations”, he adds “Wal-Mart aims to enrich shareholders and put rivals out of business! Hello?
Rosie “quit school in the seventh grade” and Joe “left school in the ninth grade.” (Rose 395) Mike believes that it is more assumption than fact that, “Intelligence in closely associated with formal education.” (Rose 395) He says that, “We reinforce this notion by defining intelligence solely on grades in school and numbers on an IQ tests.” (Rose 397) He also says that, “Scholars have often looked at the working class [and] have generally focused on the values such workers exhibit rather than on thought their work requires.” (Rose 395) Mike clearly believes that those of a higher class do not see that those of a lower class do have a sense of intelligence compared to those who only have one sense of intelligence. Instead of having either book or street smarts, in a sense, those who are “blue-collar” workers, have both.
Golding could be making a point that your background does not necessarily determine how intelligent you are and that a lower class child can be very intelligent.
Rose is currently a Research Professor of Social Research Methodology in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Mike Rose, author of “Blue- Collar Brilliance”, emphasizes that blue- collar jobs should not be viewed as mindless tasks, but
In his essay, “Idiot Nation,” Michael Moore directly conveys the horrid truth behind American education when he utters the sheer words, “the knowledge (students) acquire in school is not going to serve them throughout their lifetimes. Many of them will have four to five careers in a lifetime. It will be their ability to navigate information that will matter” (Moore 141). According to Moore, American education today is by no means preparing students for the real world of work. In fact, he infers that students must acquire the acute skill of navigating through information that will guide them into the career they will eventually pursue. The American school system not only teaches students unnecessary material, but also does not stimulate principle qualities that students need in order to develop into bright, innovative, and independent individuals. Structured public education does not breed entrepreneurial spirit; but rather, it destroys it. For what seems like endless years, students are programmed to obey rules, to do homework, to accept discipline rather than learn. They simply learn to submerge their unique personalities under the sort of “totalitarian dictatorship,” which the American school has come to represent implicitly (Moore 147). Because they don’t promote intelligence, creativity, and individuality, current-day American schools fail to prepare their students for the modernized, competitive world of labor, where an idea parallel to Herbert Spencer’s “survival of
Throughout Jobs speech he is telling every graduate that their “work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” (thesis). He emphasizes how they will never truly be happy if they don’t do what they love. In his introduction, he explains how he never got the opportunity to graduate. Due, to him dropping out of college after his first 6 months of attending. Where he stuck around for another 18 months and dropped into class that seemed more interesting to him. After, dropping into several classes he found a calligraphy class which he found “fascinating”. He then explains how if he never dropped into the calligraphy class in college the Mac he and Woz created would
This past quarter we have read a variety of texts about our future and how to be successful. One commencement speech in particular, by Steve Jobs, stood out because it talks about all the things you need to follow in life. I fully agree with the things he says. He includes three main points to follow in life that he realized when he was on the verge of death. Overall, he just wants to tell you that everything happens for a reason, do not regret anything, and live life to the fullest. This was his way of telling the new graduates how to be successful in life. To me, accepting what happens and being happy is the most important quality in life.
What does it mean to be intellectually superior to someone? In Daniel Keyes’ novel, Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon, a man born with mental retardation undergoes a brain operation to increase his IQ in a science experiment. Through his transition from a low IQ to a genius-level IQ, the theme is conveyed as well as through his coworkers treatment of him and how strangers treat him and other mentally disabled people. Using these three elements, Keyes expresses the theme of Flowers of Algernon which is the human nature’s desire to be superior to others results in the mistreatment of those who do not meet society’s standards of normality, especially the mentally disabled. The way the other characters treat Charlie greatly demonstrates how human nature’s desire of superiority leads to the mistreatment of the mentally disabled.
Rose begins his essay by writing about how he spent his free time as a child in the restaurant his mother was a waitress for. As a child, Rose notes that he observed his mother’s work and realized that her work had both mental and physical aspects to it. He then went on to analyze the many skills that went into her job: learning abbreviations for food, memorizing orders, reading people’s emotions, knowing how long dishes take to cook and knowing how to maneuver her way around the restaurant. Rose then adds that most people in his family do not have a high level of schooling.
\“No, we’re not hiring today,” (Levine 21). This familiar statement has been heard by several job-seeking Americans at one time or another. Many of which are seeking “blue collar” employment in factories, construction, sanitation, etc. The blue collar worker has been the influence behind many themes within American literature. Authors such as B.H. Fairchild, Philip Levine, and Dorianne Laux capture these critical messages and themes in their poetry by using varying degrees of literary elements and techniques such as diction, sentence structure, and imagery.
Those in universities of higher rank and reputation are given preference from big, striving companies such as HealthWyzer, as did Crake. This preference is given due to the belief that they only need intelligent people to come up with new products and ways to take their company further, not taking into account other factors, such as advertising. For this reason, there is a higher demand in the market for graduates of science-reputed universities, and thus better paid job opportunities. For those like Jimmy, who have gone to art-related universities, jobs do not come easy. Personally, Jimmy struggles to secure a job, despite having sent resumes weekly. Though Jimmy has done well in school, the fact that he has an arts education proved of no use to the jobs he was applying for, for which he is unemployed for quite a while. When Jimmy finally manages to get a job, it’s very low-key; little to none benefits, mediocre pay, and not much praise from society. In contrast to Crake’s job, where Crake gets his own lab and funds for his research, as well as close attention and appreciation from his peers, Jimmy does not obtain much from this job. Many a times, Jimmy makes up the stuff he writes about the products, however no one cares to check it or tell him otherwise. As well, there is not much social interaction between the employees at Jimmy’s workplace, therefore the lack of appreciation and praise for
First the point Rose is trying to make is by saying intelligence is not only associated with formal education and that blue collar work or service jobs require more intelligence than what people distinguish. He backs that claim up by talking about his mother and how she didn’t have formal education working as a waiter nevertheless she was still intelligent due to the fact she remember orders and how she handled customers
Every contemporary society endures a division among the people, whether it’s because of social, financial, or political reasons. Mike Rose, the author of “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” is a professor at UCLA and an outspoken contributor on the topics of literacy. Furthermore, “Blue-Collar Brilliance” was published in a prestigious magazine, American Scholar, in 2009. As the storyline of the article revolves around the working American class, Rose writes it as a rebuttal to misconceptions that people who are on a higher social ladder hold. What Rose tries to convey in his article is that blue-collar jobs are much more complex than just its physical component. In his article, Rose utilized various strategies to effectively attempt to persuade his readers through his personal experiences. The article is rhetorically effective because it encompasses a variety of emotional appeals, and successfully exhibits its logical aspect of arguments to establish a connection between the past, and the contemporary belief regarding the blue-collar jobs.