post#4

I really enjoyed Philipe Levine's poem, "What is Work". As i began reading it I thought it would be about something completely different. I love how he associated work with the love for his brother. It reminds me alot of some of the stories in Working, especially in the section "The Demon Lover". Not only because of the men working in an assembly line at a car factory, but also because he mentions only men in his poem. He speaks of himself, the other men in line, and his brother, all men in a work field. To me, he made it seem almost as if we get lost in all the work we do in all the hours and labor that something so simple as showing a family member love becomes "work". I dont know if I feel this because of some strange personal reason or if that really is what he is saying, but he's saying that work isnt who we are but just what we do.

Well, the first thing that came to my mind that talks about work was the book Of Mice and Men, by Steinbeck. Though, surprisingly enough a song came to mind, that song by Loverboy called "Working for the Weekend". First, in Steinbeck's book, the work is all done by the men. It's set place in the early 1900's so women weren't involved in the workforce yet, and since it was on a farm, most of the work was physical labor. The images it gives about work is that its all for the men, which we very well know is not true anymore. Though, in the song, its about everyone, in every work field. It talks about how everyone works during the week for those two days of freedom. This actually gives me hope, and kind of laugh it off that we do work really hard just for the weekend. I basically do, I work then save that money and spend it on the weekend.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E82ozXyNjk