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Working conditions in the 19th century factories
Working conditions in the 19th century factories
Conditions of working in a factory in the 19th century
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In “On the Factory Floor”, a passage from Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, through the use of repetition and specific diction Eugenides critiques the integration of the assembly line into factories, and investigates how this affects the American worker. This mechanomorphisation of the workers conveys how employers view their workers as less than human, comparing workers to the machines. Eugenides use of repetition in this passage conveys the mechanical nature of the assembly line. The repetition of the word bearing in “Wierzbicki reams a bearing and Stephanides grinds a bearing and O’Malley attaches a bearing to a camshaft” emphasizes the repetitive nature of assembly line work. The line is repeated throughout the passage to demonstrate the
Yafa’s description of the mills presents a setting that is ugly, monotonous, and rigidly regulated. The mills is a common fixture to a manufacturing factory in modern society, so the readers can identify with the uniformity Yafa describes. From five until seven in
“‘Who that cracker think he is?’” (LeDuff 355). A quote from the article “At a Slaughterhouse Some Things Never Die,” Charlie LeDuff informs readers of the racial discrimination in the workplace of a slaughterhouse. In another article, “Working at Bazooms,” Meika Loe uncovers the power struggle and inequality between men and women in a workplace she dubs “bazooms.” The disrespect and unfairness is prevalent in these two qualitative studies. Findings from the studies has supported the split-labor market theory, stemming from Marx’s proletariat and bourgeoisie theory.
Rivethead is an account of the entire life of Author Ben Hamper, from his long family lineage of “shoprats” and his catholic school upbringing to his numerous different positions on the General Motors assembly line and his equally numerous lay-offs from the GM Truck & Bus Division. Unfortunately the many years of back breaking labor combined with Hampers own personal demons led him to check into an outpatient mental facility (at the time of the completion of this book) where he learns daily to cope with his many years of mental anguish. Rivethead is a social commentary on industrial America, assembly line work , and the auto industry. This essay, however, will focus on the more specific aspects Hamper considers, such as the monotony required on a (then) modern assembly line, the relationship and hierarchy among workers and their interaction with management as well as both collective and individual responses to work and job satisfaction (or lack there of).
After dressing for work, the speaker “would descend / step by slow step into the dim world / of the pickling tank” (5-7). Comparison of the pickling tank to a “dim world” reveals that there is nothing enjoyable about the work he does. As he climbs back out “with a message / from the kingdom of fire,” the reader gains a better understanding of the poor working conditions of the speaker (20-21). Equating his working conditions to such a terrible place shows that these factory workers should have been thankful to even make it out of work alive each day.
Built off of the backs of immigrants, it is the very same people that are poorly mistreated but are the reason for the country's booming economy. Yet, a century ago these migrant workers who devoted their health and time to the factories receive a poor man’s salary. They worked long strenuous hours in horrible conditions and would often get injured during the process. The corporation had no compassion towards its laborers. This extract from Sinclair’s novel The Jungle explains the terrible conditions in which employees worked: “...your hand slips up on the blade, and there is a fearful gash. And that would not be so bad, only for the deadly contagion. The cut may heal, but you never can tell,” (Sinclair, 12). Mikalos, a character in the novel, is used in this instance to personify the way in which the employees had to conduct their job. They had to focus on working as fast as humanly possible even if they were injured. The character states that he accidently made a laceration while deboning an animal. Even though his injury is significant, he is not to breathe a word of it to his employer. The employer cares not of the accident nor of the worker wasting valuable time chatting about “frivolous” events such as their health. It did not matter if a laborer lost a finger, the only thing that mattered to the businessmen was making more money. This was how life was working in the factory and it shows that the industries
While this is a dramatized statement regarding the plight of the worker under the new machine driven industrial system, rhetoric such as this did represent the fears of the working class. Over time as industrialization appeared more commonly there emerged more heated debates between the working class and business owners.
John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, uses dehumanized "Okies" and personified cars to aid in the explanation of hardships of making it in a new society and how in order to survive, change must take place. Steinbeck’s novel portrays a family as they struggle in the heartless world. Both the usage of dehumanized workers and personified cars helps portray the deep fear and uncertainty the migrant workers began facing. By using figurative language, Steinbeck captures the general endeavor all the Okies who were unwillingly labeled as one class: scum. Ultimately, each willing family tossed aside their past, surrendering to their new foreign life.
Gaskell, Peter. The Manufacturing Population of England: Its Moral, Social, and Physical Conditions, and the Changes which have Arisen from the use of Steam Machinery; with an Examination of Infant Labour. 1833. New York: Arno Press, 1972.
Many impoverished people immigrated to America in hopes of achieving the American Dream but instead were faced with dangerous working conditions while the factory and corporation owners increased their wealth and profit by exploiting this cheap means of labor. Upton Sinclair succeeded to show the nature of the wage slavery occurring in America in the beginning of the twentieth century. People felt distressed and unimportant in the community because they were being used by the wealthy to generate capital leading the industry for the future success and efficacy in the market. Upton Sinclair was an American journalist who incorporated his personal research of the meatpacking industry conditions and people’s life, as well as the structure of the present business into the novel under analysis. Thus, real facts and data were incorporated into this literary work, which helps the audience to feel involved in the work and understand the overall atmosphe...
One of Sinclair’s strongest literary devices used in the novel was his attention to detail; he could create vivid, though unpleasant, images of “Durham’s” meat packing plant into the reader’s mind. Probably the most memorable description in the novel was that many worker”s “peculiar trou...
In the time of the Industrial Revolution factory owners were brutal and unfair to their employees. A young worker named William Cooper, was asked by a Sadler Committee, “ What were your usual hours of working? What time did you have for meals? What means were taken to keep you awake and attentive?” and he answered,
In Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the 20th Century (1974), he discusses the controversial theme of labor and labor power. He also analyzes the degradation of work, which is also shown in Charles Bukowski’s proletarian novel Factotum (1975). Along with these concepts, Braverman develops the boss/worker antagonism, which directly relates to Bukowski’s representation of the compilation of such degrading jobs.
Mary Barton tells the story from the laborer's point of view, but we are not without knowledge of the mill owner's side of it either, especially through the philosophical wisdom of Job Legh. In her attempts to present the plight of the laborer in Manchester, Elizabeth Gaskell has not neglected to make us understand the importance and significance of the industrial movement, as well as the great possibilities it possessed.
Producing goods or services are dictated not by employees but by their employers. If profits exist, employers are the ones that benefit more so than the regular worker. “Even when working people experience absolute gains in their standard of living, their position, relative to that of capitalists, deteriorates.” (Rinehart, Pg. 14). The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Hard work wears down the employee leaving them frustrated in their spare time. Workers are estranged from the products they produce. At the end of the day, they get paid for a day’s work but they have no control over the final product that was produced or sold. To them, productivity does not equal satisfaction. The products are left behind for the employer to sell and make a profit. In discussions with many relatives and friends that have worked on an assembly line, they knew they would not be ...
From a scholarly point of view, the film accurately depicts the lifestyle of a factory worker in the timeframe. Workers would stand on an assembly line and repeat the same action day in and day out. The film also depicts the transition of the human dependency of machines very well. The workers would work at the pace of the machines. The film also had metaphors of humans being controlled by machines when the main actor was sucked into the pulley system of a machine. The film also has a scene where there is a machine that automatically feeds humans.