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Analysis of looking for work by gary soto
Analysis of looking for work by gary soto
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In Gary Soto’s short story “Looking for Work” support, and happiness are the essentials to be a successful family. Those two points goes “hand in hand”, a lot of families in todays society gets ripped apart because they have lack of happiness and support. Happiness is nothing that comes over a day or two, it comes when we are surrounded with people that we love. Support and trust are also something that does not comes over a night, that is something that takes time to build. However, support does not mean that we need to support each other economically, we can support each other in many different ways, like be there for someone when they feel down.
After viewing an episode of I Love Lucy, positive aspects of family and financial issues can be clearly seen in the 1950s. The Ricardo's are middle class, Ricky works as a club band leader and Lucy stays home and `poured all her energies into their nuclear family.' (37) This is a positive side of the 1950s because compared to a few decades before, `women quit their jobs as soon as they became pregnant,' (36) and concentrated more on raising children. These families were much more stable and made almost `60 percent of kids were born into male breadwinner-female homemaker families,' (37) which is a important factor for children to have a good childhood.
In Junot Diaz’s essay “The Money” he explains where his family stands economically. Stating that his father was regularly being fired from his forklifting jobs and his mother 's only job was to care for him and his four siblings. With the money brought home by his father, his mom would save some. Her reason was to raise enough to send to her parents back in the Dominican Republic. When his family went on a vacation, they came back to an unpleasant surprise; their house had been broke into. Eventually Diaz was able to get back their money and belongings. Diaz returned the money to his mother although she didn’t thank him for it, this disappointed him. Like Diaz I have also encountered a similar situation where I was disappointed. When I was in second grade, my life life took a completely different turn. My dad took an unexpected trip to Guatemala, on his return, the outcome was not what I expected.
In the essay “Suitcase Lady” by Christie McLaren, she proves that even people you least expect to be successful can be. Although the main character may not be successful in the business aspect, she is successful! She may be in an uncomfortable situation but as she states here: “I...always try to do the best to help people- the elderly, and kids, and my country, and my city of Toronto, Ontario” (5). Even though she is homeless, she still is relatively happy and she is respectful of other people, making her successful. However, she is unsuccessful when it comes to her family. The suitcase lady seemed to have struggled with money for quite sometime making it hard for her to start a family, “We never got along well because I didn’t bring him up. I was too poor. He never called me mama” (4). She seems quite upset about the fact that her own son and her do not get along. She clearly does love her child but she had a hard time making sure he had a high quality of life so she had to give him away. Therefore, she is unsuccessful with her family, making her lack the happiness she
Wallechinsky demonstrates the many hardships that families and individuals go through. “Almost two-thirds say they live from paycheck to paycheck, and 47% say that no matter how hard they work, they cannot get
He uses several interesting examples, which lead his audience into his arguments about the unclear definition of happiness. From the beginning, Salerno starts with Ed Diener’s study about the broken link between achievement and happiness. Normally, people would expect students with higher GPA’s to be happier than those who have lower GPA. However, from Diener’s work, the result is opposite, students with high GPA are less happy than lower GPA’s students. Lower GPA’s students are happier because they don’t feel stressful with school work. Therefore, happiness cannot be determined by achievements in school. In addition, he uses another study by New Economics Foundation to prove that having high levels of resource consumption increase the “well-being” of citizens but not their happiness. Nowadays, people eat more packaged and fast foods than fresh and home-cooked foods; those are the best option for people who are lazy to cook and ones who have no time. Salerno shows the readers that even the amount of consumption grows dramatically, the consumers are neither happy with the food quality they eat nor happy with their own health issues. Beside major achievements, a smallest change in life can also lead to happiness. Salerno also uses an abusive relationship as an example to illustrate his idea of “well-being”. When a husband hits his wife every
Over the course of this class, my perspective on money and whether it makes us happy has changed. Before the start of second semester, I always believed that money did make someone happy, as most of my most memorable experiences are linked to money in some way. But, after reading several essays within the assigned class textbook, I concluded that was not the case. For example, in the short essay What’s so Bad About Being Poor, by author Charles Murray, he states that living in poverty is not such a bad lifestyle, and if anything, it builds character. He states that “To be poor is not necessarily to be without dignity, it is not necessarily to be unhappy” (P. 26). In this quote, he is explaining that individuals living in poverty are not automatically unhappy, and if they are, the fact that they do not have money is not linked to that. Murray explains that unhappiness stems from something that is much more complex than money. Author David Myers also
Sometimes you can not provide as much as you want because of your situation. In the short story “Average waves in unprotected waters” by Anne Tyler, Bet is a single mom who has trouble providing for her son, Arnold. Arnold has a mental disorder and does not know his dad who left when he was first diagnosed. Bet wants the best for her son but is having a tough time providing because she does not make a large amount money. She wants Arnold to fit in; have the same clothes as the other boys. The biggest problem that Bet faces is herself. She is a single mom that does not make a lot of money and still has to provide for her mentally disabled son. In a few instances she also faces conflict with Arnold but these are mostly physical challenges, there
Throughout Society, many families have seen struggle and lived through poverty. The economy is not always thriving which takes a toll on people who suffer through unemployment or low wage jobs. The Frontline documentary, “Two American Families”, is the perfect example of struggle in the United States. It shows the lives of two struggling families and their efforts to survive. Two essays, “The Sociological Imagination” by C. Wright Mills, and “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All” by Herbert J. Hans, support the analysis of the video strongly. They express many ideas that relate to the world and struggle throughout society. Also, there are many sociological terms that depict the events that occurred in the documentary.
Most people think that wealth and success equate happiness, but the wealthy and successful do not know what they should be happy for. Tomoyuki Iwashita was a middle-class man in Japan and wrote: “Why I Quit the Company” to explain why he was insatiable with the job he had. Iwashita knew he had a desirable job that provided him with many luxuries on top of all the necessities; however, he did not appreciate the many benefits of working at such a prestigious company. On the other hand, those who are stricken with poverty are much more appreciative of everything they have. Jo Goodwin Parker wrote “What is Poverty?” and she explained the reality of poverty to her readers and wanted those who were wealthier than her to understand. The deprivations that accompany poverty seem to be unimaginable, but those in poverty live the unimaginable life every day. Poor people do not have much to be thankful for, but they still appreciate the little things even if they are angered by their disadvantages. People of a privileged lifestyle do not appreciate the necessities as much as those below the poverty line because
Though many areas of development are integrative, the link between social support and emotional health is greatly acknowledged. The term "social support" often appears in discussions of relationships. Social support means "having friends and other people, including family, to turn to in times of need or crisis to give you a broader focus and positive self-image" (Towey, n.d., Web). Having this social support promotes better emotional health which can help a person face stressful life events.
Society has subconsciously forged a stereotype of happiness. There are countless individuals who have proposed themselves a goal in live. Whether it’s an emotional or professional objective, in the end this is what defines and gives meaning to our existence, this is our pursuit for happiness. Still society has created a system that stigmatizes boundaries and segments between human beings. Consequently giving birth, to decrees that indirectly influence and dictate an individual’s life. The appliance of rules, the taking of decisions, the virtues each hu...
Money is an economic driving factor because socially we must provide for ourselves and the ones we care about. It can also be argued that money isn’t everything and that being well off financially doesn’t lead to happiness. Having more money these days does provide an ease in life; and wouldn’t often measured by the being able to care for loved ones bring happiness? Wouldn’t it be a relief to know that your loved ones and future generations to come will be financially safe? Our purpose in life is to benefit the society we live by working hard and contributing our skills for the good of those around us. If we have no job and contribute nothing, then an individual has no importance. The society in The Unit followed these beliefs. Any individual who was unemployed for extended periods of time and was unable to reproduce, were taken
Most humans cannot stand being alone, they want to be with someone they trust and love. People love to surround themselves with people they love to share good times with. They also need them when they are sad and need someone to be there for them. People can be happy when they are with people they love and trust. When someone meets the love of their lives they cannot stand to be apart from them, they all ways want to be with that person so they could be happy. In the movie “Friends with Benefits” Dylan the main character from L.A. goes to New York for a new job where he meets Jamie Rellis they become good friends and fall in love with each other. They realize that they cannot be away from each other. So they fall in love and stay together which brings them happiness. Happiness also comes from loved family members, when you cannot be happy with out your kids, parents or grandparents. In the television show “Modern Family”, a large family try’s to be normal in our modern society. They realize they cannot function or be happy with out each other being there. They have to be with loved once to be able to work together and function as one family to be happy in the modern society. To be able to be to reach happiness people have to be with their love
Social means a party of people assembled to promote sociability and communal activity. Support means the activity of providing for or maintaining by supplying with money or necessities and put up with something or somebody unpleasant. Social support means that a person who get support and help from his/her family, friends and others people. It brings out the importance of relationships in human lives. Davison et al, (2000) believe that social support talks about the person needs for support with close others and provide it when others experience distress. For example, Wayne fail in her examination in SPM and she is in depressed mood and unhappy. Without saying words, her friends will just give her a hug or placed their
People are constantly trying to seek what happiness truly is, can it be measured, and how best can it be described. The idea of what happiness is, often changes as happiness is a basic human emotion. An emotion that arises from subjective wellbeing, a balance of positive feelings over negative feelings and overall satisfaction (LECTURE NOTES). Bellitoni (2004, 94) defines happiness as “Merely a relatively enduring, positive state of mind”. Happiness can be dependent on the environment in which we surround ourselves in. This can be predominantly seen within the working environment. Throughout this essay I will discuss and critically analyse the relationship between happiness and work effectiveness within organisations. A critical analysis is