A) Vocabulary Words:
1) Foreman – a working class individual that supervises other workers.
2) Effete – something that is no longer effective, having lost its vitality and/or strength.
3) Bonderizer – a machine that coats steel with anticorrosion substances in preparation for paint,
enamel, and other coatings.
4) Pseudo-death – a fake death, or an incident triggering a response which symbolizes death.
5) Pedigree – a record of ancestry which shows the line of decent for something.
6) Perpetual – something that seems to never end, or occurs frequently and repeatedly.
7) Dodo Bird – an extinct bird that was flightless, characterized by stout bodies, short wings, and
hooked beaks.
8) Continuum – a collective sequence in which adjacent pieces are unnoticeably different, but the
extremes contrast severely.
9) Mystics – someone who seeks unity with deity through meditation and believes he can
ascertain future events.
10) Skid – a mounted platform with wheels onto which materials are loaded, handled, and
transported.
B) Standard Six Questions:
Who – Studs Terkel, whose real name is Louis Terkel, who was an American author and oral
historian of high esteem. What – The piece is an interview with Mike LeFevre, who is an
American steel worker, describing the conditions he faces in his line of work and his personal
life, why he does what he does, etc. When – According to the text, the piece is from 1972,
though this is incorrect. The piece is an excerpt from Terkel’s Working: People Talk About
What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, which was published in 1974.
Where – The book and subsequent article were written in America, most likely in Chicago,
Terkel’s hometown. Why – The piece is highly relevant to the study of business because it
describes the general feelings of the common working man. And how the working man feels
matters in business because without the working class there is no means of having a successful
business. How – The student gains an appreciation for the hardships that the working class faces
in everyday life, and also realizes the importance of the working class.
C) Text-Specific Questions:
1) Doctor Spock refers to Benjamin McLane Spock, an American pediatrician. His famous book
was Baby and Child Care was a best-seller. Dr. Spock was the first pediatrician to study the
psychoanalysis of children. His ideas included emphasis on viewing and treating children as
individuals.
2) Mike has a hard time taking pride in his work because he is mass-producing things which he
will never use. As he says, “… a bridge I’ll never cross, and a door I’ll never use.” He enjoys
and takes pride in things he’ll see and use, but not those things he’ll never see again.
3) The main similarities of pulling steel and the jobs of today are the processes involved in doing
the actual work. There are workers who do the actual physical process of producing the good or
service, and there are foremen, supervisors, bosses, etc., who oversee the workers and tend to the
business aspects. Oftentimes the workers are underpaid and underappreciated today, just like the
steel workers. And people still don’t understand the difficulty the working class faces, not just
financially, but personally, because of the nearly negative stigma associated with being “just a
worker.”
4) One obvious symptom of workers’ feeling unfulfilled and alienated today is the continued
existence of unions. Unions were established to improve working conditions for the working
class, and have evolved over time and continue to exist today. While unions accomplish good
and bad, they indicate workers desire to feel more validated in their career paths.
5) Mike LeFevre doesn’t indicate that he has any self-esteem issues, and an outsider’s
perspective doesn’t reveal any concern for his self-esteem either, so the question in the text isn’t
very valid. Something he could benefit from though is an education, as he shows he understands
the value of education. He even mentions that much of what he does is because he desires his
children to be able to go to college.
6) According to LeFevre, people turn to taverns and brawls in order to release the stress and find
some satisfaction in their lives. These are common things people turn to when work and family
don’t provide satisfaction.
7) Potential Lord Byrons, Walt Whitmans, Roosevelts, and Picassos could be working in mills
and factories because there is a lot of untapped talent in the world. The talent that these possible
individuals have goes undiscovered or inaccessible because situation doesn’t allow them to have
the opportunity of showcasing their talents. The worker may be exceptionally skilled in music,
painting, poetry, or any number of things, but because of financial situation is forced to take a
job as a worker and never gets to focus on his vast, but latent, talent. Hence so many potential
greats being stifled into mills and factories.
8) Just like many Lord Byrons, Walt Whitmans, Roosevelts, and Picassos could be hidden
among the working class, so too could many Hitlers and Stalins be unseen among them. Many
of these potential Hitlers and Stalins could simply be suppressed by the financial and class
conditions they face.
9) The people in power fear the leisure man because the leisure man has time to think and
attempt to improve his situation. When the workers are swamped with work and life stressors,
they have less potential to cause problems for those in power by seeking higher attainments in
life. But those workers who do have time to leisure as a leisure man are those who recognize the
need, ability, and potential to arise above their situation. And if they do this, the ones in power
lose that power.
10) Mike says that communism is the intellectuals’ utopia but not his because the intellectuals
don’t actually understand the conditions that workers face daily. Intellectuals in support of
communism think that it will make all things great and equal among all classes, bringing
everyone into wealth and prominence. But Mike understands this is not accurate. He works in
the factory, he sees the real conditions of workers, and he understands that his utopia is
elsewhere in a situation of opportunity, not mandated “equality.”
11) There are a plethora of things people do in the 21st century to escape reality. Beer is
obviously huge, but other choices to escape reality include pornography, drugs, and excessive
use of social media. Each of these cause negative repercussions which affect not just the user,
but his family, friends, and associates as well.
12) Mike wants his son to be an effete snob because he wants his son to have greater
opportunities in life. Mike wants him to be more than just a worker, which is why he works so
hard to be able to put his son through college in the future. He wants his son to be a boss,
someone on top, not just an underling. And if having a better life means his son will be an effete
snob, Mike wants that for him.