Poetry and the Work Environment Paper
Madeline L Anderson
ENG/120
Monday October 29, 2012
Karyn Riedell
The individual in the poem, “Morrison1968” appeared to dislike his job and viewed it as if he could not wait until his week of work ended. The narrator, Campbell, had a number of 'dirty and stupid" jobs after high school. According to the writings that he wrote about himself it appeared that he had worked temp jobs such as a land surveyor, a bricklayer, a pool boy, and a factory worker." Campbell's poem "Morrison's, 1968" is about his time as a stock boy at Morrison's Cafeteria when he was in high school. "Finally, after years of this life, he went to college, got a few degrees, and ended up being a teacher and a writer.
The poem was definitely autobiographical of the writer’s young days of working odd jobs that he disliked. Campbell’s poem is a great way of expressing the many ways we honor and dishonor our workaday lives. In transit from one job to another, most workers find it hard to take either their co-workers or their job situation too much to heart.
“Morrison’s 1968” is one of the selected reading that I personally have has some social interaction at work with. In the late sixties I was 12 years old at the time yet I can remember working for an all “White” restaurant as a dishwasher, and had to use the backdoor to inter the job. I found myself walking over trash and old grease just to get in the door. The bathrooms were off limits for Blacks so if one needed to use a bathroom they had to go across the street to gas station that had for whites only on one door and blacks only on the other the rooms were so dirty you left it feeling sick. The phrase in this poem,” In another world the sun will raise over the sea” brings tears to my eyes because I have been there too.
The personal integrity of the young man seemed to be at its lowest because he had to struggle out of the bathroom to start his job and all the while he was thinking of going
ENG/120
Monday October 29, 2012
Karyn Riedell
The individual in the poem, “Morrison1968” appeared to dislike his job and viewed it as if he could not wait until his week of work ended. The narrator, Campbell, had a number of 'dirty and stupid" jobs after high school. According to the writings that he wrote about himself it appeared that he had worked temp jobs such as a land surveyor, a bricklayer, a pool boy, and a factory worker." Campbell's poem "Morrison's, 1968" is about his time as a stock boy at Morrison's Cafeteria when he was in high school. "Finally, after years of this life, he went to college, got a few degrees, and ended up being a teacher and a writer.
The poem was definitely autobiographical of the writer’s young days of working odd jobs that he disliked. Campbell’s poem is a great way of expressing the many ways we honor and dishonor our workaday lives. In transit from one job to another, most workers find it hard to take either their co-workers or their job situation too much to heart.
“Morrison’s 1968” is one of the selected reading that I personally have has some social interaction at work with. In the late sixties I was 12 years old at the time yet I can remember working for an all “White” restaurant as a dishwasher, and had to use the backdoor to inter the job. I found myself walking over trash and old grease just to get in the door. The bathrooms were off limits for Blacks so if one needed to use a bathroom they had to go across the street to gas station that had for whites only on one door and blacks only on the other the rooms were so dirty you left it feeling sick. The phrase in this poem,” In another world the sun will raise over the sea” brings tears to my eyes because I have been there too.
The personal integrity of the young man seemed to be at its lowest because he had to struggle out of the bathroom to start his job and all the while he was thinking of going