The Sandwich Factory

The Sandwich Factory

I will begin the assignment with an analysis and interpretation of the short story “The Sandwich Factory” by Jason Kennedy. I will include a discussion of the text, “Nice work” by David Lodge and the picture, “Relativity” by M.C. Escher. I will end the assignment with a short essay about the description of Coketown in Charles Dickens’ novel “Hard Times”.

A: The short story, “The Sandwich Factory” by Jason Kennedy from 2007 is about a man who takes a low-paid job at a sandwich factory in 1994. He experiences meaninglessness and unhappiness at the factory – which gives us a picture of his life and his unsatisfying job.

The story takes place at a sandwich factory in 1994. The employees monotonously work like robots beside conveyor belts and are controlled by the managers who run the factory. The managers do not treat the employees properly, because the workers are rated and marked from poor to excellent supposedly by their abilities. “Someone always has to be rated excellent; he always chooses whoever had the best legs.”[1] The employees are sometimes locked in the factory if there is a larger order than normal or if they are behind schedule. This is the reason for an environment where employees feel trapped and unhappy. “There were three ways to respond to being locked in … collecting more pay”[2] As a reader you get a negative look on the factory because of the narrator’s point of view. The picture “Relativity” by M.C. Escher illustrates this type of factory. A factory with many employees where they all look the same. There are no expressions on their faces and it seems that they have lost their identity as a result of the monotonous work at the factory.

The narrator is a 1st person narrator because he refers to himself as “I”. “I brushed it off (…)”[3]

Therefore we see things from the narrator’s perspective and hear his thoughts and opinions throughout the short story. His descriptions of these people are subjective and therefore not necessarily true. The narrator is characterized as a man because of the fact that someone on the factory wants him to sleep with a girl and because of the way that he talks about women. He is from the lower-class in the society and therefore he has not got that much money. The narrator shows emotions and feelings as a contrast of being mechanized but you can still feel the unhappiness and unsatisfactory in his simple language. He imagines a life as a rich factory owner, being in charge and recreating the myth of Sisyphus – a revenge over the managers at the sandwich factory. He wants to be the owner of a factory.

There are a few other characters that also play a part in the short story – Dot and the mad man. Dot is an employee on the factory and it seems that she has been for a long time. The narrator gives a shallow and weird description of her. He is describing her as slutty and with no respect for herself. The mad man is also an employee on the factory and it also seems that he has been on the factory for some time. He is described as being crazy and constantly trying to scare or even stab people with a knife. Both characters represent the mechanization on the factory. They have been there for ages and the factory has changed them - the mad man has gone crazy and Dot cannot understand that the narrator who is new on the factory and has not got to the point of being as mechanized as them yet. The main themes in the short story are alienation, the search for meaning and the mechanization of human beings. The employees at the factory are alienated and mechanized. Another theme in the story is the search for meaning in life. This is connected to the way of thinking which focuses on the individual and says that you make your own happiness in life, you create your own identity through your choices and your actions and that you are the master of your destiny. The narrator recognizes that the factory workers have no meaning or values in life. Therefore when the story ends, the narrator is leaving the factory. He does not want to become a monotone, mechanized robot as some factory workers have become. “When I had recovered, I drove home and I never went back.”[4] The daily rhythm on the factory can be a symbol of his life. When he leaves the factory it can symbolize that he is breaking free of the monotone lifestyle, which he has been living up until now. The sandwich factory was an eye opener.

The text “Nice work” by David Lodge is about Robyn Penrose’s visit to a factory which makes parts to automobile. There she experiences the monotone workday for the employees. She finds out what the workers do day after day and do not change jobs occasionally. But this type of work is what follows when working at a factory. According to the managing director of the factory, the workers do not like changes. It is hard to believe that any human beings could enjoy such a monotone work. Maybe they have gotten so used to it and are so mechanized that they no longer care.

B: The description of Coketown from Charles Dickens novel “Hard Times” describes an industrial city in Britain, he is using figures of speech. Dickens has a very negative way to describe the city. He uses figures of speech a number of places, like when he is describing the town like a painted face of a savage. Here he means that the town is so filthy because of the smoke the otherwise red brick buildings have become black from ashes. “(..) it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage.” He describes the smoke coming from the factory chimneys as serpents. Serpents are usually feared and they are associated with something negative. Therefore, Dickens’ description of the longs trails of smoke from the chimneys is as serpents to underline the negative point of view on the town. “It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves (..)” The water is described as being filthy and colored black and purple. Dickens’ description of the factories in the town is that they are noisy all day long. He underlines the annoying fact by comparing the steam-engine with an elephant in a state of madness. “(..) Where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.” Lastly he mentions the monotonous state that Coketown is in. People, streets and work are alike. Coketown is plain and without personality – much like the people who live there.

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[2] Page 2 – line 71
[3] Page 3 – line 108
[4] Page 4 – line 127