Barbara has now moved on to Minnesota and is working in the women's department of Walmart. Before anything, however, she explains her experience with meeting someone who is a living example of what she is researching by working in these low-paying jobs. In this part of her life, she seems to be making many mistakes. On one occasion, she decides to pay over $400 a week in order to stay at a low-classed motel when she had the opportunity to stay at a college dorm for $19 a night which, if she had accepted the offer, would have saved her around $300 a week. Her second mistake was choosing to work at Walmart for around $7 an hour instead of working at another store for $10 an hour. She chose the Walmart job because the other place put her in the plumbing department, where the terminology and items were completely foreign to her.
While working at this Walmart she begins to see how underpaid these people are for doing jobs that benefit the customers. As time passes by, she begins to despise the customer and also wishes the worst for her supervisor. As she begins to notice this change in her attitude, she realizes that the change - going from middle or upper class to lower class - is causing her to despise those who do not have to do such taxing tasks for little pay. In the end, before she quits, she begins to inspire a few of her co-workers to form a union and go on strike. In her opinion, she feels that the strike would have been possible if she were to stay a little longer.
Questions: During this section of the story Barbara explains that by replacing Barbara with "Barb" on her nametag, she is causing herself to become a less mature worker. She says that the nickname is what causes her to act in a way that she feels she would never have acted as Barbara. Do you believe this or do you feel that she is making an excuse for her immature behavior in order to feel less guilty?
Barbara states that, given more time at Walmart, she would be able to form a union and strike for higher pay. If you were in her position, would you stay a little while longer or would you just leave them to form a union themselves?
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5 comments:
I believe that Barbara was making an excuse for her immature behavior. I agree that she just did not want to feel guilty anymore so she said "Barbara" wouldn't act in such a manner.
If i were in Barbara's situation I am not sure if I would stay and help the WalMart employees form a union.I would want to because they need one, but some of the employeers did not want a union so I cannot help those who do not want to be helped. Additonally, I personally know that I would be ready to go back to my own life, so I somewhat agree with Barbara's choice to simply encourage the workers to start a union and go back home.
If iw here to be in Barbaras shoes im not sure if i would really stay and help the union. Its like i worked hard for what i have and my future, home, career, everything i worked hard for it i would of probably helped a bit but im not sure if i would of stayed all the time there.
I believe she is making both a new identity and because of that she feels that she should use a nickname to hide her immaturity. She think that if she have a nickname she can confide in her co-workers and become less important. Im not saying that a nickname makes someone unimportant but it does make a person less professional.
If i were in her position, I would stay to get the union formed because clearly they would have needed my help. I would have created the union and left after I knew that the union helped the workers because it would not be fair to me or them if I didn't.
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