Book Portfolio Q2..

What work is..
Kacey McNally!

"You've never done something so simple, so obvious, not because your too young or dumb, not because your jealous or even mean or incapable of crying in the presence of another man, No, just because you don't know what work is"... this touching quote is from the a poem out of an award winning poetry book called what work is, written by Philip Levine.

What is the definition of "Work"? the definition back then is a lot different then it is know a days. back then the work was more dangerous and harder. Philip Levine takes us back to when it was the worst. When the men had to work breathing in toxins that were bad to be breathing. the men were also developing illnesses and they we not able to support their families. Here today it is still hard to support our families, but it is also hard to find a job. Philip also takes us back to some of the jobs that he had when he was young. For example, the he worked in the soap factory, he had to take shaved pieces of soap and bring them to where they would be made into bars of soap.

Why was the work so hard?? what i get out of this book, is why the work is so difficult is because of the conditions, and the air that is floating around the building. Today, when people work around hazardous chemicals they are covered in a suit that protects them, but back then they weren't, they would be wearing what they came into work in. so pretty much the bosses just didn't care.

How you grow up is how your life's going to turn out... throughout the book he reveals different things about his life as simple as what a train is called, to when him and his friends got drunk off "Gin", from that to where he grew up & where the coldest he's been; but all this information may seem pointless but really it all leads up to why he's writing this book. the lesson is how you experience things is the way your going to be your future.

Me as a person, i have kinda worked before, doing hay out in the fields and working on equipment. so i have some experience of what is going to be like when i get a real job in the future. But Levine makes so many good point in the book about how it was back then and me knowing how its like now a days it was changes so much. as a person im so glad that i am going to be working now a days then compared to back then... my dad tells me all the time i'd never be able to live back then when things were difficult...