Matewan Essay

In society, many make a living by working for others to get the necessities they need. Workers face many struggles such as wage cuts, horrendous work conditions, an increase in hours, due to these conditions they are labeled ‘wage slaves.’ These individuals have no choice but to work in these conditions. The growth of industry in the United States made corruption easier and made employers richer while the poor stayed poor. The employers justify their actions by arguing that the employees have a choice to go and work for someone else. However, workers do not have the choice to work for others since most employers were using the same method to make a profit. Workers are treated unfairly, but they use many effective techniques such as strikes

Rebecca Harding Davis wrote “Life in the Iron Mills” in the mid-nineteenth century in part to raise awareness about working conditions in industrial mills. With the goal of presenting the reality of the mills’ environment and the lives of the mill workers, Davis employs vivid and concrete descriptions of the mills, the workers’ homes, and the workers themselves. Yet her story’s realism is not objective; Davis has a reformer’s agenda, and her word-pictures are colored accordingly. One theme that receives a particularly negative shading in the story is big business and the money associated with it. Davis uses this negative portrayal of money to emphasize the damage that the single-minded pursuit of wealth works upon the humanity of those

Parvana is a novel written by Deborah Ellis. Parvana and Shauzia are 2 young girls who life in a Taliban ruled country, known as Afghanistan. Both girls are faced with many difficulties throughout the novel. The 2 girls are given the chance to leave the war-torn country and Shauzia immediately takes this chance. By doing so, Shauzia will no longer be living under the Taliban’s rules. Being an 11 year old girl, Shauzia deserves to get an education. Shauzia’s family does not value her in any sort of way and she doesn’t deserve to see such disgusting things everyday.

The only competition that did exist was competition among local workers and workers brought in from elsewhere for the positions available at the company. In the neo-classical form of economics, there needs to be some form of labor market to keep the employer-worker relationship in check. In Matewan, there was no alternative source of employment for those who did not wish to work at Stone Mountain. Those who were unhappy with wages or working conditions were not free to leave and seek employment elsewhere in the town. Their only redress was to go on strike. However, by bringing in scab labor when employees decided to take a

As workers moved to cities to work in factories, and progress in medical and sanitation practices improved, urban crowding became a huge issue. Additionally, where industry was taking over production in markets that had previously been dominated by small business owners, these skilled workers, weavers and the like, were now being forced to take jobs working for capitalist ventures-- often working in the industry coinciding with their master skill, but

Politically, the Company controls its workers using fear to enforce its policies. Employing two “feudal knights,” or detectives, from the Baldwin/Phelps Detective Agency, the Stone Mountain Coal Company enforces rules by cruelly instilling fear in their workers. Using scare tactics, such as throwing people out of their homes, taking their possessions, and

The mill’s owners and managers had little impetus to change the way in which they had always conducted business and treated employees. With limited employment options in the area, the majority of the people who lived in the town were mill employees. This was

After the coal companies began to move into the area, they set up camps. Many of the residents who were forced off their land then worked for the coal companies. C.J.’s family instead had decided to move to the Justice farm, which was owned by C.J.’s grandfather’s cousin, Ermel. Ermel had relinquished the rights to his land, and the coal companies had not yet come for it. The residents that worked for the coal company lived in camps, worked for very low pay in “scrip” (company dollars) in horrible conditions, and ultimately had no other choice.

As the capitalists continued their corruption, “the wealthy class became wealthier; but the poorer class became more dependant. The gulf between the employed and the employer was growing wider” (Document A). Similarly, many actions performed by these capitalists, contributed to the sorrowful lives of many farmers, who were struggling to survive.

This onslaught of capitalism directly revolutionized modern industrialism as well as the industrial city. Machines morphed the predominately agricultural nation to a herd of factory and corporate workers. Swarms of people, both native and immigrant, flocked to major cities. “The present century has been marked by a prodigious increase in wealth-producing power. The utilization of steam and electricity, the introduction of improved processes and labor saving machinery, the greater subdivision and grander scale of production, the wonderful facilitation of exchanges, have multiplied enormously the effectiveness of labor.”(George, p.20) The major problem with this newfound industrialism was the way in which the workforce was treated. Capitalism was supposed to provide a way out, a way ascend the financial and social staircase, if you worked hard enough. This however was not the case, if you were a loyal, hardworking employee you simply got to keep your job, and if you were in any way injured or incompetent you were fired.

Art Spiegelman’s Maus, is a unique way of looking at history. Through the use of comics, Spiegelman allows the reader to draw their own conclusions within the parameters of the panes of the comic. Unlike reading a textbook in which the author describes every detail about the subject matter, comics allow for the reader to draw their own conclusions from the information given to them. Also by reading a serious comic such as Maus, we are able to break away from

Throughout Cultural Perspectives, many influential texts have been read, analyzed, and discussed. One text, Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis, integrates the thoughts of quite a few authors that have been discussed this semester. Through employing a Marxist view of history—there are always the “haves” and the “have-nots”—one can see that Life in the Iron Mills exemplifies the struggles that face many “have-not” citizens throughout history. One can then see the clear connections to various authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft, W.E.B. DuBois, Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, and Adam Smith.

While we may not thinkof feudalism as an economic system that survived much past Medieval times, the reality of the social situation in Matewan during the 1920's can lead us to no other conclusion than that feudalism was able to hold its grip on a much more contemporary society. In Matewan, the Stone Mountain Coal Company ruled supreme, creating what is known as a monopoly. They owned everything in the county; the only source of employment, the houses, the land, even the currency, known as company scrip, which citizens used to purchase items in the only store in town- the company store. The citizens of Matewan were drawn to work for the Stone Mountain Coal Company because of the promises that were made to them: housing, decent employment with the possibilityof job advancement, and a decent community in which to live. We see these promises in action as they draw new workers to the mountain in the early portion of the film. The African-American (and Italian) workers hired to replace the striking miners were lured to the mountain only to discover that they would be indebted to the company from the very beginning. They had to pay for their trip, their rent, even their showers out of thier first company

Mr. Fong is the English teacher for F1A this year! (and possibly the other years as well!) Since I'm a creep, I have noticed many details about him. So I'm gonna share my thoughts on him as well as what he does! So get ready for a full novel on his dog, and features.

I was employed here as a Mathematics Lecturer in the University General Requirements Unit (UGRU) from September 2005 until June 2007. This was a foundation program for all students entering the university. The foundation program was the equivalent of a one year Arts and Sciences program that some Canadian Universities are now offering. A key difference is that the UGRU Program deals with underprepared, unmotivated students who are second language learners at the very least. All governments of the oil-rich Arabian Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, The UAE, Qatar) have been for a very long time trying to motivate the younger generations to obtain education so that they can develop a locally