What Work Is by Phillip Levine is a book about working "back then" and they type of work that people did and the attitudes they did their work with. The theme for the book
What Work Is is being around people who share the same struggles and burdens as you and keep going even though its hard. African Americans were subjected to slavery but with being around people who were going through the same thing made it easier to cope with. This theme applies to my personal life as well because there are some classes that are mandatory for me to take so I can graduate high school and haven't liked them, but having friends in those classes helped me enjoy the class a little more and stick with it.
Going to work or school is hard if you don't like it for what ever the reason. If you have people around who don't like what you are doing either, but do it because maybe that's what expected of them, it makes it easier to go to your work place or activity. For example the boy or man in the poem
Every Blessed Day the sun works at a car factory. He doesn't like his job but he does it because that's what his father did and it's expected of him to do the same thing. In the poem
Gin these boys are only 14 going 15 and they are drinking to make the pain go away this isn't the right thing to do, but together they are going through the same things. In these poems everyone is around people who are going through the same things and that makes the situation easier to deal with. This is important and you see all through the poems how people lean on each other when they understand what each other are going through.
All through you education career starting from a young age you learn about African Americans and how they weren't always free, Harriet Tubman was the leader of the underground railroad. This was where many black slaves escaped slavery and became free. If Harriet Tubman hadn't been brave enough to relate to the people around her, then blacks could still be slaves today. The Civil Rights movements were made to make laws equal for both blacks and white. During the Holocaust the Jews had to stick together because they were being ized in concentration camps by the Germans. In all of these different cases the same all people were going through the same things, this is important because it shows that through history people have talked and expresses their feelings to each other to help deal with the situation they were facing.
When someone is going through something difficult and someone tries to help people resent that if they don't understand because they have been through the same experience. I have diabetes and when my family gets on me about it, I start to get an attitude and resent them because they don't understand what i go through and how it affects my life. I do have a friend who has diabetes and we keep each other in check saying don't eat that it's not healthy, i don't resent her for it because she understands what I go through on a daily basis. I have a friend whose parents are getting a divorce and it's has been hard on him. I want to help but i don't know how because my parents aren't divorced. It just proves and shows that it's easier to cope with the daily things we go through if we have people around us who are going through the same things.
Being around people who understand your needs and what your going through is the theme of the book
What Work Is. This theme is significant in history during the holocaust when the Jews had to stick together so that even a small fraction of them could survive and live to tell their story. The role of perspective in this theme is that it's easier to talk to someone who knows what your going through rather then someone who doesn't understand. This theme is very important because without people being able to share their burdens with like people America wouldn't be where we are today. Everyone would be resentful and nothing would get accomplished, for example Slavey maybe wouldn't have ended.
