Bizarre Take #8: Taking a Closer “Look” at the Invisible Folks
Bizarre Take #8: Taking a Closer “Look” at the InvisibleFor this blog, I decided to write about a section of the comic that I found particularly interesting, and prompted me to continue exploring this concealed issue that suddenly came to light on pages 87 to 88. These pages highlighted the idea of a power dynamic and how apparent it was throughout Spiegelman’s writing. Throughout Maus, Spiegelman makes an argument centered around power, and how its slow takeover over large groups of people can cause a huge divide, specifically between the “mice” and the “cats”.One thing I noticed sweat does a good job with is analyzing the idea of visibility. Lynn Nottage is known for building her career on making invisible people visible. Sweat does an incredible job of analyzing this by shedding light on some of the factory workers whose rights are heavily violated, and who are treated very unfairly. Sweat specifically hones in on the story of workers from a factory called Olstead, focusing on the stories of Tracy, Chris, Cynthia, Jason, and various other characters that had no choice but to slave away at their job for a wage the size of a dime. These characters are seen as invisible, merely some people who larger companies can force to do work and get labor out of. They aren’t even seen as people, just “workers”. Cynthia describes her frustration as a worker when she talks about how her “body is slowing down, a little every day….hands are frozen” (Nottage 25). Workers such as Cynthia are seen as robots or machines that can complete large amounts of work easily. Their rights are not respected in the slightest way, nor their health or safety,shown when Stan eventually lets out all his anger. He says, “I get injured…I can’t feel my toes. Not one of those Olstead ******* called to check on me” (Nottage 36). This shows how the workers were practically seen as invisible. They weren’t taken care of, and when injured, the company seemed to care more about the loss of a worker than the worker himself. Their labor rights were given no attention to, and overall, they were treated horribly.
Now, the visible, were the corporations themselves. They only cared about themselves, and whether or not they were making enough profit out of the work. Their power over the common folk is shown when Cynthia states, “They’re gonna ask everyone for a pay cut to save jobs” (Nottage 74). The corporations are visible, as they are the only main figure seen to the public. The public doesn’t see the terrible behind the scenes of the workers slaving away to make ends meet. This is all due to a division in power, and how those with more power have more financial stability. A prime example of this is when Cynthia gets her promotion to manager, and doesn’t have to worry about getting laid off, because she is finally more “visible” than the others.
I chose this meme because it describes how the factory workers must have felt. Before working at the factory, they were visible, looked after and cared for. Now, they identify as “invisible”, because the larger corporations don’t care about their health or safety, and they’re only seen as robots.
- Literary Critic,
- Prisha Pachpande
.jpeg)
The point made is very clear and straight forward. Even i agree that Lynn Nottage gives importance to the people who usually are forgotten and not seen by the society, such as factory workers, road cleaners, painters, etc.
ReplyDeleteI loved your take on visibility and how the corporations and workers are on two polar ends of the issue. Your straightforward way of writing also made the argument even more clear. :)
ReplyDeleteI like how you included evidence to prove how they were invisible and how Nottage was able to make them and their problems visible which is approached in a compare/contrast way.
ReplyDelete