Writer’s choice Sociology Revised 2

The Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams Transition
Author
Institutional Affiliation
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The Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams Transition
INTRODUCTION
Alfred Lubrano, a journalist, explores the life of Americans born blue-collar but have white-collar jobs. He refers to them as straddlers and in his study, explores the various challenges that they face as they transition from blue to white social ladders in the society. In his book, he seeks to establish the impact of the change in personal life as well as the cultural differences that emerge and how well straddlers deal with them. Further, he explores what straddlers lose or gain as they transition from one social class in the society to the next. For any straddler, this will be a great read while familiarizing oneself with the different experiences that different straddlers undergo while also exploring the similarities. Finding similarities with other straddlers may serve as a uniting point for them, but they decide to make the step say in seeking out other straddlers. The book further offers a guide to navigating the various experiences and coping with the challenges of the transition hence making it easier for the Limbo straddlers; being assimilated to the white class and achieve their dreams.
SUMMARY
Being a straddler himself, the writer takes the reader on a personal journey, alongside that of other people he interviewed as they aim at getting into the mind of a straddler and understanding them better (Lubrano, 2010).

For this reason; the book is divided into various sections to facilitate a great illustration, and a deep indulgence to understand a straddler. But before clearly outlining the differences in the ways of life and values, we begin by defining the blue-collar and white-collar persons. The greater distinction between the two is the educational level and the type of work they do. It is not necessarily based on the income; we could even have quite a successful blue-collar and a struggling white-collar. Hence, the primary difference is whether you use your hands and skills in your work or sit behind a computer while you work, or based on the level of your education. For instance, a blue-collar worker could just have a certification, or a trade degree, while a white-collar has a minimum of a bachelor’s degree.
The journey in exploring and understanding the blue-collar worker begins at an early stage, with the kids of straddlers. Growing up as a blue-collar isn’t quite hard since the same values are inculcated to all the kids you grow up around and have little time to make comparisons with the few differences that may emerge between you and the few kids of different class you encounter. However, the challenges start emerging when there is the introduction of the white-collar perspective or even the indulgence into the white-collar world. To start with, there is a crash in values, and other conflicts emerge as well, more so when the kids don’t seek to walk the same career path as their parents.
We then walk into the transitioning period for the children of the blue-collar workers with all they have acquired and learned to enter a whole new world in the white-collar. We walk their journey to college and their experiences as straddlers, and into their first encounter with the upper class. Based on their upbringing, the blue-collar mentality, we evaluate how well they adapt to the white-collar world as they also try to use the various experiences and values to navigate the various obstacles they face. Being from a blue-collar background with some parents being of the view that the college education is the ultimate ticket to a golden future, they may place a lot of false hopes in children only to discover the complete opposite (culturally) of what they expected. On the other hand, they are those parents who critic the system and so for their kid to take a firm stand and defy their parent the kid will be more open to adopting new ideas while also keeping themselves in check. Nonetheless, the parents who view the college degree as a ticket to greatness is the ultimate definition of a blue-collar parent. The cultural crash is evident when the college students struggle to fit into the new culture, they adopt new ways to try fit in while back to their families they will feel alienated, hence falling in between the two cultures with no definition of whom they are exactly and to think this is only a beginning for their professional life struggle. Then lastly we explore the life values and the never-ending topics in life; love, class, office politics, and the struggle in self-discovery as well.
ASSESSMENT OF STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Given that the author was a straddler himself, it gives him an upper edge in his research. Since he has experienced the struggle and even grown to adapt to the new upper class, he is currently living. Further, growing up and having to interact with both the straddlers and the upper class in college shapes him although a conflict arises here as well (transitioning). Nonetheless, as he conducts the research, interviewing the different people (Lubrano, 2010), they feel free with him, and hence they are ready to speak freely of their experiences, growing up, into college, the various transitions they had to undergo and the now common office politics and other unending topics. This aspect hence speaks to the strength of the data collected and better still, the findings that have been drawn from the data for some having witnessed the various transitions personally, hence it more of telling a story that they are a part of owning it and letting others experience it as well. Speaking of letting others experience it, to the straddlers, it is a piece that they will draw inspiration from and the strength to move forward knowing others walked the path and succeeded, while also making their work easier since the various ways of dealing with the challenges has been illustrated. While on the other hand, the upper class, could be helpful in making the various transitions easier for the straddlers hence making their transition to the next class easier.
The use of the pertinent historical content is a key aspect of the book; it makes the reader feel valued as they build their way up since the past is quite relevant in the transitions from blue-collar to white-collar. By using history that is relevant to the reader, it makes them relate effectively to the story it speaks to them, and they can apply it to tackle a few struggles they may have had growing up, especially the kids who may be conflicted on the path to take. It makes deciding on the road to take on a crossroad easier. Take for instance the conflicting values that are taught at the different levels, for the blue collar kids, they grow up knowing that hard work will get you whatever you want or wherever you want to go, intense loyalty to the society, high conformity to the society, holding colleagues in high regard as opposed to their bosses, and patriotism just to mention but a few, then to transition and find that all this has little regard to the newly acquired status, e.g., the white culture demands loyalty to the firm and not colleagues, while they value networking, which undermines the much-valued family time in the blue-collar household.
Nevertheless, the use of pertinent history context is a little biased since it speaks not to all the readers, but it is quite relevant only to the straddlers who might relate to the various experiences that are illustrated. It also goes as far as the writer wants it to go, for instance, he interviews straddlers of the same age as he is, making it relevant to only those who grew up around the same time or their kids but not exploring the experiences of other straddlers who came before them and having a variety of voices which would strengthen the understanding of the straddlers struggles over a period.
Lubrano manages to use the power of persuasive interpretations in his work since he has experienced the life of a straddler, growing up, having to venture into the white-collar job, not to mention attending college which serves a great impact in the life of any straddle (2010). It even raises a lot of conflicts especially when one is torn between the cultural values to adopt and which not to, going forward, you need to blend into the white-collar mentality and even acquire some values which are different from what you believe hence alienating you from your society. However, getting another perspective from the different persons who have walked the path seems to be giving him an upper edge in making the various conclusions that are useful making the piece a success.
CONCLUSION
Lubrano mainly focuses on the blue-collar persons whom he relates with, for instance, those raised in the urban and those close to his age (his age group). However, there are rural blue-collars that we would love to hear their take and experience transitioning to the white collar world. Nonetheless, the book provides a clear picture as to the experiences of the straddlers which serves a guiding point to those who seek guidance raising blue-collar kids to conquer the white-collar field soon; and even settling a more common conflict in values. Hence they will know where to make compromises and even help their kids in the transition especially in the college where much of the transitioning takes place. By gaining a clear understanding of what their kids have to through in their transition, the parents could make it easier for them by even teaching them a few white-collar values, since there is no class for learning to be white-collar or blue-collar, but then the society expects them to conform to the different values in the different settings. For the college kids, the book is a complete guide as to the world they are entering into in college and later in their workplace which provides a great guide to their choices and decisions in life.
References
Lubrano, A. (2010). Limbo: Blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. John Wiley & Sons.