The Emotional Tie

Within the first three sentences of Chapter 1, Mike Rose introduces the reader to his mother. The reader learns of her illness and life struggles as well as the sense of fulfillment she found in waitressing.  With the mention of her illness and the bond mother and son share as they reminisce, Rose generates an immediate emotional connection between reader and subject. The author doesn’t attempt to generate a feeling of pity or sympathy for his mother, but one of tenderness and respect.  Only after the emotional connection has been made does the author guide the reader through the facts and details of waitressing.

Rose begins chapters 2 and 3 with introductions to people who work, learn and teach in the hairdressing and plumbing fields. Using the same technique to generate emotion before he provides details of the profession, the author engages the reader. Rose also emphasizes the sense of fulfillment and pride felt by the men, women and children who work with “hand and brain” (66).  As each chapter ends, Rose reiterates the complex skills needed to succeed in each of the professions. The reader gains an appreciation of the physical and mental demands placed on the workers. This appreciation is possible through Rose’s initial introduction and continued emotional tie to each subject.

While I do like the book, I have an issue with Rose's writing style. He doesn't vary his sentence length often enough.  Although his sentences contain pertinent information, they are similar in length, which makes the reading tedious. Additionally, he places quotation marks around words such as “family-style” (5), “short-term,” “working” and “long-term”, all on page 10. This use of quotation marks is overdone, unnecessary and further detracts from the sentence flow.