My final hypertext of this quarter will examine the low-wage experience of agricultural workers, specifically legal and illegal. Because I have actually worked on a ranch, I can use my own personal experience to some extent, but because my jobs were so different from those of the salary workers, unlike Ehrenreich, I won’t be using this as my main source of information. I do have close family members who work in this business as managers that could provide some very helpful first hand/second hand information on the people with whom they work.
Agricultural work is one of the most difficult jobs out there. It’s an extremely difficult and dangerous job that becomes more strenuous because many of the workers are trying to support families in the United States and in Mexico. I want to be able to depict these struggles and hardships in the way that Schlosser did in Fast Food Nation. I want to give an unbiased, factual point of view, keeping my own personal views and opinions separate, while fairly depicting other people’s point of view.
One of the main points I want to address is the “American Dream.” Because many of these workers are immigrants, they are trying to beat the odds and assimilate into American society. I’m going to investigate whether or not the “American Dream” is actually an attainable goal for the common agricultural worker. Like Shipler, I’m going to attempt to use stories of the individual, to speak for the broader group. Also, I want to investigate whether or not students at Santa Clara would be willing to help these people in need by paying more for each item of produce that they buy.
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