Work
Rights
Routine
Dignity
Severance
Convenience Store Woman
Bartleby
Remains of the Day
Money doesn't buy happiness
The Circle
To Stevens, having dignity is what makes a butler good at their profession. His version of being a dignified butler is one who denies his own feelings just to make the household keeper happy. Stevens adopted this idea from his father, who was also a butler before he passed.
Standard Loneliness Package
Bartleby gets employed by a successful lawyer to work at his firm on Wall Street. Everyone at the workplace starts to take notice of Bartleby's poor work ethic.
His father exemplified his duties of being a dignified butler through stories of past experiences which taught Stevens how to mask his emotions in the workplace. His stories manipulated Stevens into thinking that if he acted the same way he would be successful, just like how his father was
His idea of dignity ultimately caused Stevens to turn any personal relationships he had into professional ones. For example, him and his father barely had a relationship. At work, they would have minimal interactions, and when he passed away, Stevens would not leave his station to give his final goodbyes to his father. At the end of the story, Stevens starts to question his idea of "dignity" when he realizes that his one true love, Miss Kenton married another man because he kept their relationship strictly professional.
How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
Mae's rights are compromised at her job by the lack of privacy she is given. Sharing everything on social media is encouraged and expected at her job.
During the pre-apocalyptic era, Candace wanted to pursue a career as a photographer, but those dreams were severed by Candace’s unwillingness to take a risk and abandon the stability and comfortability that she had while working at Spectra. Candace’s unhealthy allegiance to routine while working at a job that she was unhappy with is a source for her overall misery.
“What I enjoyed, or at least what I felt compelled to keep doing, was the routine” (55)
Candace severed her own dreams and happiness by sticking to her routine life and job just to maintain a sense of stability. In reality, the novel depicts that it is just as risky to uphold a toxic regime as it is to pursue one’s desires.
This idea was also seen in the post apocalyptic era when people infected with the Shen Fever caused them to become habitual and repeat the same task over and over again.
The main idea of this story is that people in the upper class can inflict their pain and suffering on other people, so that they don't have to go through that painful feeling. The protagonist, who is among the lower class constantly feels the pain that other people feel when he accepts the job that causes this cycle of depression.
, “I don't know. I’m not trying to feel sorry for myself. I just thought there might be more to it all than this” (Yu).
The narrator says he’s not trying to feel bad for himself because he is making a decent amount of money hourly and is grateful he has a job that allows him to support himself. However, he wishes there was more to his life than what is currently happening. This is what sparks his interest in purchasing the life-loaf.
The narrator is unhappy with his life, but will do nothing to change it because he needs the financial support.
This self help book was designed for the reader to understand how to become "filthy" rich. Each chapter is set up with strict rules about working and professionalism, and if you follow each rule, then wealth will be easily attainable.
In this story, the narrator's individual rights are questioned when he has to immerse himself in other people's problems and hardships. This is seen especially when the narrator has to attend funerals which ultimately leads to the decline of his mental health
Mae is constantly reprimanded throughout the story when she doesn't share intimate details of her life such as, her father's illness, and her alone time while on the kayak.
If Mae doesn't share this information, she would be considered selfish because the community isn't also able to experience it
Mae eventually conforms to the Circle and decides to wear a SeeChange camera whenever she is awake, so everyone can see everything she is doing at all times. Mae has voluntarily given away her freedom and individual rights, to the point where her viewers are watching and commenting on her every move.
"Ill be watching you watch her" (46).
The narrator becomes a successful business owner of water company, but is simultaneously in love with this girl that he met in his youth. He doesn't act on his love for her until the end, because one of the rules in his book is, "Don't fall in love."
“It dampens the fire in the steam furnace of ambition, robbing of essential propulsion an already fraught upriver journey to the heart of financial success. So, it is worrisome that you, in the late middle of your teenage years, are infatuated with a pretty girl” (35).
The narrator becomes unhappy during the decline of his company, when he divorces his wife, and when all he can still think about is the pretty girl after many years.
At the end of the novel, the narrator realizes that he's been focusing on the fundamentals of what he thought wanted his life to be which encompasses fame, power, and fortune. He realizes that these fundamentals provide temporary happiness. The true fundamentals of life, such as love, have been shunned by the desire to be wealthy.
At the end of the story, the narrator is finally happy when him and the pretty girl cross paths and end up together. This was when he realized that money doesn't buy happiness
This story is about a 36 year old woman named Keiko who works at a convenience store. A lot of her friends and family think that her job is improper, because of the simple, repetitive tasks that she does on the daily.
Keiko is not phased by what people think of her, because she loves the routinely manner that the job entails.
Keiko hears the same sounds of the store routinely, but the repetitiveness of the sound is where Keiko finds her comfort.
She wakes up to go to work, eats and drinks the food from the store, and hears the sounds of the store in her sleep. Her entire life purpose is working at the store.
Keiko is forced to leave her job at the convenience store towards the end of the novel and her happiness shifts when she has to give up her routine.
"However, during the time when she didn’t have a job, she felt depressed looking through job advertisements because she felt that she lost what gave her life purpose, and had to give up her daily regime" (147).
Bartleby works as a scrivener, therefore that is the type of work that makes him feel dignified. However, his dignity gets in the way of his work ethic because that is the only type of task he is willing to do at the firm.
The lawyer asks Bartleby to do one simple task aside from being a scribe, and Bartleby responded back with, "I'd prefer not to."
Throughout the story, Bartleby continues to refuse to do the simple tasks asked of him, which ends up angering the lawyer, and the other employees at the firm for picking up his slack. Bartleby's dignity affects his ability to be a good employee, which ultimately leads to his reputation of having poor work ethic.