At the end of Part V, Chapter 2 (p. 216) Paul exclaims:
“Unfair! Unfair! – Our lives – unfair!”
The final chapters of the novel portray Paul’s realization of the reality of exploitation in the lives of the workers – and in his own life.
Before doing this assignment study this page on "The Inverse Relationship Between Profit and Labor Costs."
Like Paul, we all have a general, usually vague, sense of what "exploitation" is, but have not focused sharply on it. The reality of it strikes Paul forcefully as the climax of the novel.
Find three passages earlier in the novel in which exploitation is portrayed.
Discuss the extent to which the workers recognize it and how they talk about it in these passages. Identify the passages with page numbers (or, if you do not have the New American Library edition with the introduction by Studs Terkel, then identify the passages by Section and Chapter) and the first 3-4 words of the passage, like this:
“…just for the sake…” (p. 11)
After this, discuss Paul’s awakening to the consciousness of exploitation, his own and that of the other workers. Refer to 2-3 passages here.
Write 300 – 400 words in total. Put the number of words at the top of your assignment, like this
380 words
Email to me and to your group.