The passage “Clearing Paths to the Past” and “To Be of Use”, by Marge Piercy, share one common theme, respect for those who work. In the first passage we learn that the narrator shovels snow. He says he’ll never make tomatos like his grandfather did but shoveling the snow will have to suffice. This shows us that he knows how to find content in simpler things. He knows his job is important and he takes pride in that. In the second passage the narrator talks about how she admires the people who go out and do the jobs no one else wants to do.
One example of this shared theme is this quote from “To Be of Use,” ‘I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the field and harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along, who are