Rhetorical Analysis Of Year Of The Blue Collar Guy By Jack Olson

The Blue-Collar Workers According to Steve Olson, there are two types of people in this world: blue and white collar workers. In 1989, Olson wrote “Year of the Blue-Collar Guy” to identify the stereotypes between these two types of workers and explain the importance of a blue-collar worker. At the time Olson worked as a construction worker, which gave him a first hand insight of the life of a blue-collar worker. Olson argues that the blue-collar workers are not appreciated enough for all of their hard work. Steve Olson uses rhetorical devices, such as, imagery, sarcasm, style, tone, voice, and symbolism to make his argument stronger and more effective. Olson begins his essay with imagery. The imagery in Olson’s essay helps reveal the biases

Steve Olson makes jokes in his writing from the start, however towards the end he becomes slightly more serious. Olson claims he has heard a blue-collar guy described as “a guy who is always doing things that end in the letter ‘n’” (Olson 1), such as, “huntin’, fishin’, workin’” (Olson 1). Steve Olson then goes on to turn this joke into a serious point. He believes blue-collar workers are the doers of the world. They are the ones who work from dawn to dusk, while still making time for their families and other personal interests. In Olson’s opinion, “there should be stadiums full of screaming fans for these guys” (Olson 2). White-collar workers, however, are the talkers of the world. Olson states, “these talkers are the guys we drove from the playgrounds into the libraries when we were young and now for twenty years or more we have endured the revenge of the nerds” (Olson 1). Olson’s use of humor is effective because it engages the readers and shows he is not being one hundred percent serious when lessening the importance of the white-collar

According to the stereotypes, blue-collar workers “aren’t smart enough to be that cynical” (Olson 1). The blue-collar workers symbolize being hard working but unintelligent, while white-collar workers symbolize being lazy but intelligent. This is not always the truth though. Both blue and white collar workers need the use of their body and brain, to give their best effort in their job. Blue-collar workers are the people who built our towns and cities, they just got over shadowed by the white-collar workers. According to Olson’s beliefs, “one symbol of America’s opulent wealth is the number of people who can sit and ponder and comment and and write without producing a usable product or skill” (Olson 1). Olson believes the blue-collar workers are “America’s last true romantic heroes” (Olson 1) and deserve more credit than the white-collar workers. Olson’s use of symbolism is effective because it clearly states the stereotypes and beliefs Olson has about the blue and white-collar