The Killing Floor :: Essays Papers

The Killing Floor heel Custer leaves his young family in rural Mississippi in pursuit of industrial employment in the northern Promised Land of Chicago, Illinois. Little did he know to the highest degree the authoritative extent of the journey he was about to embark on. Initially a move to secure work and improve upon the conditions which surrounded him and his family Frank was about to change more in his living then just his economic status. Immediately upon arriving in the bustling city, Frank and his close friend doubting Thomas gravitate towards other working class African-Americans with similar backgrounds. Unable to hit the books or write, the two men enlist the aide of their local YMCA in finding jobs at a local meat packing plant. Franks first encounters at the packinghouse set the tone for what is to entail. racial tensions combined with aggressions concerning class associated positions boil just barely beneath the bulge on the killing floor.Conditions at the meatpacking plant are well less then favorable. The hours are long, the work is backbreaking, and the position in which he works does not pay very well. However, Franks recompense for these conditions are his relationships with the other men whom he lives near and works around. disbursement his evenings playing cards and talking with the men introduces Frank to more then just a little relaxation issues about politics, race relations, and specially the bloodless mans union dominate the colorful conversations. During this date Im amazed at how Frank refuses to let himself postulate dragged into blindly believing the popular opinions in which his peers hold. He lives an honest life and pursues in finding the whole story beneath the surface of the authentic topics. Frank consistently demonstrates that he will not settle with memory his place as is expected of him. It appears as if the people he encounters from twenty-four hours to day are trying to keep segregation and t he Old southward alive. His peers along with members of the community are dissatisfied with the decisions and alliances with which Frank is making. They feel that the strides he is taking to improve himself i.e., saving money and purchasing a sad sack knife, exhibiting real enthusiasm in learning the tricks of new trades, and joining the white mans union, are unnecessary and a strident demonstration of selling out to the white community.