According to Joanne B. Cuilla, ‘one of the first things Americans ask when they meet someone new is, ‘what do you do?’’, and as such, she argues that in the US, work wholly ‘determines our status and shapes our social interactions’ (2000. The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work. Page 12) . In order to truly explore the representation of work in America, as it is a vast topic with an array of different experiences, there are many different areas to look at, which this essay will reflect. Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help, turned movie, depicts the racial tensions in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Era, and highlights the lives of African-American maids working in white households. Providing a vastly contrasting view of …show more content…
David Fincher's, Fight Club (1999) also provides an interesting commentary, exemplifying the apathy of a generation of corporate workers in a capitalist obsessed society. In showing various representations of the way in which work is represented, it is clear that there are many contributing factors involved in work and it's impact on an individual’s life.

The Help, details the lives of a group of African-American women working as maids who after meeting journalist and aspiring author Skeeter, decide to expose the true reality of working as a maid in a white household, as well as the secrets of many of their employers. The representation of work throughout the film, not only highlights both the racial and class issues inherent during the workplace at this time, but also how heteronormative and insistent on adhering to the stereotypical gender roles the era was. Judith Butler refers to gender as an ‘act’ (Gender Trouble, 1990), and her view along with other theorists, such as Halberstam, Foucault and Rubin argue that despite gender being perceived as natural and innate, it is actually a social construct; or ‘socially imposed’ …show more content…
Arguably one of the most influential messages that the film attempts to convey is that America has allowed itself to become completely monopolised by consumerism, with an obsession for commodities. Giroux however, argues that it places too much blame on the idea that consumure culture, and zombie workers is the root of society’s problem. ‘Dangerously seductive’ in presenting ‘Project Mayhem’, as the only possible alternative to defeat contemporary capitalism’, they criticise the regressive, vicious and obscene’ notion of politics that’s offered. (2001. Henry Giroux. Imre Szeman. Ikea Boy Fights Back. Page 97). The narrator argues that he has become a slave to ‘the Ikea nesting instinct’ (David Fincher, Fight Club, 1999). He is compelled to buy things that he is not sure why he likes, seduced by the idea of a future self that becomes complete thanks to his possessions, as he flips through catalogues wondering ‘what kind of dining set defines me as a person?’, whilst a series of nondescript looking items fill his apartment with price tags beside them (Fincher, 1999). It is for this reason that he continues to work in his unfulfilling corporate office