The Sandwich Factory

The assignment will begin with an analysis and interpretation of the short story "The Sandwich Factory" by Jason Kennedy.
In order to put history in perspective to the assignment, there is included a discussion with an excerpt from the novel "Hard Times" - with a description of Coke Town by Charles Dickens.

"The Sandwich Factory" by Jason Kennedy, written in 2007.
The short story is about a man who in 1994 takes a job at a sandwich factory for a low income bracket. At the factory, he sees his insignificance, indifference and dissatisfaction. This gives us a picture of how his life is and how unhappy he is with his work. The Sandwich factory seems to be a typical food factory where mechanization is exploited to increase efficiency, including the proceeds of sandwiches. Employees at the sandwich factory works monotonously around their belts, and is constantly monitored by their managers who let their employees do all the dirty work that they do not even bother. The managers give awards to employees from bad to excellent.
If the factory is behind in today's work schedule, they are not “released” until the job is done! It creates a bad atmosphere among employees. The employees feel trapped, trapped like a prison, it puts people under pressure, stress them and forcing them to work long hours, and faster.
As a reader, you get a really bad insight of how things are done at the factory according to the narrator.
The narrator is a first-person narrator singular, as one hears the story as "I" and consistent use of this perspective, therefore, we see things from the narrator's perspective, we hear his thoughts and his opinions throughout the story. The narrator might seem disingenuous, since you only hear his opinions and his ignorance among the other employees, and managers at the factory. The Narrator's statements about the other employees at the factory, are subjective, and therefore may not be true. The narrator is characterized as a man who comes from a sub-class environment, and has not much money to do well. The narrator works in its opinions, pessimistic, and act aggressively against the factory, its employees and managers. The narrator feels "better" than other employees when he shows his emotions, in a contrast to be mechanized like the other employees at the factory. One can feel the narrator's dissatisfaction in his very monotone voice, and language. He feels unfairly treated, and bitter about the factory condition. In connection with what he does thought about to live life as a wealthy factory owner who has everything under control.
There are few other individuals who have a place in the story, Dot and "The Mad Man"
Dot is an employee at the factory, she seems to be the veteran at the factory. The narrator gives a remarkable description of the dot. The narrator describes the dot as a cheap, frivolous, and promiscuous, with no respect for herself.
"The Mad Man" also appears to be the veteran at the factory. "The Mad Man" is described as crazy, and constantly trying to either scare people with a knife or stick them down with a knife. Here is some clear proof that the narrator gives a floating explanation of the characters. Because if he describes "The Mad Man" as one who constantly want to kill people, would "The Mad Man" be smoked on the locked ward. Both individuals have helped to mechanize the factory, in the sense that they were like robots, it is a clear sign that they both have been at the factory for a long time and that the factory has changed them. As I said before "The Mad Man" was crazy, and Dot do not understand the narrator, who is new in the factory, have not caught the point that, to behave like them, like robots.
The main theme in the story is alienation, the search for the meaning of mechaniza-tion of human beings, people who live life monotonous, with no goals in life ... just stand on the assembly belt day after day. The staff has no influence on the factory; their individuality does not create the difference that might make their working environment a better place. The employees are guided by managers at the factory.
The description of Coke Town an extract of Charles Dickens novel "Hard Times" describes an industrial town in Great Brittan. Dickens describes the city in a very negative way. Dickens uses figures of speech very much to explain how conditions in the city. Dickens describes briefly how the factories in the city, is a problem. How monotonous it is in town, everything is the same, no personality and expression, much as the people living in the city.
Such environments’ are rarely seen in Denmark more, but in Great Brittany and the U.S., it is quite normal with such workplaces as it is hard to a good job in these countries without an education, people who are in such situations are almost forced to accept the conditions set in the factories, otherwise, they lose their salaries and they would starve. I saw a program on TV2 called "Undercover Boss". At a fast food chain White Castle, are seen how the factory sites were, even the owner of the fast food chain White Castle, was very upset about how poorly the employees were treated. The managers and leaders sat in the cafeteria all day long; giving tasks on to the employees ... it forced the staff the assembly belts, to create more a day than what they would normally.
It will not be many years before such work no longer exists as machines and robots’ taking over the jobs no one wants.