Analysis Of Mike Rose Blue Collar Brilliance

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In his essay “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” Mike Rose argues that, “intelligence is closely associated with formal education–the type of schooling a person has, how much and how long-and most people seem to move comfortably from that notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence.”(lines 56-58) Mike Rose believes that society thinks that blue-collar jobs are mindless. He wants to show people that their common sense is wrong, so he starts with his mother’s story, who worked as a waitress. Showing the blue collar intelligence, he states this by narrating his mother’s fascinating abilities, and how she acquired them by working as waitress at a coffee shop. He uses his uncle, Joe, who left school in the ninth grade