Lynn Nottage's Sweat - "An American Nightmare"
An American Nightmare
Our country is built upon the notion that working hard is key to achieving the American Dream, but is that still enough in present times? Modern day manufacturing companies are built upon the backs of their production line, yet these workers so often seem disposable to the people in charge. In Lynn Nottage’s Sweat it becomes apparent that working hard is not enough for the characters involved with Olstead’s, a steel mill, especially in the wake of the United States’ NAFTA ratification.
The story follows a longtime friendship between steel workers Tracey and Cynthia, which crumbles when Cynthia receives a promotion to supervisor and Tracey gets cut during a subsequent massive company overhaul. Their local bar and meeting place is populated by a cast of characters which includes manager and bartender Stan, who once worked at the mill but was physically disabled by one of its machines, a Dominican busboy named Oscar, and Cynthia’s drug-addicted ex-husband, Brucie. Tracey and Cynthia’s sons, Jason and Chris, react to the frustration of having also been locked out of the company by getting into a bar fight, which further injures Stan and lands them each in jail. In many ways, this story is one about the plight of the working class, as we see the degradation of the character’s relationships and mental states in reaction to the economic state of the U.S. at particular times in its history.
Cynthia, Tracey and Stan are at the bar discussing changes in the company’s approach to management when Stan notes that “Olstead’s grandson is the same brand of asshole as all of ‘em, stuffing his pockets, rather than improving the floor…You don’t see [the new management] out there. They find it offensive to be on the floor with their Wharton MBAs. And the problem is they don’t wanna get their feet dirty, their diplomas soiled with sweat…or understand the real cost, the human cost of making their shitty product” (Nottage, 43). It’s clear that the higher ups are the ones most likely to benefit from this new management style, where cutting costs is more important than retaining a meaningful connection with one’s workers or preserving employees who’ve given their lives and loyalty to the company. So, then, is it still as noble as was once believed to be a hard-working and steadfast worker in the manufacturing sector? Or is this mentality actually naïve, and should an employee be more focused upon spending as little time working at the bottom of the totem pole (the production line) as possible, striving to move up the ranks at any cost?
The character of Cynthia allows us a look at the true cost of success in America’s increasingly cut-throat approach to business. Her character development is one which highlights a shift in prioritizing “career” over “job”. Many workers at the mill were comfortably complacent in jobs which offered little room for career development. Though physically hard-working, they lacked ambition. This is clearly to their detriment, as the overestimation of job security leaves them with nothing to fall back on. Many had few or no applicable skills in the wake of the deindustrialization of Reading, PA and much of the United States. Perhaps others, like Tracey, had pre-conceived notions of their future so set in stone that a diversion like sudden unemployment completely incapacitates them. Logistically, Cynthia makes the right choice in seeking out and earning a promotion, meaning a higher pay and more job stability than she previously enjoyed. However, in standing by when NAFTA allows the company to employ non-Union laborers and move factory jobs to cheaper sectors of the world, she also ends up gaining the abhorrence of her once closest friends and son. Still, there’s nothing Cynthia could’ve done to prevent this change. Did her family and friends expect her to quit her new, better job in light of the impact it would have on their livelihoods? With her ex-husband borrowing and stealing rather than contributing to the family, Cynthia had previously worked several jobs to support herself and her son. Would going back to that have been the noble path in this scenario?
Similarly, when the quietly hard-working Oscar takes a lower-paying, non-Union job at the mill, he is ostracized and even targeted for violence by members of the community. He’s seen as betraying the mill workers who refused to take a pay-cut and instead lost their jobs entirely. Is it really his fault for taking advantage of what he saw as his best chance at achieving the American Dream? Should he have suffered unnecessarily to validate the scorned workers’ suffering? It’s Oscar’s adaptability, rather than blind loyalty, that seems a more valued trait in modern day America. Defending himself from Stan’s scrutiny, he argues “For three years I’ve been carrying nothing but crates. I’ve got twenty-dollar bills taped to my wall, and a drawer full of motivational tapes…My father, he swept up the floor in a factory like Olstead’s – those fuckas wouldn’t even give him a union card. But he woke up every morning at four A.M. because he wanted a job in the steel factory, it was the American way, so he swept fucking floors thinking, “One day they’ll let me in.”” (Nottage).
His mentality is in direct contrast to someone like Tracey, who has refused to accept the pay cut and loss of benefits which accompany the company overhaul. At one point she is completely shaken by the mere thought of Oscar applying for a job at the mill, saying “Well, my family’s been here a long time. Since the twenties, okay? They built the house that I live in. They built this town” (Nottage 69) and later, “Olstead’s isn’t for you” (Nottage 70). Blinded by a perceived entitlement which essentially boils down to birthright, she believes herself overqualified to work for what plenty of others would gladly accept. Would Tracey have done what she expects Oscar to do in this situation? Would she take a pass on a new, higher paying job in a decidedly futile attempt to force the company to pay it’s current workers higher wages? Furthermore, if she had received the promotion that went to Cynthia, would she have jeopardized the only job she’s ever known in the almost nonexistent possibility that she could somehow influence the company to keep her friends and family on board?