French Worker Essay Example

The French Worker begins by discussing Jacques Etienne Bede family struggles. Like many others, the life of Bede was very difficult; his relationship with his mother and his sister was a very distant one.

Bede was the fourth child and therefore he received very little attention from his mother, Bede felt that his mother did not love him which he states, “I was not loved by my mother” (Traugott 48). Like other families, Bede’s father was a working man, and when the new system came into place he worked as a windmill operator, away from home. Most of Bede’s mothers’ time was focused on his sisters; Bede’s father noticed how lonely he was so his father decided he would take him to work with him. Everything changed with his father did at work when Bede was only 9 years old. As a result of his father’s death it allowed him o make the decision to move in with his uncle and learn the art of trade.

The French Revolution came, and time had passed, Bede choose to skip the military and the relationship with his mother was still rocky. Bede went on to get married, soon after he found himself looking for work and leaving his family. Traugott continued the theme of family relations and struggled with the difficulties of the life of Suzanne Voilquin, Agricol Perdiguier, and Jeanne Bouvier. Suzanne describes her family difficulties begin at nine years old when she was given the responsibility of raising her newborn sister. That is when my mother, in presenting me with this charming little creature, said to me, it is not a sister that

I am giving you but a daughter” (Traugott 95). This situation represented the families’ low class struggle because Suzanne now became the care taker to her little sister, when a high class or bourgeois family would have hired someone to look after the child. Agricol struggle came from the force of child labor and the idea of following in his father’s footsteps, “he made good use of his child labor” (Traugott 117).

Agricol’s brother Simon also caused many problems by deserting the army and this caused his father to become angry and did not allow him to visit home. As Agricol aged, his father continued to push the idea of following in his footsteps because he didn’t want his workshop to close. “One of his three sons had to carry on and make it shine in the eyes of posterity (Traugott 122) . Jeanne Bouvier’s life also showed family struggles as she fought with her mother. The first family struggles begin when her little brother died, it continued throughout her childhood.

Bouvier’s father quit his job which caused economic struggle and therefore leading Bouvier’s mother to leave her father. Bouiver described her mother has a strict and demanding woman, stating that she used to beat her if she didn’t get a raise, claiming that she was lazy. “She immediately began to shout, and I was about to get hit when I explained to her that I was going to work in another factory” (Traugott 348). Traugott’s discussion of these families showed the family struggles that were experienced. Low class families doing all they can to survive, taking up trades, following family footsteps and

watching family members come and go.

Another issue that occurred for lower class families were that families were forced to move around or sons were forced to leave. Breaking up a family was tough. Family was a unit of production, it was a life cycle and once families broke apart because of the moving around, life became a struggle which eventually lead back to the other theme, family struggles. Families or family members moved about as journeymen or because of the seasonal nature. They moved from country to city, generally moving long distance. Bede story saw him moving all around, first after his father’s death.

Like most low class, Bede moved from country to Paris. Another worker, Martin Nadaud, born to a family of poor country people, joined seasonal migrants and begin to make their way to the greater cities of France to continue mason and construction work. He would find himself traveling to Paris were he saw much of his life change. “I was put to work on projects in the castle and the park, rolling wheelbarrows full of sand, pebbles and quarry stones back and forth” (Traugott 197). The theme of moving around continues with Jean-Baptiste Dumay, when his family struggle begins when his father was killed in a coal mining accident.

He like others, begin the moving process and started his Tour of France at the age of nineteen. “This was a sort of internal passport without which a worker could not go off and do what was then called the Tour of France” (Traugott 316). Mark Traugott’s The French Worker gives detailed accounts and provides better insight into

what the lower class dealt with. The lives of journeymen. Many sons were required to follow their father’s footsteps and early in their lives they had to work child labor. Many sons lost their father and had to resume that role of the father at an early age. Sons also left their families to pursue apprenticeships.

The French Worker gives us some aspects that tell the audience about the impact that family relations endured during the 19th century. Because of economic downfall and family accidents, families were faced with many problems. Family was a pivotal part in everyday life of a low class worker, it was considered to be unit. Traugott’s throughout the biographies gives us an account of how the son or daughter would stay in touch with their family no matter what the situation, Bede is a great example of a mother treating him terrible but him always going back. Families were considered a life cycle.