Research Paper on:
Twenty First Century Alienation

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
sake, but who are not proud of what they do. Who would be proud of scanning items, one at a time? They are certainly not intimately involved with the store  or the creation of the products it sells. The people who are at the lower rungs of corporate America--whether it is retail or some other business--often experience alienation. Of course,  alienation as a sociological concept is more than a notion that people are not happy at work. It is something that permeates the human spirit and renders people helpless  to appreciate what they do for a living. Alienation as it occurs at work is an important subject, but first, it is important to differentiate between work and non-work.  Work, in the sense of this discussion, refers to paid employment. While women claim that as housewives they "work" that is not what is referred to here as the subject  of alienation is discussed. Yet, the workplace is not quite as easily defined. Todays workplaces include a variety of locations. There is outdoor work, contract work, home-based work and so  forth. The work that people do generally has the goals of the employer in mind, but workers can sometimes benefit from work psychologically, socially and spiritually. Still, while some people  feel fulfilled, a majority appear to be alienated. The main premise of alienation, as seen by Marx, is that the worker is not connected to his work. This is  more than just boredom (McLeish 21). Without the sense of accomplishment, the laborer feels detached and this spills over into his personal life (21). An example is the unfulfilled  assembly line worker, whether he or she is a fast food clerk or participating in the building of a new Ford. The point is that each worker becomes alienated from