LIMBO CRITICAL BOOK REVIEW Soe 1

LIMBO: BLUE-COLLAR ROOTS, WHITE- COLLAR DREAMS

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Limbo Critical Book Review

Presented to

Jennifer Enderlin

Arkansas Tech University

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OL 4963

Organizational Leadership Capstone

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by

Ywa Hay Blu Soe

T01283068

02 April 2023
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Lubrano, A. (2004). Limbo: Blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. Wiley.

Introduction

In the book, Limbo: Blue-Collar roots, White-Collar dreams, Alfred Lubrano describes

himself as two people. He says that he now lives a middle-class life, working at a white-collar

newspaper man's job, but he was born blue- collar. He describes this book as a step toward

understanding what people gain and what they leave behind as they move from the working class

to the middle class.

Summary

Alfred Lubrano discusses two types of blue-collar families, ones that encourage college

and ones that do not. The book tackles the blue collar / white collar culture. He began his book

by defining two working classes, blue collar and white collar. He defines a straddle as someone

who came from working-class backgrounds but managed to move to the middle class, and is

consequently stuck in “an American Limbo.” By pointing out the differences in white collar and

blue collar, he describes his life in the home of a blue-collar family. He discusses the struggles

that straddlers go through in college and later at their white collar jobs and in their white collar

surroundings. Most people probably expect that a blue collar kid going to college will experience

some culture clashes and struggles with the family, but the idea that these struggles will continue

past college is not a given. Lubrano highlights the key areas in which the blue collar culture of

the straddler was raised with clashes with the expectations of a white collar job and can hurt a

career. In chapter 1, page 23. “My mother bought a blackboard and used it to teach me to read.

When I got older, she let me loose in the stacks, hoping I’d find what she did. “Just read,” she’d

tell me, figuring the books would do the rest- pull me up and pull me away.” This quote best

represents my personal definition of success as it captures all the touch points required to achieve
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financial freedom. Achieving success thus far has been a by-product of perfecting my craft while

constantly appraising myself as I go. For example, when I used to live in Thailand Refugee

Camp, life there was not easy at all. We don't even get enough education to learn. When we go to

school we don’t have equipment to write or read. So we have to use charcoal to write on the

ground and read on the ground. My parents work very hard for our families to have everything

that we need. Sometimes J was not strong enough and wanted to drop school because of this

condition and I have encountered failure along the way, but I have emerged successful by being

loyal to myself and putting in the hard work. The lessons I have learned from my failures have

helped me avoid making similar mistakes in the future and have been great contributors while

coming up with solutions to approach the mistake to ensure success. This quote helps me get

better and improve myself to be successful in the future.

Critical Evaluation

The book is a strong testament of Lubrano’s life and the successes that came from his

hardships while transitioning working classes. I believe that this book is quite relevant to today’s

culture when you have such a wide range of working class cultures in the field. With active

millennials taking over the workforce, it’s important for blue- collar workers to pay attention and

heed caution not to be run over. In chapter 2, I think I have the same experience with this story

which is when I was born In Thailand. My family moved to a refugee camp because of the

ongoing civil war in Burma. On the way to the refugee camp my parents and their family had to

be very careful not to get caught by the Burmese soldiers because if they saw them they would

kill them right away or they would put bombs on the road and if they were not careful they

would get killed. They have to walk weeks to months to get there in a refugee camp. During their

journey some people died because of starvation and diseases. They moved to Thailand because
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they thought that it might be safer for us to live there. And It’s safer in Thailand than in Burma

because we don’t have to run from Burmese soldiers and we could also go to school freely. But

in Thailand there is not enough food for the refugee people, so we have to find and grow our own

food. We also have to build our own house. To earn money my father has to go up to the

mountain to work for the rich people. But he also has to be very careful not to get caught by Thai

soldiers because if they did, they would put him in prison. Sometimes my father goes for five

months up to years to work for the rich people. Before my parents come back from work, me and

my siblings have to take care of each other. It is safer in refugee camps but we have to work hard

for our food and shelter. For this experiment, My parents decided to come to the United States

(USA) for us to live in a better place, and start with a new life. Until now, my father had to work

so hard for my family to pay for everything. Now he works at Tyson, and told me and my

younger brother to go to College and continue with education and get a good job because he

doesn't want us to work at Tyson because it’s not easy for us to work there. My parents always

support me and my younger brother with education. To be able to get a good job we have to

work hard to complete and be successful to reach our goals.

Conclusion

My opinion of this book is two-fold. I feel that on a personal level, I relate to Lubrano as

I also have grown up in a place that never has peace. I relate to him as I watched my parents

work day in and day out and felt the financial pain they suffered through during my childhood.

My parents are working so hard for us to live and have everything we need. On a professional

level, I relate to Lubrano as I have struggled to find where I fit into the corporate world. My

overall thoughts on this book “ Blue- collar roots, white- collar Dreams”. I have enjoyed reading

it. This book is teaching me so many things and all the information is very important. It’s
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teaching me to be a good leader and be kind to others around us. I use this book's information to

accomplish my goals. This information helps me to understand and know what to do for the

future. Also, it helps show me to be a good leader for the future. I will use this information to

benefit in my future positions I may hold as to teaching my future students and sharing this

information with them.

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Reference

Reference Lubrano, A. (2004). Limbo: Blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. Hoboken, NJ:

Wiley.