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A Working-Class Perspective on Responding to Pandemic and the Value of Labor: Timothy Sheard’s “One Foot in the Grave,” a Hospital Mystery Novel
The coronavirus pandemic, it is now commonly observed, has drawn into relief, and indeed exacerbated, the various layers of inequality already fragmenting culture and society in the United States.
At the same time, when it comes to class inequality in particular, Americans have tended to find ways to gloss over the brutal realities of US class society by heroicizing workers upon whom, it is at this moment impossible to deny, Americans’ lives depend. Farmworkers, grocery store workers, delivery truck drivers, in addition to doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers, have now been recognized as “essential”. This categorization supposedly acknowledges their social value, but little is done to alter their remuneration, improve their working conditions, or end labor exploitation.
Karleigh Frisbie Brogan, writing in The Atlantic, captures this dynamic in her experience as a grocery worker. She acknowledges some satisfaction from this momentary recognition, writing, “Working in a grocery store has earned me and my co-workers a temporary status. After years of being overlooked, we suddenly feel a sense of responsibility, solidarity, and pride.”
