The John Mansfield short story “Jefferson wears a tie” from 2006, starts in the morning in a train, where a sleepy Mr. Jefferson is looking out of the window. He admires the graffiti that’s painted on the walls that quickly runs by. Mr.
Jefferson works at a company with the title: Sales Administration manager. He´s running on daily routines and does his job in such perfection that other staff would be unnecessary. He doesn´t get the respect that he trough his work has the right to. Jefferson gets tired of doing everybody’s job and chooses to be like the others. He meet up ten minutes late in fine clothes, doesn´t do much else looking at news, chats with the other. When the backlog on his desk has become big, he knew that they would offer job as Sales Executive.
He meets up a morning in a green pajama walks in to Marty´s office and offers him a promotion.Characterization:Jefferson is a staff member at an unknown company. He wants success in his career but he doesn´t want to step on anyone´s toes (p, 1. L, 15)“But Jefferson wanted success too – preferably without stepping on anyone´s toes” this tells me that he´s a person who cares about other people, that he´s a person who had experienced to be stepped on by others. His rank at the company is Sales Administration Manager, but he doesn´t brag about it, he tells us that the “manager” title just was something the top staff came up with to motivate.
He´s pretty good at his work: (p, 2.l, 31)”he had honed every movement and keystroke to robotic perfection”.This and the fact that he has tried to get a promotion for a while, that he has done what it should take to get it, but he has never got any.(p, 2.ll32 But the quicker he had leant to do his job, the more work had arrived on his desk, so that the workload that had once been assigned to two people had become his sole responsibility” He has given the company his hand, but they has taken his whole arm. He has a hard time standing up for himself, I can see this in the situation when he handle over some work that he expects to get some credit for, but Marty doesn´t tribute him, she ask him to remake it and he wants to say something but doesn´t.
Jefferson likes the graffiti that’s painted on the walls on the trip to his work, he likes the rebel thought of it and at least in the short story he become a rebel himself.Environment:His workplace Is a place where you doesn’t get any acknowledge of you work, it´s a place where people chat about holidays and surf the internet for news, those who get all the workload like Jefferson isn´t the hero he´s is being seen on like a looser who is doing all their work. It´s an environment that puts, those who stand on others feet, first in line of promotion, it´s a bad an nonhuman environment, but sadly it´s how it work in the real world, it´s those who doesn´t care about others that gets the gold.Discussion:Some people is conforming to the norms because they believe that other does it and they are afraid of the consequence it will have if you doesn´t follow the rules or the norms. But sometimes people gets enough of following the rules while other people is using them to get an easier or funnier life like in Serrasalmus where Mick is using Marjorie as entertainment, and at least she gets enough, and she dope Mick and let her favorite fish eat his hand. Other people has taken the advantage of using other people from the beginning they have seen a loophole in the society they take the advantage of others work.
Jefferson lives in an environment where he doesn´t feel like he is being appreciated and that makes him shift rails and go for a promotion in a way where he shows his employees that he is a person that doesn´t to be spit at any more, and that he want to be taken serious.
