79 pages • 2 hours read
Sweat
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Themes
The Human Cost of Production (and Outsourcing)
Stan’s reflection about the current generation of leadership—and its extreme distancing from the human concerns of workers—becomes a thematic touchstone for Sweat: “And the problem is they don’t wanna get their feet dirty, their diplomas soiled with sweat…or understand the real cost, the human cost of making their shitty product” (26). The play alludes to the ways in which not only factory management, but politicians in Washington, remain willfully removed from working class Americans’ concerns. The removal of Olstead’s management is so extreme that Cynthia observes—upon receiving her promotion—“Twenty-four years, and I can’t remember talking to anyone in the office, except to do paperwork. I mean some of these folks have been working here as long as us, but they’re as unfamiliar as a stranger sitting next to you on the bus” (54). Management’s physical, intellectual, and emotional removal from workers on the factory floor allows them to ultimately outsource their jobs to Mexico (because they have so little connection to the labor that goes into these jobs, or to the human beings working them).
Another instance of management’s removal comes up in the Spanish-language job offer Oscar shows Tracey. The strike has not started yet, but the ad suggests to the reader that management is already thinking about the current workers as disposable. The ad offers pay and benefits far below what the workers currently make, and there’s no mention of the union, again suggesting that management has assessed a potential union strike and feels it has the upper-hand.
The local barroom setting (where most of the play’s action occurs) enhances the audience’s appreciation of the human cost of production (and the effects of these changes on the characters in the play). We never see workers physically on the factory floor, or the scenes of them picketing in the strike; all the information we receive about events is filtered through characters’ personal perspectives of them (and feelings about them). Thus, the audience is made privy to a very intimate understanding of each character’s struggles as a result of the outsourcing.
Nostalgia and Loyalty Versus Aspiration and Change
Sweat presents several situations wherein characters struggle to reconcile their ambitions—and their desire for a life beyond working on the factory floor—to their long-spanning histories, relationships, and memories connected with their work. When Cynthia receives a promotion, she faces suspicion from her friends and co-workers, Tracey and Jessie, who begin to think of her as separate from them and their concerns. When Chris is accepted to college and announces his dream of becoming a teacher, he initially faces backlash from his closest friend, Jason—who has no plans beyond working at Olstead’s—and his father, Brucie—who is proud of his staunch commitment to his union and the strike at his textile mill. Both Chris and Cynthia spend much of the play battling between their hopes of personal advancement and the obligation they feel to remain loyal to their friends, to prove that they are still “close” to them.
Sweat also illustrates how nostalgia—and deep ties to an idea of a space in its glory days—can prevent people from moving forward in times of change. When Oscar shows Tracey the Spanish language flyer for positions at Olstead’s—and she slowly comes to realize that her job will be outsourced—Tracey falls deep into her nostalgic reflections of her grandfather, a craftsman who worked on many of the buildings in Readings’ downtown. For Tracey, these nostalgic reflections fill her with a sense of ownership, entitlement, and resentment for those whom she connects with change (such as Cynthia and Oscar).
Chris fuels his devotion to the Olstead’s strike with a cherished memory of his father at a union meeting, declaring, “We…we will not continue to bare out backs for them to strike us down” (88). Stan rebuts this thinking by saying:
Sometimes I think we forget that we’re meant to pick up and go when the well runs dry. Our ancestors knew that. You stay put for too long, you get weighed down by things, things you don’t need. It’s true. Then your life becomes this pathetic accumulation of stuff. Emotional and physical junk. […] Nostalgia’s a disease. I’m not gonna be one of those guys that surrenders to it (96-97).
Ultimately, Stan illustrates the folly of letting ones past guide ones future (and leads Chris to reconsider his commitments).
Shame, Blame, and Scapegoating
In Sweat, workers of color—Brucie, Cynthia, and Oscar—all face prejudicial blame and scapegoating from their peers. In the midst of change and challenges beyond their control, factory workers blame the most easily accessible targets rather than those truly at fault. The play furthermore suggests that factory management takes advantage of this tendency to maintain their distance (and removal from consequences).
As an African American participating in the textile mill strike, Brucie not only finds himself fighting against the decisions of factory management, but pitted against White workers who feel a false sense of ownership over their struggle. In defense of their heritage—and their nostalgia for days of prosperity—some White factory workers egregiously believe that any person of color is out to “take their jobs.” For example, he describes a union meeting wherein a White union member yells at him for taking his job. Brucie describes this man as “a scratch on the vinyl, going on and on about us coming here and ruining everything. Like I’m fresh off the boat or some shit. He don’t know my biography” (37). He condemns "This damn blame game” (38) for preventing his fellow union members from seeing him as an ally.
Cynthia is put into a very difficult position as an African American woman who receives a management level promotion (at a time when management is making unpopular decisions and laying off her fellow workers). She finds herself unable to advocate for her friends, and unable to convince her friends that management won’t listen to her. Tracey and Jessie allude to her as a “traitor,” and suggest that she is choosing the wrong side. Cynthia’s impossible position becomes clear when she has to stand on the other side of the glass after management locks out her friends. Cynthia speculates that “they gave me this job on purpose. Pin a target on me so they can stay in their air-conditioned offices” (77).
As a Colombian American “scab” worker, Oscar faces scapegoating from the union. Picketers begin to turn violent against those who “cross the line,” in rage and frustration that their strike is not having any effect. In a pivotal violent confrontation, Jason and Chris project their anger onto Oscar, declaring, “We got history here. Us! Me, you, him, her! What the fuck does he have, huh? A green card that gives him the right to shit on everything we worked for?” (101). Both men are too blinded by their own struggles to see that Oscar is not the source of stated struggles, but rather a victim of the same unjust socioeconomic system.
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