Coming of the heels of the abolishment of slavery, minorities still faced a plethora of issues in America. Jim Crow Laws segregated the South, escalating racial tension and giving the forefront to social activists such as W.E.B DuBois and Booker T. Washington (Cochran Lecture, 9/28/17). African Americans weren’t the only minority group facing exclusion from the social contract, however. With the promise of work and a better life, the late 1800’s/early 1900’s saw a massive influx of immigrants entering the United States. This is a common theme seen throughout Out of This Furnace. Dobie is a born American, but is still exploited due to his Eastern European background. His father, Mike, worked in the steel mill all his life for very little wages. Due to the very limited social mobility that came with these long-hour low-income jobs, Dobie was forced to also take up a factory job as soon as he was able to start working. These low-reward jobs were the only employment opportunities that many immigrants faced when entering the United States. When Dobie’s grandfather George entered the United States, there were limited opportunities for Slovak immigrants (Bell, pg. 4). Two generations and thirty years later, Dobie is experiencing the same oppression and exclusion that Mike and George faced before him. Long hours, low wages, and little room for movement caused numerous headaches for the family. Dobie …show more content…
In the face of the adversity that the American social contract has shown Dobie thus far, he remains confident that life will get better and the promises of the American Dream will finally be delivered. This was a trait that came to be synonymous with the American way of life. American Exceptionalism and the American Dream were concepts that attracted people to the United States and gave them hope for a better life. Dobie is different from his family before him in the sense that he sees himself as an American and not an immigrant or a Slovak-American. The American identity was an important part to Dobie’s character. To Dobie, being American meant having a positive outlook and an unbendable will. This characteristic carried Dobie through all the hardships and misfortune that met him throughout his story. He also finds it important to help his fellow man, a trait he also believes is American at heart. Dobie is politically active and separates himself from the passiveness of the generations before him. He sees it as his patriotic duty to be involved with the social contract of his nation and also his workplace. He assists in forming the labor unions in the mills, not satisfied with the current conditions that he must endure