Why Don T We Complain Analysis

Why Don’t We Complain is a story about how America has started to complain less and will not speak up when it is needed. The author describes two examples of this. In the first example, the author is on a train and describes the temperature inside as being at least 85 degrees, despite it being below freezing outside. The author began to sweat, and soon loosened his tie and removed his jacket and overcoat. Looking around, he noticed that everyone else was as uncomfortable as he was, but when given the opportunity to speak up while the Conductor took tickets, no one said a word about the heat. When the conductor came to him, the author began to say something, but as he began his seatmate glared at him and the author quickly let it go. No one else addressed it, so he rode to his destination sweating the whole way. The other situation the author describes is at a movie theater with a slightly out of focus picture. Again the author wanted to address it, but he was again stopped, this time by his wife, and he had to deal with the picture the whole movie. The author notes that Americans are “reluctant to make their voices heard” and “afraid that our cause is unjust” or “too trivial to justify the horrors of a confrontation …show more content…
As this article was written around 1963, I do not think that it is still as big an issue as it was in that day. but I do think that it is still very applicable to certain situations today. I myself am often uncomfortable in situations where I need to speak up to authority. When something is wrong with what someones is paying for then it should be their right to request a fix. Often restaurants will mess up orders, but as long as someone says something, then most places are happy to fix it. I think this goes for most businesses. If an issue is brought up in a calm tone to management, they will be happy to take care of it, but only if the customer has the courage to do