I thought the reporting of this story was great. The writer does a good job at expressing the character of Shelton and making the reader feel like they know him. She really gets him to open up about how he feels about the exhibit ending and about all of the memories he had at the old factory. It’s clear that Yee took the time not just to talk and learn about Shelton’s life as a Domino factory worker, but she also made sure to give the reader a good picture of his life as a child, his family, and what his life is like today. The graph about his mother and stepfather was very interesting and well-written, and it shows that Yee was not afraid to ask even the most potentially sensitive questions.

I also enjoyed the way Yee chronicled Shelton’s time at the factory, from how he heard about the job, to the exact date when he started working there, to when and why he left Domino. In doing this, it gives us a bigger sense of how important the factory was to Shelton and to others who worked there. “Night shifts, day shifts, weekend shifts, holidays shifts, 60 or 70 hours a week for 20 years, all feeling like 2,000 degrees.” With this line and others like it, the writer gives the reader a clear understanding of how much time Shelton and his fellow workers spent working there and why it remains an important part of Shelton’s life.

Yee successfully conveys the idea that this was not merely just a job that Robert Shelton and others had, but an entire life that still remains with each of the people who passed though the factory.

An article in The New York Times entitled “2 Jobs at Sugar Factory, and a Lump in the Throat” gives a profile of a man who reminisces about the many memories he had about an historical sugar factory in Brooklyn. Vivian Lee gives a very enticing title for the article, as well as an intriguing lead. The lead of the story sets the tone for the article, which is a sense of longing for the past and for the sugar factory to remain. Unfortunately, this is not the case, because the sugar factory no longer stood in the center of Williamsburg, Brooklyn because of the new residential units that were built.

The design of the piece is very tangible because Lee makes you use all your senses while you’re reading. For example, she states, “His world is dimly lit, pungent with the burned-marshmallow smell of fermentation, as if old syrup were coating your every breath.” This one line makes you imagine how Mr.Shelton must have felt while working in the factory. You can smell the burned-marshmallow scent and you can taste the syrup. Lee does a superb job at making the reader get a feel of what Robert’s everyday life must have been like in the factory. From the long hours, to the constant perspiration that dripped from his glands as he turned dark sugar into white, Shelton was a hard worker that put his blood and sweat into his work and we got this message from reading this article.

Through the journey Vivian Lee takes us on, we learn about the history of the sugar factory, how Mr. Shelton got the job, the struggles he went through while working, and the closing of an historical factory that meant so much to one man. If I were to relate this article to today, I think it still remains relevant as the United States is primarily made of workers over the age of 50. Many of these workers have become accustomed to their workplaces and once their work comes to an end, many feel like they’ve lost a part of them. It’s a difficult time in one’s life, but as Mr. Shelton has shown, we can only look back at the memorable times we shared and continue to look to the future.