Networking Annotation #6: Working is the one aspect of life that will guide you into a either losing or finding yourself. When also faced with the passion and pursuit of love, there comes an internal drive that pivots mentality into a make or break situation. Much like how Bruce Springsteen is saying here in this quote, their is a freedom to being in love with someone. A drive like no other that humans can wield to their advantage. In my own interpretation, working to achieve something like finding true love and happiness in a strongly shared bond with someone is the ultimate goal of achievement in life. Participating in the working world, along with working on yourself, are stepping stones to finding that everlasting love and gratitude towards someone that sees you worthy and you to them. Appreciating one another in their work and in their life is what Springsteen seems to have been trying to preach to all of his listeners around the world. This struggle is not done alone and there are many people who are in this same circumstances as yourself.

Networking Annotation #1: With triumph in the mind, Bruce Springsteen, these few lines reveal the captivity and control of the working life. Giving yourself up to the conformities in certain industries is part of living and working under conditions that you have to put up with in efforts to receive and honest paycheck. "Caught in a crossfire that I don't understand" alludes to the feeling of being trapped in a never ending cycle of work and the struggle of working for a living. Much like: "Life in The Iron Mills" working is a part of life, and adapting your life away from work to your life at work. This becomes much more applicable when we get into career type jobs like the iron workers in "Life in The Iron Mills" as they have to live a very crude form of life because they are never free from the dangerous work they tolerate and are conditioned too.

Networking Annotation #2: Growing up, for some, looking up to your father in his work and effort he puts in for his family is one of the most intense sources of determination and ambition for young people. A father figure is someone who does not necessarily have to be your biological father, yet is someone who you can depend on in aspiring to be a person similar to them when looking to achieve success in life. Often times sons of their fathers or mentors will find work akin to their father or mentor in attempts to find the same success as them. This is similar to author William Attaway where his family migrated from Mississippi to find work in the steel mills of Pittsburg Pennsylvania. Knowing only a single industry this is where Attaway would also work and learn to write. Success outlets can be simple like getting into the same line of work as a close friend or family member, but there can always be times in your work life to practice and expand upon your true passion, like writing was for Attaway. Here, Springsteen also says his father worked all for just pain, this can mean more than just living an empty life or something that means there was nothing else for him than work. Life needs to be expanded more than just a work life and can be also an enjoyable time with hobbies and people you love.

Networking Annotation #3: Often associating property with success, cars have always been a way of showing the fruits of ones labor. Whether you own a car, or are a car enthusiast, transportation in all forms is crucial to a person who participates in a working world. What cars have allowed people to do is privatize their money into something they either require or enjoy. Having a nice car that you have worked on yourself or one that you have recently bough is a huge milestone in a individuals life in terms of measuring their success. What we can infer from this section of lyrics is that Springsteen has amounted enough to begin to own items such as a nice car with a meaty engine. He then goes on to tell us that he is ready to meet women. Knowing how relationships between humans often are very costly and are very intense, having the safety net of extra cash or a steady job is much more appropriate to have when trying to embark on finding love in this world. If you do not have steady income or a capable job to allow you to do these things you will not be able to go pick up girls with your new car.

Networking Annotation #4: Another example of Bruce Springsteen proving that he is growing up with the struggle of going from being a careless boy to entering a life of being a working man. In relation to Jack London's "Martin Eden" we can see how Springsteen resembles the main character of Martin Eden when talking about the concept of making a life for yourself as your own adult. Preaching that "I believe in a promise land" where Martin Edan also believe there is something greater than simply a life of purpose dedicated to simply doing work. Where Springsteen expresses himself through his music, Martin Eden did the same with his literature. Producing art is something that both our singer and songwriter, Bruce Springsteen, has in common with Jack London's character Martin Eden in his novel "Martin Eden". Yet, even though your passion of producing art may not pay the bills now or later, it may impact the way you live your life for the better.

Networking Annotation #5: A consistency to a patterned life is what producing in a job or workforce means. Springsteen, seemingly describing what looks to be a cycle of the same life in the lyrics "The working, the working, just the working life" is like a repetitive series of events that you relive each day to enjoy the little free time outside of working. This case of repetition and cycling reminds me of the novel "Severance" by Ling Ma, where the main character "Cadence" is working to keep her mind off of the life that is crumbling around her. Often times, when people are sad or life is getting troublesome, there will be these habitual formalities that are created due to stress and depression that lead people creating cycled habits like getting lost in their work. Keeping a steady and healthy workload is important but it is also more important to enjoy and recognize the life around you as well. This is what Springsteen is trying to teach when he talks about his father essentially working his life away.

Building a car and racing it for pinks or for some kind of prize money used to be a really common hobby and past time for some people back in the late 70s as cars were much more affordable and not a bank breaking hobby like they are now.