Microserfs

Introduction

Microserfs is a story about a group of people who worked for Microsoft as computer programmers. The story revolves around the culture of Microsoft and how it influenced the lives of these people in the early part of the 90's. Later, this group, or the Microserfs, decided to have separation from the company to start their own business venture. With respect to this, it seems to be the underlying theme of the story. The writer of this book is Douglas Coupland, who has included the similar snappy, zeitgeist experience as incorporated in his previous book, Generation X.

Discussion

Theme

Microserfs is the work of Douglas Coupland, which looks to identify the meaning of life. College graduates, who are young and ambitious, seek to become part of Microsoft Corporation. That is how; they can have the status of elite. Therefore, these Microserfs work for extremely long durations, mostly throughout the night till the early dawn. In other words, Microserfs work for the most part of their lives. They work all days including weekends and all they do is work (Coupland, Pp. 123).

Values

Initially, the geeks who worked at Microsoft seemed to be in love with their jobs. They achieved remarkable results. In addition, they created tools for the next generation. As a result, they felt that were on the top (Kollin, Pp. 96). Nevertheless, they found that the work they performed became the cause of their dissatisfaction, irrespective of the fact that they had job security and earned a lot of money.

All the Microserfs did is work. They had no lives of their own. Their values revolved around their work. However, these people decided to bring changes into their lives, which had become boring, predictable, constant, yet money-making. In other words, the geeks described in the novel became dissatisfied with their meaningless lives, and decided to move from Seattle to have their own business in California.

Nonetheless, there were some things, which remained unchanged. They were still geeks, and even then, they worked a lot. In addition, the geeks still had the obsession with minor things, as they always do. On the other hand, changes started to appear. After all, they started to have their lives back. The ultimate loneliness caused by the culture of Microsoft, eventually substituted by perplexity, annoyance, identity crisis, envy, and dating disasters. However, they found love, trust, loyalty, friendship, and sense of community.

There is another aspect of values depicted in this novel, which emphasizes on the practical issues pertaining to replacing stable, secured jobs for something more challenging. The group of people described in the story had their respective ways of reacting and dealing with the transformations.

Features of the Story

Daniel Underwood, who is the narrator of the story, works throughout the nights to earn money and status, remains in communication with his buddies through e-mails, and takes care of his old parents from the Boomer generation, (Dad has recently been laid off after a score of productive working years at Big Blue).

Later, Daniel and some of his colleagues decided to have ...