Barbara Ehrenreich Analysis

What is most interesting about Barbara Ehrenreich?s journalistic venture is that she worked in a white color position as an accomplished journalist, but her immediate family came from a meager financial background. It appears as though she had a grasp on the hardships of poverty in America, which is why she wanted to dig deeper. Ehrenreich?s sister had a series of low paid jobs, her father worked in the coal mine, and her husband met her when he was making only $4.50 an hour. Ehrenreich began her research in 1998 and the book was published in 2001. Ehrenreich did not set out to be poor. She set out to bring attention to the condition of the survival of a minimum wage income of $6.00-$7.00 per hour.

In America, millions of people are affected by poverty. High-class members of America and companies take advantage of these lower class individuals. Lower class individuals who are able to find a job usually work for less than minimum wage and experience poor working conditions. These lower class workers do not deserve the lifestyle they must deal with. Low class individuals not only have to struggle with finding employment but also have to worry about the U.S. government mistreating them. Whether someone is a low class immigrant or U.S. born citizen, it is evident people in America treat their lower class citizens poorly.

The situation Ehrenreich is describing is the reality of millions of Americans; they work multiple minimum wage jobs, and are paid “so meagerly that workers can’t save enough to move on.” In addition, Ehrenreich recalls the actions of the U.S. government in regards to assisting these Americans. The article opens with the contribution of President Lyndon B. Johnson on the “War on Poverty”, then the “attack on welfare” in the 90s, concluding with The Great Recession. While writing Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, Ehrenreich abandoned her comfortable life to live the life of a low-income American; she worked multiple entry level jobs including Wal-Mart, a maid service, and as a nursing home aide. Through these actions, Ehrenreich establishes her ethos. Because she’s lived the lifestyle she’s describing, she has the authority to speak on the topic. Ehrenreich concludes with her proposal to help the

The speaker begins her speech with introducing the topic of child labor by stating powerful facts that support her case and using poignant diction to create sympathy; these devices work together to bring attention to the problem of children being overworked from very young ages, and attempt to win the audiences allegiance to her cause. Kelley refers to a census regarding the different groups of people making up the “wage earning class,” and saying that “no contingent so doubles from census period to census period…as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty years of age.” The rate of young girls working, earning a living, increases faster than any other group of people. The reference to a census, tells the audience that, not only has the speaker done research on her topic using credible sources, it indicates she is serious about it. Utilizing the census’ data, the speaker does well. In addition to using fact, the speaker also uses diction to reveal that she would like to make a

In Barbara Ehrenreich's bold and honest book she tackles the issue of poverty in America head on, by becoming a low wage worker herself. Ehrenreich delves into the often unheard of issues relating to poverty and low wage work, providing her readers with a new perspective on America's working poor and manages to give her audience a stark emotional, yet logical and factual, look into the working class' poverty epidemic. She uses her own anecdotal evidence and supports it with statistics and facts, appeals to ethos by challenging the ethics of corporate America and it costs, finally she hits an emotional chord with readers by reminding them of what low wage workers must endure so that we can live in our America.

Barbara Ehrenreich, in The Hearts Of Men, illustrates how gender roles have highly constricted men, not just women, and therefore have inhibited American society from developing its full potential. She deviates from conventional wisdom, which says that gender roles have been largely detrimental to only half the population, which is simultaneously confined to working in the domestic sphere and prevented from participating in the public realm. Her theory says that Americans subscribe to a "sexuo-economic system" which reduces men to "mere earning mechanisms" and forces women to "become parasitic wives" (6, 4). As she explains, members of both sexes adhere to a system which forces them to succumb to

One might argue that without formal education a person has low intelligence. Some people might say that blue-collar work is for the uneducated or for the lower-class society. Both of these opinions are challenged in Mike Rose`s writing Blue-Collar Brilliance. Rose uses multiple rhetorical methods within is reading to prove that blue-collar work is not for unintelligent workers. Rose reflects on his childhood and early adult hood with many references. Rose also uses many different tones throughout the duration of Blue-Collar Brilliance. Rose uses strong evidence to clearly show his opinion of blue-collar work.

I, Helen Katz, was the youngest of eight children. I was born and raised in a religious Jewish family living in a small town in northeastern Hungary. I was always considered the "baby" of my family, I was the focus of everyone's love and affection, although my Hebrew name was Hannah, my family always called me by my nickname, Potyo, which meant "the dear little one”.

Barbara Ehrenreich 's showed that she didn't have the mind set or worries of a working class person by reminding us as readers the fine line between the kind of performance she is doing and the kind her fellow coworkers do every day on the job. Time and again she lets us sink into her new world of a low-wage worker, only to pull us back with a reminder of the act. 1 She does this experiment to determine whether or not she could both live off the money earned and have enough money at the end of the month to pay the next month's rent. Working class people depend on the money they make on these jobs to survive and provide for their families. She could drop all these jobs she experimented with and go back to her real life without a worry in the

While out dining with a friend Barbara Ehrenreich, a bestselling author of many books had came up with a question which would mark the start of a whole new life experience. Her question was, “how does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” The topic of poverty had greatly fascinated Ehrenreich but not to the point that she would actually want to experience poverty herself. However, this changed when the friend she was dining with suggested she should be the one to go out and experience the unpleasant lifestyle that is poverty. Upon starting this experiment she knew she had to construct a plan so she sat and began to plan out how she would be living throughout the experiment When concluding her experiment Ehrenreich argues

Ehrenreich developed the objectives of this book in a very interesting way. Ironically she developed the idea for this project over a very elegant expensive lunch at a French country-style restaurant. Ehrenreich and her editor Lewis Laphan from Harpers had gone out to lunch to discuss future articles. Throughout lunch the topic of poverty came up. Questions like, “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” (Ehrenreich, 2001 pg. 1) and how do unskilled workers survive on such low incomes, started to surface. She then thought “Someone ought to do the old-fashioned kind of journalism – you know, go out there and try

Barbara Ehrenreich is a successful American author that conducted an experiment of living in a life of low wages. She documented her experiences and thus made the book Nickel and Dimed. This story involves a woman named Barbara Ehrenreich who goes undercover to experiment living in a life of low wages and sees if she can survive from it. Ehrenreich effectively captures her argument of showing that it is almost impossible to provide the basic needs for one’s self by working a minimum wage job. The part of the title of the book that states On (Not) Getting By In America; the word Not goes with her argument being that it is very hard to provide for oneself under the employment of a minimum wage job.

The background of the author is expertly added to the introduction. West is explaining facts and then adds “and metro Atlanta, where I grew up, it’s 35 percent” (West 1). Metro Atlanta not only has a big population, but it is very similar to other places in America. Later in the article, West goes on to tell of his experiences in the army and what they taught him. The most meaningful lesson West learn is “if you set the bar low, you will jump low” (West 2). West is explaining it is better to petition for a higher wage ceiling, which will set a higher standard of living. Instead of wanting a higher minimum wage, that sets the bar low. Another great example of ethos is all the common phrases used in the article. Phrases such as “get hit the hardest” (West 2), and “in a vicious cycle” (West 1), create a sense of relatability. This shows that West realizes what his audience is, and how to relate to them. The author concludes the article by giving all his professional occupations. The amount of credibility gives the article a reliable

The book “Global Woman” edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild focuses on the lives of women that leave their third world country to work in homes as nannies or servants and others even sex work. These women take on that labor without knowing what results will come from their desperate action. The authors explain and recount the stories of many of the women whom have had to sacrifice their lives. These women sacrifice it all to provide for themselves and their families and give them a better life, this is told through different chapters.

One of Robert Reich’s strongest point lies in his ability to describe the reason for the difference in wages. It is one of his strongest points because his description allows the readers to understand the reason behind their salaries. Another of Robert Reich’s strength is his ability to appeal to the youth who are growing during this time period. He is able to persuade the youth to stay in school by informing them that the jobs that allow them to earn living wages are the jobs that require a high school diploma or higher. His ability to persuade children to attend school is one of his strongest points because his information will inspire those kids to make informed decisions about their career that could contribute to the economy and change