Barbara Ehrenreich's "Struggle" to Live the Life of a Low Income Worker

The world of work is not as glamorous as some may view it as. In Barbara Ehrenreich's essay, she highlights her experience of searching for job and her experience of working a low wage job serving in a restaurant. She highlights her experience she had while searching for different job positions and her time as working as a waitress in a restaurant. During her stint of being a waitress, she recognizes similar characteristics that is shared by the other employees in the restaurant. Through Ehrenreich’s essay, she hones her emotional and logical appeals by describing the occurrences that accompanies low wage jobs. In the essay “Serving in Florida,” Ehrenreich uses comparisons, antanagoge and parentheses to develop her focus on the struggles of

Ehrenreich reveals the harsh truths of the working poor in the most respectable way possible; by living their prosaic day-to-day struggles and writing authentic experiences. To begin, Ehrenreich works in a dive type restaurant making only $7.50 per hour; how can anyone who is responsible for themselves survive on minimum wage? Ehrenreich mentions, “...the $30 I had to spend on the regulation tan slacks worn by Jerry’s servers-a setback it

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

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

In this book Ehrenreich changes the names of the people and places, so the “Hearthside” is not actually the name of her first low-wage job), working for two weeks from 2pm-10pm for a wage of $2.43/hour + tips. After the two weeks were up Ehrenreich learned a lot about the people she had been working with, most of them were living in such poor conditions and or were living from paycheck to paycheck with nothing left over. Examples: Gail: Shares a room with a male roommate; she would like to not live with him but the rent would be impossible alone, Andy the white cook lives in his boat that doesn’t run, and Joan is the hostess that lives in her van parked behind a shopping center. These living situations of some of the workers at the Hearthside is really common as we learn later in the book that no matter the area that you are living in low-wage jobs do not meet the requirements needed in order to live financially stable.

Barbara Ehrenreich uses very specific techniques (“moves”) to convey her message to her readers: for instance, the approach she uses in the first part of her essay is an ‘objective approach’ which relied upon citations from published works. She drew upon statistical data and information and used extensive quotations extracted from experts who have written on the subject. The other important device used in her essay (the other side of the same coin, so to speak) is the ‘subjective approach’ that she undertook to convey her message of “white-collar downward mobility.” Examples of the objective approach is found in this passage taken from the published work of the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “In Late 2003, when I started this project, unemployment

Unlike her other coworkers who desperately needed a job to get by. One of those coworkers was the single mother of two children who was named Colleen. After Ehrenreich had finished her time in Maine she had told Colleen who she really was and what she was doing going undercover. Ehrenreich begins to ask Colleen questions about what she thinks about poverty and those who have more than those who really need it to which she responds, “I don’t mind, really, because I guess I’m a simple person, and I don’t want what they have. I mean it’s nothing to me. But what I would like is to be able to take a day off now and then… if I had to.. And still be able to buy groceries the next day.” (p119) This reveals the importance of a simple maid’s job, it puts food on the table and helps sustain more than one person while Ehrenreich who lived alone and only had to support herself was able to go back home and not have to worry about keeping her short lived maid position. After leaving her occupation it is time to move on and go through the job process again. She had applied to Wal-mart where she had discussed what had to be done when finding a new job Ehrenreich states, “ Each potential new job requires (1) the application, (2) the interview, and (3) the drug test- which is something to ponder with gasoline running at nearly two dollars a gallon, not to mention what you may have to pay for a babysitter.” (pg135) Going back to search for a new job is a difficult task that may not

One new experience can bring a whole other dimension. Viewpoints on life change, knowledge is gained through mistakes, and one may find themselves trapped in a maze-like situation that they need to find a way out of. However, making the best out of one’s position through determination, perseverance, and courage can slowly reverse the difficulty of handling it. Eventually, as strength is regained from tough obstacles, the desire to obtain their dreams escalates even further, which aids in working harder and striving to reach their goals. Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed, depicts the financial struggles of single mothers who raise their families through minimum-wage jobs after the welfare reform affected their lifestyles. In the novel, Ehrenreich tests the limits of living in poverty by accepting any scarce job that was offered, and provides insight that although it was exhausting to balance her needs and her hectic work schedule, by diligently laboring, constantly persisting in seeking the better, and voicing out the wrongs, it can eventually lead to the attainment of the American Dream.

The second trait that I find Ehrenreich lacks is a certain respect of money that one of the working class would possess. One of the first examples I saw of this was when she bought her uniform pants in Florida for Jerry's. "Then there is the $30 I had to spend on the regulation tan slacks worn by Jerry's servers--a setback it could take weeks to absorb" (E 39). This foolish decision on buying pants at $30 is not something a working poor woman would do. Alyssa at Wal-Mart proves this: "That afternoon, Alyssa... had come by ladies' to inquire about a polo shirt that had been clearanced at $7. Was there any chance it might fall still further?" (E 159). I also see that she is rather careless with her money when she explains her situation in

Most low wage workers do not have this luxury. They generally work pay check to pay check and don’t have time to save up to stash extra money for later. She learns this through her co-workers as she investigates into their lives and finds out that most of them live with multiple people, or within parking lots.

In the book Nickel and Dimed On (not) Getting By in America the author Ehrenreich, goes under cover as a minimum wage worker. Ehrenreich’s primary reason for seriptiously getting low paying jobs is to see if she can “match income to expenses as the truly poor attempt to do everyday.”(Ehrenreich 6) Also Ehrenreich makes it extremely clear that her work was not designed to make her “experience poverty.”(6) After completing the assignment, given to her by an editor, she had planned to write an article about her experience. Her article purpose intended to reach the community that is financially well off and give them an idea how minimum wage workers deal with everyday life. It

The purpose of the novel, Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, is to inform the public of issues pertaining to low wage jobs through the three rhetorical devices ,such as, pathos, logos , and ethos. Ehrenreich emerges herself into the life of a low wage worker to demonstrate the difficulty of living a healthy life under these conditions. She includes the rhetoric devices to create a persuasive argument and to gather support for her claim. The minimum wage is too low, enabling the working class from living a healthy life. She studies this issue through an experiment of one month of living on just a salary from low wage jobs.

Throughout the novel, Ehrenreich has a very reflective tone as she discusses the difficult tasks of the jobs she takes on. At the beginning of the novel, Ehrenreich believes that managing a lifestyle on low wage job was possible but quickly came to the realization that to make ends meet one must work multiple jobs. She as well believes that she may be too overqualified for these jobs but as well comes to the realization she is under-qualified as not only do these jobs prove to be physically but mentally tiring. Ehrenreich appeals to emotion to create sympathy for low-wage workers. An example of appeal to emotion would be where Marge states that the owners of homes they clean believe “They thinks we’re stupid”(100) and “ We’re nothing to these people”(100).

Barbara Ehrenreich’s meritorious non-fiction, Nickel and Dimed, details the life of Ehrenreich as she goes undercover in the low-wage workforce. She works several minimum wage jobs all across the United States in the shadow of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. In an excerpt from her writing, her sympathetic view towards the American low-wage workforce and their disgusting workplace is revealed through a coalition of rhetorical strategies. Ehrenreich metaphorically casts the role of Jerry’s: a restaurant in Key West, Florida; to the gastrointestinal system.

Ehrenreich applies for many different jobs and ends up choosing between Wal-Mart and Menards. She picks Wal-Mart and find herself working in the women 's department organizing and hanging up clothes. She realizes that she must became friendly with the dressing room attendants in order to make her job easier. Again her supervisors constantly get on her about wasting time. She uses her break times to talk to her fellow workers about a union but quits before really getting anything started.