What Doesn T Work

In David Shipler’s novel, The Working Poor Shipler expresses that life is not always easy, especially living in poverty. Shipler tries to get across to his readers that work does not always work. The main topic addressed is ultimately the dilemmas of public aid. Shipler illustrates this in chapter 2 of his novel by explaining the lives of three hard working woman who are stuck in the poverty cycle. Just because these women have a job, does not mean that they are able to free themselves from poverty.

Since they aren't able to keep a stable job for long, of course they are going to have money problems. If they don't have money then how will the children be able to eat. Throughout the novel, Jeanette explains multiple times of herself and her siblings, having to fend for themselves, because her parents did not have enough money to buy them food. For example when she states that, “If I was playing in a friend’s yard, I’d ask if I could use the bathroom, and if no one was in the kitchen, I’d grab something out of the refrigerator or cupboard and take it into the bathroom and eat it there…” (The Glass Castle 68). Jeanette was so hungry all of the time because her parents never had the money to buy food, so her only choice was to take food from her friend’s

At first, Lizabeth and her brother did whatever kids do. They played, hung out, and did not care about the hardships they face. But Lizabeth later realizes the situation she is in when she overheard her parent’s conversation of their struggle to find essentials. In the conversation, Lizabeth’s mother says that “everybody out of work now” in order to comfort her husband, who complained about not having a job and not being able to support his family (Collier 128).

Caroline: As the whistle-blower, her reputation could be at stake, people could be accusing her for taking away the money from people, or being the traitor.

This laissez-faire ideology of letting things take their own course and not interfering much, has forced Jeanette and her siblings to hide their true identities. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the lack of responsibility Jeanette’s parents have is also tied into their laissez-faire attitude. This leads to the current circumstances the family has. Poor to the point of nearly being broke and little to no food in the house, yet no desire to find a job and support the family. Jeanette and her siblings try their best to hide their lack of food and poverty level from the rest of the neighborhood. Oftentimes they didn’t have a lunch at school so in the beginning they would say they either forgot it or they were dieting, but as time went on they progressed to stealing food from other kids lunchboxes when no one was around or nabbing food from the garbage can in secret. When they were there they also stole food from neighbors and friends houses. “We kids usually kept our hunger to ourselves, but we were always thinking of food and how to get our hands on it” (Walls, 68). Because their parents rarely worked or actually did anything when the kids were hungry they had to lie, steal, and hide their true identities. As the kids became older, they learned not to ask about food or complain about the lack of food when the family was running low. As

She said that her dad teaches her wrong and she should not read at home anymore. Her second mistake was that she was writing a letter to Dill, showing that she can write, when she should only be able to print in grade 1. Lastly, Scout explained the ways of the Cunninghams and how they do not accept anything they can’t pay back. Miss Caroline does not see this as a nice gesture, she sees it more of an arrogant statement and slaps her hand.

2. Srigley, Katrina. Breadwinning Daughters: young working women in a depression-era city. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010, YorkLibrary e-book.

First, the jobs these people had to have were terrible and didn’t make them much money. Some people’s jobs included guarding the fence at the county fair, cut the boy’s hair from in the neighborhood, pick peaches, and last but not least, one guy “painted Don Albright’s house for $5.00.” As stated in passage 1 paragraph 3. Those are just some of the terrible jobs they had.

Having parents that tried so hard to set themselves apart from society, all while struggling to earn money, had an impact on their children's lives, and it wasn't for the better. These children lived to struggle. With a bad home life, and parents that didn't seem to care for them enough, Jeannette, Brian, Maureen, and Lori Walls all eventually moved away from their careless parents, to New York. Although it took time for Lori and Jeannette Walls to save up what little money they had, due to the fact that the father continually stole it, they were able to move to New York successfully. Later in the memoir, their parents also decide to move there, except they don't try to better their lives like their

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America details the work of Barbara Ehrenreich who undertook an economic social experiment to see if single mothers can survive financially with low wage jobs by integrating into the role of single mother entering the workforce. Of course with every experiment there were conditions and limits, for Ehrenreich there were three rules she tried not to break. Ehrenreich was to survive on low wages in three cities across America and in order to best replicate the role of a single mother with limited education and options, she could not fall back on any skills derived from her education or usual work, she was to take the highest-paying job offered, and to stay at the cheapest accommodations she could find.

For example, when she mentions that her father keeps getting fired from jobs over and over again on top of page 110. Her father continually gets fired from jobs and he can’t maintain the household with food if he doesn’t receive money. This is one of the reasons why her family lives in poverty because both her parents at times don’t receive income because they don’t have jobs. The second reason her family lives in poverty is her father’s addiction with alcohol. Her dad spends the money that should be used for the household food with drinks, Brian mentions, that “’He spends more than he earns on booze’” (Walls 78). Brian even knows that their father wastes his money on his addiction instead for the family. This shows why their poverty keeps continuing because her father can’t keep a job and when he has money it’s only for his

Money plays a huge part in this story. Hester, the mother, is obsessed with having more and more money. She lives the life of a woman with money, never allowing anyone to see past the family's small income, "The mother had a small income, and the father had a

Many people today find themselves in “dead-end” jobs, or they feel like work is purposeless and frustrating. At the same time, some people figured out that work is a blessing to them. People who suffer their lives in a slavery for many years in another country, think that work is a curse because they were ruled by people. They work because they are forced by other people. Work is a blessing for most people, but for some people work is a curse because of the lack of opportunity. Work is a blessing for those who understand it. To understand that work is a blessing was one of true understanding the purpose of life. It is important because not knowing the purpose of life brought people depressed. As Honore said “I'm retired from the Army, but

“The sisters are doing some of it to themselves. For a variety of reasons, they're not aiming high enough. They're underestimating their abilities. They're doing too much housework and child care. They're compromising their career goals for partners and children -- even when such partners and children do not yet exist”.

women to work but many had to support their family some way so they worked despite the low wages and horrible conditions (Women, 2010). The Ziegfield Image source:silverscreenmodiste.comsilverscreenmodiste.comsilverscreenmodiste.com