Nickel And Dimed Discussion Questions

According to Parker, the chief characteristics of poverty are being tired, asking for help, looking into a black future. As well as poverty being living in a smell that never leaves, staying up all night, insects all over the place, dirt, and remembering. Parker breakdowns what poverty is to her with a good way of portraying it by writing to give the reader vivid descriptions.

Imagine coming home to a house that has no warmth or food. Constantly feeling like you are in a place you can’t get out of. This is how poverty may feel to others. The expeirences from the author Jo Goodwin Parker in the story “What Is Poverty” and the McBride family from the novel “The Color Of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute To His White Mother” show that there are various effects of living in poverty that include emotional problems, adolescent rebellion, and

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.

Ethos, pathos, and logos are all devices that Barbara Ehrenreich effectively uses throughout her novel Nickel and Dimed to prove that America needs to address the commonly overlooked issue of poverty within every community. It is important that she uses all three devices because they help support her argument by increasing her credibility, connecting to the readers’ emotions, and appealing to their sense of logic. The combination of these devices puts a sense of urgency on the problem Ehrenreich is addressing and therefore creates an effective argument.

Poverty is the state of being extremely poor and usually being in a lower social class it is typical that the people would be homeless, unemployed, and have little or no money. The central idea of poverty/social class is show frequently through the novel. It is explored through the two parts of the book. In almost every situation in the book, there is some sort of example of their social class or how poor the Walls are. The walls poverty/social class is shown through the setting in each scene. For example, when the Walls were living in the desert Rex, Jeannette's dad, lost his job and they did not have enough money to purchase food. The children had to find food themselves buy stealing others food during lunch or digging through the garbage. Another example is when The Walls moved to a town called Welch, in West Virginia. The family bought a cheap house that was in poor condition. When the family had money Rex would spend it on alcohol and they were so poor they could not afford heat or electricity. Due to the children not having enough food or having a nice place to stay the children would often spend the night at someone else's

Many of the poor face the issue of finding a job while struggling to survive. Rae McCormick is another one of the $2.00 a day poor in the book. She like Jennifer had been maintaining a job at Wal-Mart until she was let go for being unable to come to work one day. After being let go she ended up in the position that so many others in poverty have faced, desperately needing employment with no one wanting to hire them. Even Susan Brown had applied online for five months without hearing back from any potential employers. When it comes to the poorest people in the country, having a safe & reliable job is crucial for maintaining some order in life. Being able to find and maintain such a job on top of receiving some support from the government is the best chance some can get at lifting themselves from poverty, for awhile at

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Is about a woman, a journalist who goes undercover to witness the Welfare Program the government provides for the poor and people in need. Ehrenreich is white and middle class. She claims that her experience would have been radically different had she been a person of color or a single parent. Ehrenreich had not much to worry about other than finding a job and a somewhat comfortable living space. If she had not been white , her experience would have been drastically different in my opinion. With little money, during this time period things were still not too expensive but not too affordable for some people.

Imagine you’re driving down a road and arrive at a red light. As you glance to your right, you see a woman standing there with a sign that reads, “Without work, anything will help”. Do you stop and give the spare change in your purse? Do you look the other way? Poverty is a difficulty that affects numerous families not only in the United States, but around the world. Jeannette Walls shows in her memoir, The Glass Castle, which describes her hardships as a child, that some poverty-stricken families chose to remain silent, afraid of the embarrassment they feel they’d face, or in denial of their situation. Despite the various drawbacks that weighed down the families hopes of survival, it only lit a fire in Jeannette to become a strong woman who appreciates what she has, knowing it could all disappear in an instant.

In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich proclaims that while on a mission to experience the struggles in the everyday life of the poor, she will never be able to fully understand what it’s like to be in that situation. Throughout her journey, she comes across many different people and job opportunities, making for a different outcome every time. Although there was variation of variables, her response to troubling situations was always the same: giving up.

Class and financial poverty are frequent visible themes in the book. The most obvious is Joe’s lower class background and constant struggle to find enough money to attend school. Another example is the competitions between

Nickeled and Dimed: “On Not Getting by In America” by Barbara Ehrenriech, is a book about a middle aged woman who went undercover as a low class worker. Ehrenreich is a journalist who in her real life and is well off. She was part of the upper class workers. She decided to do this project as a journalist investigation to shine the light on how the low class gets by or not. She visited three different cities within America and took on different jobs and lived among the poor. I found what she did to be very courageous by leaving her upper class comfortable life to live and work among the poor. However I did not agree that she started the process with a security net in place. Through this investigation she uncovered how difficult it was for the working poor to survive on minimum wage. She also uncovered how different it was among the working poor and how many obstacles there were for them to get a good job, good healthcare and decent meals.

After reading Nickel and Dimed, I think that having any job is better than no job at all. I think that having a job shows that you are independent and that you don’t have to rely on others. There are some people out there who are far too lazy to find a job and would rather rely on their family for their income. This book made me feel more aware rather than angry. This book has taught me what the life of a typical low wage worker in America looks and feels like. While reading this book, I felt really bad for Ehrenreich because she had to undergo a lot of hardships all by herself and she usually had to worry about her budget. It made me think about how my life would be when I get older. It felt worried that I’ll struggle the same way Ehrenreich

One example from the book was “according to a 1997 report of the national coalition for the homeless “myths and facts about the homelessness”, nearly one-fifth of all homeless people (in twenty-nine cities across the nation) are employed in full or part time jobs”(pg 26). This explains that the majority of the homeless employees have more than one job in order for them to make it through the next meal or rent. Which relates to the message as to saying that it is not simple to live in the minimum wage class. Another example that conveys the message is “I was raised by Booker T. Washington precept that says: if your going to do something do it well”(pg 18). This means that when you have a job and you depend on that job to give provide you with food and shelter, you must do well on that job in order to contain it, to put all that effort into it because if you lose the job you are in danger of losing not only the job but everything that comes with it. “Though no one, I notice ever brings up anything potentially expensive, like shopping or movies”(pg 36). As provided on the quote the minimum wage employees barely talk about any of their desires because there is no room for that, not enough money to go and do a fun activity. The message is simple, living a life in the minimum wage class is a very difficult state to be in and would take time before you rise above that stage. Although she struggled through

With those little amount of money, nutritional food is not affordable for her and thus, casing the lack of health condition to her and her children. The low wage cannot help her to get out from this situation. Parker laments that poverty is intergenerational and there is only little hope for her children to escape from the poverty. “Poverty is looking

The pinpoint cause of poverty is challenging to find. People who live well off and are above the poverty line may be quick to assume that laziness, addiction, and the typical stereotypes are the causes of poverty. Barbara Ehrenreich, a well known writer on social issues, brings attention to the stereotypical ideology at her time, that “poverty was caused, not by low wages or a lack of jobs, but by bad attitudes and faulty lifestyles” (17). Ehrenreich is emphasizing the fact that statements like the one listed, often influence readers to paint inaccurate mental pictures of poverty that continue to shine light on the ideology of stereotypes being the pinpoint cause to poverty. However, there are many other causes that are often overshadowed, leaving some individuals to believe that poverty was wrongfully placed upon them. Examples would include: high rates of unemployment, low paying jobs, race, and health complications. Which are all out of one’s ability to control. There is no control over a lack of jobs and high rates of unemployment, nor the amount of inadequate wages the working poor receive. Greg Kaufmann, an advisor for the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Half in Ten campaign, complicates matters further when he writes, “Jobs in the U.S. [were] paying less than $34,000 a year: 50 percent. Jobs in the U.S. [were] paying below the poverty line for a family of four, less than $23,000 annually: 25 percent” (33). Acknowledging Kaufmann’s fact, the amount received for a family of four is fairly close to the yearly salary of a high school graduate, which means, receiving that kind of pay for one man may seem challenging, now imagine caring for the needs of four individuals. To make matters worse, certain families receive that amount of money and carry the burden of paying for