Ehrenreich's Serving In Florida

Janie’s first place of residence was West Florida with her grandmother. Her grandmother moved here so they can have a better life. “Ah got with some good white people and come down here in West Florida to work and make de sun shine both sides of de street for Leafy,”(19). This led to Janie

Pathos dominates the article when Ehrenreich allows her nephews mother in law, grandchildren, and daughter to move into her house. The situation focuses on pathos because in Ehrenreich’s personal story she includes that “Peg, was, like several million other Americans, about to lose her home to foreclosure” (338). She is effective in her writing by appealing to the readers’ emotions through visual concepts and personal experiences. When I read the article, I felt emotional because the working poor are not fortunate to know if they will have a house or food the next day. I agree with Ehrenreich in which the poor are as important as the wealthy group who get more recognition.

The two excerpts have many similarities and differences; they wanted to experience poverty, but one was picky about what job they acquired, and focused more on their current status than other individuals. In 30 Days and “Serving in Florida”, the individuals wanted to experience poverty first-hand. The individuals moved away from home with nothing but a few outfits and the shoes on their feet. The individual’s left their money at home and started out with zero dollars.

In living with the Byrne’s she becomes more unwanted because she is shown no care and forced to sleep on the floor in hallway in there house. She also has to adapt to the working life because if she does not work hard enough Mrs. Byrne’s threatens to send her back to child aid society. As Mrs. Byrnes says “if you are a respectful and hardworking, you will be treated fairly”(Kline71). While she works for the Byrne’s its mainly her worker phase and her starting move father away from her positive outlook at finding a loving family. Then the stock market crashes and she is moved to the Grote’s household where she begins her motherly phase.

“Serving in Florida” is a piece of literature that comes from Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich that discusses her experience in as an undercover journalist trying to live a life working low-paying jobs. In 1941, Barbara Ehrenreich was born in Butte, Montana, a blue-collar mining town where her father used to work before he earned a degree in the Butte School of Mines and moved the family. Ehrenreich became a part of a middle-class family and attended Rockefeller University where she graduated with a doctorate in biology. However, throughout the years she became more involved with politics, such as advocating for the women’s health movement in the 1970’s and wrote Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers. Eventually, she quit her teaching job at State University to become a full-time writer to create pieces relating to the

Thesis: I believe that Ehrenreich’s thesis is that no matter how hard you work or how chipper you act, it is nearly impossible to make a living for oneself in minimum wage conditions such as those of her coworkers. Narration: Narration is present on page 765 where through the narrator we are told Gail’s story about how her husband died and her what has led up to her current situation. Report: Paragraph 2 is an example of report writing where she details the types of housing in the area and the possible houses she can afford because she is being illustrative and informational about the topic of real estate in Key West. Analysis: The section on pages 771-772 is an analysis because she is breaking down the housing situations of her coworkers based upon her prediction of their salaries.

Ehrenreich uses imagery, diction, pathos and logos to strategize her story and make it more appealing to the readers who are higher income people wanting them to understand how difficult low income life can be. Ehrenreich thoroughly illustrates her experience at the Hearthside using a metaphor. “Picture a fat person's hell, and i don't mean a place with no food. Instead there is everything you might eat if eating had no bodily consequences….The kitchen is a cavern, a stomach leading to the lower intestine that is the garbage and dishwashing area.”

Everyone knows that tipping is an act of kindness that I put towards those who provide service beyond the expectation. Michael Lewis, a convincing author that addressed the pros and cons of tipping. Whether the workers were an excellent server or a poor server determines the amount of the tips that is given. In “The Case Against Tipping,” Michael Lewis created an arguable topic that can in truth get people thinking, but his essay lacks the evidence of logic. Michael Lewis’ first point was valid.

One of the best-selling authors, Barbara Ehrenreich, in her narrative essay, “Serving in Florida,” describes her personal experience working in a local restaurant called Jerry’s. Ehrenreich’s purpose is to attach importance to the low-wage America workplace. Using rhetorical strategies such as negative diction, simile, images, and pathos, Ehrenreich attempts to raise public awareness of the low-wage workers’ life in her readers. Firstly, Barbara Ehrenreich exploits connotation of words and simile to emphasize the difficult life of the lower class.

Ellen knows that she is not going to live with her abusive father forever, she believes that she will find a loving family that will take her in and a place to call home. When Ellen goes to Church she notices a foster mother with many children. “I went to church and figured that the woman with all the girls lined up by her had to be the new mama for me and then I looked up and thanked the lord for sending me that dress. I said I look like I am worth something today and she will notice the dress first and then me inside it and say to herself I sure would like to have a girl like her”.

The American Dream is almost purely run by structural forces, in her perspective, that are constantly attempting to impede the middle class’ ability for upward mobility. Those who are impoverished are there because of their surroundings, the institutions that shape their lives and therefore, they simply cannot find any way out of the poverty trap in which they have found themselves. While Ehrenreich was conducting her case study, she attempted to determine if the American Dream was by attempting to immerse herself in the culture of the poor. She only did so partially due to several stipulations that she set for the experiment as she stated that she would not live in a shelter (Shepard did), that she would not get rid of her vehicle and rely on public transportation (Shepard also did this); however, she did note that even for her, being partially immersed as she was, still found there to be not much difference between herself and those that worked around. She believed, from her experiences, that the social structure of the employment opportunities, was a systematic way to dehumanize the workers.

Mantsios’ compares the profiles of different Americans lifestyles in his text and develops the idea that an individual’s class standing can affect their livelihood in detrimental ways, “The lower one’s class standing, the more difficult it is to secure appropriate housing, the more time is spent on routine tasks of everyday life, the greater is the percentage of income that goes to pay for food and other basic necessities, and the greater is the likelihood of crime victimization” (293). Mantsios explains that one’s class standing can affect the chances of survival and success. Ehrenreich describes her own housing experiences as a low income worker. To reduce her overall costs and to obtain a second job, Ehrenreich moves closer to Key West. Ehrenreich has just enough money to pay the rent and deposit on a tiny trailer at the Overseas Trailer Park.

She effectively describes the problems of being homeless accurately and was able to use her story to account their struggles and how those struggles made her who is. Homelessness is a widespread problem throughout the world. A lot of individuals fall into homelessness and become helpless. But Jeanette’s circumstance fueled her desire to explore opportunities that would afford her a future better than her current situation. Although her family was poor and lacked essential necessities, her parents were able to instill values like the importance of literature and education; that eventually lead to Jeanette’s love for journalism and her career than bettered her

Kristine’s mother was ill, and she needed to take care of her mother and her family. So instead of marrying the man she loved, Krogstad, married a businessman in order to to take care of her family. Kristine is also a working woman, due to her husband’s death she has had to work hard, and struggle to make ends meet. These experiences allowed Kristine to be out in the world and live life outside of a sheltered environment. This allowed her to be able to see reality for what it is.

Jasmine along with her three brothers and parents lived in a homeless shelter at the Salvation Army. She often felt sad when they drove past houses and saw people entering their homes, she wished that was her sometimes. Her brother Jonny shared how difficult it is living in a shelter and how that 's something you don 't want anyone finding out about it. If people found out you would lose your friends and others would make fun of you. Their family was considered middle class before the recession hit.