Nickel And Dimed Reflection

In a capitalist world, there are many opportunities to succeed, but an individual must be willing to work hard in order to ascend the social ladder. In Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, she undergoes an experiment to see whether or not the average low-wage worker can get by in America. Ehrenreich claims that based on the wages that the low wage worker receives, he/she can not really get by and thus they don’t really have a way to get up out of poverty. However, the working poor do in fact have an opportunities to succeed, such as working up the corporate ladder from the bottom and saving money to build wealth, making Ehrenreich’s argument invalid.

I. Introduction a) The final Chapter of Nickel and Dimed brought its readers to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ehrenreich traveled to Minnesota in search of achieving a comfortable medium between her income and her expenses. Due to the fact, that she was unable to achieve this medium in Maine and in Florida. Upon arriving to Minnesota, Ehrenreich applied to various corporate chains (including Wal-Mart, Target, and Kohl’s).

In a New York Times article, “Too Poor to Make the News,” author Barbara Ehrenreich focuses on the impact the recession has caused to the lives of the working poor. She begins her article by describing how the newly group, known as Nouveau poor, have to give up valuables where as the working poor have to give up housing, food, and prescription medicines. Ehrenreich’s purpose is to inform her readers who are blessed enough not to suffer like the working poor. Barbara Ehrenreich’s article examines the impacts the recession has on the lives of the working poor, by demonstrating pathos, and makes readers aware of the sufferings the poor have to face. Barbara Ehrenreich examines the aspects that are impacting the working poor from the recession.

The part where she says that her daughter will live like her and her sons will end up in jail sounds like she is content and accepting of her circumstances. While I do understand her plight and how it is perhaps easy to feel hopeless in situations such as these, but she seems to just accept the fact that poverty is inescapable. Let’s be clear, I am not saying that she wants to be in poverty, no one does, trust me, I’ve been there. But I truly believe that character has no need for money. Character is what will set our children up for success.

In the article “How I Discovered the Truth about Poverty” Barbara Ehrenreich gives her view in poverty and explains why she think Michael Harington’s book “The Other American” gives a wrong view on poverty. She explained that Harrington believes that the poor thought and felt differently and what divides the poor was their different “culture of poverty.” Ehrenreich goes on to explain on how the book that became a best seller caused so many bad stereotypes on the poor that by the Reagan era poverty was seen as “bad attitudes” and “faulty lifestyles” and not by the lack of jobs or low paying jobs. And they also viewed the poor as “Dissolute, promiscuous, prone to addiction and crime, unable to “defer gratification,” or possibly even set an alarm clock.”

Verbal irony through a sarcastic tone strengthens the central claim since many people respond well to being addressed in a more satirical, direct manner. Barbara continues discussing the Maids, “no one is going to say, after I vacuum ten rooms and still have time to scrub the kitchen floor, “Goddamn, Barb, you’re so good!”” (Ehrenreich 117). The fact that the middle-class doesn’t even understand the amount of hard work that is done addresses the subclaim of how hard life is while working minimum wage, or close to it, jobs, while still using a sarcastic tone. The audience of middle-class Americans will most likely put down this memoir feeling a call to action to change the operation of the treatment of these trapped

No Nickels or Dimes To Spare In the book, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich writes the story, “Serving in Florida.” She describes her experience living as an undercover waitress when in reality she’s a journalist for culture and politics with a doctorate in biology. Ehrenreich experiences trying to survive on multiple low income jobs to understand what it is like to be in their shoes instead of being apart of the higher middle class.

While homeless shelters have long waiting list and middle-income families are losing their homes with just a few days’ notice. Britney and Johnny’s families both were doing well until the recession hit and companies began to lay people

For example when Mae sent the kids away to go live with her family. This was because the apartment that they lived in they could not afford to pay the heat. Therefore, the children left and this made Jim Braddock very upset. Jim Braddock was one day going to look at a Hooverville in central park. Which was a place where homeless lived during this time.

She begins by talking about her college experience of how her own professors and fellow students believed and “always portrayed the poor as shiftless, mindless, lazy, dishonest, and unworthy” (Paragraph 5). This experience shocked her because she never grew up materialistic. She brings up the fact that she is the person with the strong and good values that she has today because she grew up in a poor family. In culture, the poor are always being stereotyped.

Argumentative Text Essay In the book Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author argues how challenging it is to live in a life of poverty. To prove to herself as well as others that this statement is accurate, she makes the decision to experience this lifestyle firsthand by taking low-wage jobs and recording the results. Ehrenreich took on jobs including a maid service, waitressing, and assisting the nursing home to make enough money for a place to sleep and food to eat. The work’s central argument is the fact that minimum and low wage workers face a myriad of difficulties in getting by in America; they receive very low pay, harsh treatments from their employers, and the inability to have an actual life.

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

All of Rosemary’s life, she has lived in poverty, with little to no financial support. “People become homeless when they don’t have a support system to help them weather a normal crisis.” (Understanding homelessness). Rosemary, like many other unhoused men and women on the streets, continued her lifestyle into adulthood because she was raised to believe that it was the right way to

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.

Paula grew up with two hard working parents  learning that nothing is ever  handed to you. Richard grew up with high expectations set upon him and being handed anything in his sight. They both grew up with loving parents, but eventually Richard let the money get to his head and strayed from his basic values. Paula understands where she comes from and how much work is required to get where she wants to be. “The expectations set for Richard might be slightly different to those set for Paula” and that’s why she works hard and doesn’t mask a handout as hard