The Struggle In Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

Words: 287

Pages: 2

In the narrative Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich attempts to join the workforce and to live off of the wage she is given through her numerous jobs she takes while in Key West, Florida. Through the chapter, Ehrenreich’s main struggle seemed to be orientated around trying to make ends meet with the dismal wage she has been given. As a story for one of the three narratives in Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich tries to discuss how it is almost impossible to live comfortably with the wage she has been receiving. While working as a waitress, she earns $2.43 an hour plus tip working 2:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. every night. With the amount she is working, and picking up the slack that her manager leaves behind for the workers, there lacks a correlation

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Barbara Ehrenreich Nickel And Dimed Analysis

Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America” is an exposé on working as an unskilled laborer in America. In the excerpt we read Ehrenreich leaves her home to go undercover in Key West, Florida with $1,300, no job, and no place to live. She puts down her deposit at an “$500-a-month efficiency” 30 miles from town and gets a full-time job as a waitress. Unable to live on just one minimum wage job, Ehrenreich gets a job at another restaurant. When this proves to be too much,…

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Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: on (Not) Getting by in America. New York, Metropolitan Books, 2001. Ehrenreich’s tale of a low wage life offers insight into the world of poverty; One of which often goes unnoticed. She addresses the brutal reality of a full time job accompanied with no health care, no benefits, and enough pay to barely make it through the night. To find out for herself if it was actually possible to have a substantial life on minimum wage, Ehrenreich leaves her well-off world…

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Analysis Of Barbara Ehrenreich´s Nickel And Dimed

Although Nickel and Dimed was published 15 years ago, the topic of raising the minimum wage may be more pertinent than ever before. Just last summer, a $15 wage bill that was proposed made it clear that the debate is far from over. Barbara Ehrenreich, a best selling author and previous winner of the National Magazine Award, wrote Nickel and Dimed while undercover at several minimum wage jobs. The idea for the book was prompted during a lunch with Lewis Lapham, an editor for Harper’s, after Ehrenreich…

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Analysis Of Nickel And Dimed

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich is the roller coaster of events that the author experiences when she decides to join the lower class. However, the primary purpose of the author is to make money and be successful. Therefore, there are a few text examples in her writing that supports this purpose and one is, “I just figured that a story about waiting for buses would not be very interesting to read.” (page 5). Which shows that she must make her book appeal to her…

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Comparing The American Dream In Nickel And Dimed

is all a myth because of the minimum job pay with the cost of amenities needed and the ability to keep a job in our country at this time is difficult. In the book Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich, who is an acclaimed author, goes undercover and to take on minimum wage jobs to see what it is like to try to…

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Sociological Analysis Of Nickel And Dimed

Nickel and Dimed: Analysis “In the 21st century, I think the heroes will be the people who will improve the quality of life, fight poverty and introduce more sustainable” by Bertrand Piccard. This quote will help show how tough some people can be in order to come out of poverty. As Barbara Ehrenreich was given the assignment to test how people survive through poverty. She decides to do this in three different locations in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. She starts off her journey in Florida where…

Words 1748 - Pages 7