Nickel And Dimed On By Barbara Ehrenreich - 1196 Words

The article â€Å"Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By In America† written by Barbara Ehrenreich, who has a PHD in biology, informs the reader about the struggle a low-wage worker in America has to go through. Ehrenreich goes undercover and takes low-wage jobs to experience how a person with minimum wage of $6-$7/hour survives. During her experiment Ehrenreich only uses the money she earns from her job to pay rent, buy groceries,do laundry, pay for phone, and car. Throughout the article Ehrenreich’s purpose is to make high class feel grateful for what they have but at the same time she encourages them to rally support to change conditions for low-wage workers. Ehrenreich uses rhetorical techniques of syntactic repetition, pathos, ethos, and evidence to persuade middle and high class Americans to realize the need to raise the minimum wage in order for low-wage workers to live comfortable lives. One of the many rhetorical techniques Ehrenreich uses is syntactic repetition as a way of instilling emotions in a readers in order to make them feel sorry for the conditions low wage workers endure and then help in some capacity. In very first sentence of the article Ehrenreich lists; â€Å"At the beginning of June 1998 I leave behind everything that normally soothes the ego and sustain the body - home, career, companion, reputation, ATM card - for a plunge into the low-wage workforce† (Ehrenreich 243). In this quote Ehrenreich just lists facts of what she leaves behind but it makes a readerShow MoreRelatedNickel And Dimed, By Barbara Ehrenreich1636 Words   |  7 Pagesperiod. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, specifically highlights a more modern time period, from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. Within this narrative, author Barbara Ehrenreich depicts her struggles of finding equality within the multitude of jobs she works in order to make a living throughout multiple parts. She strongly asserts, within the breadth of her anecdotes, that the American Dream is not easily attainable. In accordance to Nickel and Dimed: On (Not)Read MoreNickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich1494 Words   |  6 Pages In the novel Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author goes on an experiment in which she moves to new towns and becomes a low-wage worker. In each town she has to find a place to live for the amount she can afford each month off of minimum wage jobs. She went undercover so she went into these jobs without showing her level of skills, college degrees, or writing skills she has. She spent a month in each town between the years of 1998 and 2000. Before starting her experiment she set rulesRead MoreNickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich1721 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Barbara Ehrenreich began her research to explore how people attempting to move from welfare to work are managing—if at all. This exploration also extended to those who are apart of the working class and having not been on welfare. Attempting to place herself in the position of her subjects, Ehrenreich strived to see if she were able to survive on the minimal income provided by a series of low level and low paying jobs. In was her foreknowledge of laws and the inclusion of these lawsRead MoreNickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich1670 Words   |  7 PagesNickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is a book about trying to survive while living on a minimum wage salaryWhen first reading this book, I thought it was just going to be another book assigned that I just didn’t want to read After reading the first few pages, I was very intrigued, I began reading way ahead what was assigned for the week I m glad I actually got into this book because it made it so much easier to read She goes and starts her life over in different cities in order to see if itRead MoreNickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich1192 Words   |  5 PagesIn ‘Nickel and Dimed† by Barbara Ehrenreich, the main claim made by the author was that the low-working class are, in general, forced into an inescapable cycle of poverty. The low paying jobs they have to take are barely enough to pay rent, buy food, and other necessities. This doesn’t even include those in less favorable conditions than those Ehrenreich mimicked in her experiment. In general, Ehrenreich was trying to prove that the â€Å"living wage† offered by entry level jobs is not, in fact, â€Å"livable†Read MoreNickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich2290 Words   |  10 Pagesthe Great Depression, but who’s to say that we have recovered from it? My claim is supported by Barbara Ehrenreich, an American author, who published a novel called Nickel and Dimed which digs deep into the economic s ituation in the early 90’s. Ehrenreich decided to run an experiment becoming a blue collar worker to see if she can manage to make a living on low wages. She later blogs of Nickel and Dimed in 2011 to see if any change has taken place, and a possible inside on how things would be if sheRead MoreEhrenreich s Nickel And Dimed, By Barbara Ehrenreich1284 Words   |  6 Pages A Call to Action In her novel, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich states the working poor should be categorized as a â€Å"state of emergency,† and while that may first appear as extreme title, it would certainly promote action in our society. This â€Å"call to action† is one of the main motivations behind Ehrenreich’s writing of this novel. If viewing the working poor as a state of emergency promotes society to take action, then so be it. It is clear from Ehrenreich’s novel that the life of the workingRead MoreBarbara Ehrenreich s Nickel And Dimed978 Words   |  4 Pagesperforms â€Å"down.† By using the excerpt Serving in Florida from Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich and the play, Six Degrees of Separation, by John Guare, we see how performing different classes than the one each person is a part affect themselves and those around them In Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, Barbara went â€Å"undercover† to perform and learn about a class that was not her own. Although it was for only a month, Barbara struggled to keep up the effort and survive in a lower class thanRead MoreNickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich Essay1954 Words   |  8 Pagesor three-part time jobs, or working full time at low-wage paying jobs. However, working full time or having two or three part-time jobs, still isn’t enough to make ends meet, support themselves, and their families. In the novel, Nickel and Dimed (2015), Barbara Ehrenreich, the author, does a great job going into the workforce to be employed as a low wage worker, plus acquiring information about how low wage workers make ends meet. Ehrenreich’s reasoning to do so is for research purposes. AlthoughRead MoreAn Analysis Of Nickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich3343 Words   |  14 PagesNickel and Dimed Analysis 1. What is the topic? Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is the autobiography of when Barbara went undercover to find out more about the life of a medium wage worker. She first goes to work in Key West, Florida at the restaurant â€Å"Hearthside†. She had worked there for a couple of weeks realizing how incredibly strenuous it was being a waitress especially when under a boss named Phillip that is constantly bickering and ranting on how poor of a job she is doing by having