In her narrative‚ Nickel and Dimed‚ Barbara Ehrenreich explores the world of the low-wage working class. An upper-middle class biology Ph.D. and journalist‚ Ehrenreich temporarily uproots her life in a two year social and economic experiment to join the laborers of America. Her purpose is to get firsthand knowledge and answer the question‚ “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” (Ehrenreich 1) Beginning her journey in Key West‚ Florida‚ Ehrenreich finds employment as a waitress
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In my opinion‚ I feel that the author of “Nickel and Dimed”‚ Barbara Ehrenreich‚ had ethical intentions when making the decision to investigate “poverty” by emerging herself in the “low-wage lifestyle”. The ethical concern‚ however‚ is with her approach. I feel that the way in which it was conducted could be viewed as degrading to those who do not have an alternative to this way of living. True‚ hopeless poverty does not have those “reassuring limits” that Ehrenreich had the ability
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The Low-Wage Worker wanting the American Dream By Jennifer Hodge October 8‚ 2013 In Nickel and Dimed‚ Barbara Ehrenreich takes some time out of her normal life and tries to experience life working as a low-wage worker. Ehrenreich begins with the goal‚ “to see whether she could match income to expenses‚ as the truly poor attempt to do every day.” (Ehrenreich 6) Ehrenreich salary is always low‚ and a few times along the way she has to ask for help. At the end of her journey‚ she has discovered
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While my American dream and Julia Alvarez’s dream in I Want to Be Miss America was to achieve the American dream by fitting in with our fellow peers. Barbara Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed shows that the American dream is for many others is to stay up financial with their fellow peers. These pieces all support that the the American dream is to keep up with your peers whether it’s appearance or financially. Many kids American dream my age was to be the president‚ an astronaut‚ or just an
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Why Should We Care In her expose‚ Nickel and Dime‚ Barbara Ehrenreich shares her experience of what it is like for unskilled women to be forced to be put into the labor market after the welfare reform that was going on in 1998. Ehrenreich wanted to capture her experience by retelling her method of “uncover journalism” in a chronological order type of presentation of events that took place during her endeavor. Her methodologies and actions were some what not orthodox in practice. This was not to
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In Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed‚ Ehrenreich explores the dynamics of social stratification by gender in working class America. Similarly to race‚ Ehrenreich shows how gender and gender roles are a part of a closed system in the American workforce. One can first see this early on in the book when Ehrenreich works as a waitress. Ehrenreich describes a dynamic in this work setting in which female workers are subservient to a dominant male manager who is very critical. She mainly shows
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In Barbara Ehrenreich’s book‚ Nickel-and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America‚ she investigates whether welfare reform programs are appropriate in aiding women in poverty and that these institutions will affect their economic and social mobility in the future. Ehrenreich initiated her research in June 1998‚ in the form of participant observation. Her experiment was design allowed her to personally experience the hardships of a worker with minimal skills living on minimum wage. Barbara’s poses as
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Whereas‚ In Nickel and Dimed on (not) getting by in America‚ which was our third book review an experiment of living the life of an average person on minimum wage conducted by Barbara Enrenreich. The reason as stated in the initial review was to see if Enrenreich‚”could match income to expenses‚ as the truly poor attempt to do every day “(Nickel and Dimed‚ 6). In chapter eight of the Doob text labeled under “Poor People Work” one of the factors listed that affected employment opportunities were
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Mohammed Arif Kristi Moos English 104 27 September 2014 Living in America Barbara Ehrenreich is an author of article called “Nickel and Dimed”. Barbara Ehrenreich is a down-to-earth‚ skilled journalist with a Ph.D. in biology. Barbara is someone does not try to be what she is. She is the kind of woman that leaves everything aside and going to experience different life in America. . In the article Barbara tells about herself as a journalism going thru a low-wage job from her normal life‚ and
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The book Nickel and Dimed was a refreshing easy read. With consideration to my workload for the semester I appreciated this small favor‚ however‚ nothing could have prepared me for the pages ahead. As I conceptualized this paper I was battling my criticisms and trying to keep an open mind. I ended my conceptualization feeling helpless and not knowing where to begin. Where better then the beginning? I was initially thrilled to read the things she was writing about serving in Florida. Not only
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