Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed
In Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed harsh living conditions can affect a person mentally, emotionally, and morally. Poverty is not a "in-between" lifestyle. The major reason why poverty is like this is because the government controls everything and puts limitations on the lower-class and does not provide a enough help economically. Also, if society continues to undermine the lower-class the world's production will drop.
Throughout Ehrenreich entire studies of living this lifestyle, she makes sharp comments about feeling like other races " maybe it occurs to me, I'm getting a tiny glimpse of what it would be like to be black" (100) this belittles all black people and conveys how the upper class should want to help the poor since she is witnessing this hands on. During this part of the book, as she moves to Maine, she is struggling with finding employment, housing, and other utilities. So as she …show more content…
becomes a maid her view on the poor is on a different level as when she first started in Key west, Florida as a restaurant waiter. In Florida, her perspective of how others looked at her had a major influence on most of her decisions. As the narrator shifts into a lower role in life her perspective switches into a mind-set that is concerned only about the poor.
Minimum wage profit is not a enough for any human being to live off of.
In saying that, being paid $6 to $7 dollars an hour will not grant a single individual happiness let a alone a family with 2-3 children involved. Ehrenreich has made me a believer of a curable, yet reasonable change in the lower-class from a financial aspect.This change involves, a higher pay of low-wage jobs, more involved upper-class, and the government providing more help for the poor. Mentally this can affect a person drastically and lead to an early state of depression. While only a little of money is being gained, workers are trying to solve this problem by working 2-3 jobs and doubling the working hours. This transition of only working one job into working several jobs causes mental frustration between them and the people they work with. As we are exposed to this mental breakdown in Chapter 2 of Nickel of Dimed depicted by Holly and her boyfriend; the narrator includes profanity and other derogatory statements to display how minimum wage jobs can cause emotional disruption in Women’s
life.
As well in Chapter 2, poverty is continuing to attack the maids morally. SInce, the maids are being trained to clean every room the “hotel-way” it is not your typical method of cleaning and without out the knowledge of cleaning Ehrenreich will get the job since the boss “ doesn’t hire people who had done cleaning before because they are resistant to learning the company’s system.”(73) Her morally standards are broken as she knows that the hotels are not really cleaning , they are hiding. Poverty is striking again because it controls how people change little attributes in their life such as dusting, vacuuming, and cleaning in order to make money to survive.
In conclusion, Ehrenreich studies demonstrate a minimum wage lifestyle leads to poverty without help from the upper class and the government.
Throughout Ehrenreich entire studies of living this lifestyle, she makes sharp comments about feeling like other races " maybe it occurs to me, I'm getting a tiny glimpse of what it would be like to be black" (100) this belittles all black people and conveys how the upper class should want to help the poor since she is witnessing this hands on. During this part of the book, as she moves to Maine, she is struggling with finding employment, housing, and other utilities. So as she …show more content…
becomes a maid her view on the poor is on a different level as when she first started in Key west, Florida as a restaurant waiter. In Florida, her perspective of how others looked at her had a major influence on most of her decisions. As the narrator shifts into a lower role in life her perspective switches into a mind-set that is concerned only about the poor.
Minimum wage profit is not a enough for any human being to live off of.
In saying that, being paid $6 to $7 dollars an hour will not grant a single individual happiness let a alone a family with 2-3 children involved. Ehrenreich has made me a believer of a curable, yet reasonable change in the lower-class from a financial aspect.This change involves, a higher pay of low-wage jobs, more involved upper-class, and the government providing more help for the poor. Mentally this can affect a person drastically and lead to an early state of depression. While only a little of money is being gained, workers are trying to solve this problem by working 2-3 jobs and doubling the working hours. This transition of only working one job into working several jobs causes mental frustration between them and the people they work with. As we are exposed to this mental breakdown in Chapter 2 of Nickel of Dimed depicted by Holly and her boyfriend; the narrator includes profanity and other derogatory statements to display how minimum wage jobs can cause emotional disruption in Women’s
life.
As well in Chapter 2, poverty is continuing to attack the maids morally. SInce, the maids are being trained to clean every room the “hotel-way” it is not your typical method of cleaning and without out the knowledge of cleaning Ehrenreich will get the job since the boss “ doesn’t hire people who had done cleaning before because they are resistant to learning the company’s system.”(73) Her morally standards are broken as she knows that the hotels are not really cleaning , they are hiding. Poverty is striking again because it controls how people change little attributes in their life such as dusting, vacuuming, and cleaning in order to make money to survive.
In conclusion, Ehrenreich studies demonstrate a minimum wage lifestyle leads to poverty without help from the upper class and the government.