The Delcline of the American Dream, and the Finding of the American Dream
(the purpose of this essay was to compare and contrast the RHETORIC strategies both authors used to get to their audience)
Eric Beedle
AP LA III
July 26 2012
The Decline of the American Dream, And the Finding of the American Dream
While reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed on (not) getting by in America, and Adam Shepard’s Scratched Beginning’s me, $25, and the search for the American Dream, I couldn’t help notice huge differences between the two books. Both of these authors were writing for the same cause, was it possible to survive on minimum wage in America, they had different ideas, tactics, work environments, pay, project time period, the seven year time difference, and of course the end result. Barbara Ehrenreich’s book was more focused on how you cannot survive on minimum wage jobs in America, she chose this topic to try and open the eyes of the law makers to show that having jobs like waitressing, or being a maid wasn’t helping the lower class. In the end of her book, she finally called it quits and came up with the idea that it is impossible to survive in America on minimum wage, therefore they need to bump up minimum wage to make it livable for most Americans. After reading the book several times throughout his time in college, Adam Shepard responded to Barbara Ehrenreich’s book by doing his own project, one that was the total opposite of Barbara’s. His response to Barbra was that you can survive with minimum wage, even though that was not Barbara’s main goal of her book. Adam Shepard’s audience was not the law makers, so he tried to almost motivate them with the “I did it, so you can too!” attitude, even though he stated that’s not what he was going for, it kind of was. But throughout his project he did what Barbara didn’t do; take chances and go outside his comfort zone to fully experience what it was like to live in the lower class.
In Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel and Dimed on (not) getting by in America, her tactic was that she
Eric Beedle
AP LA III
July 26 2012
The Decline of the American Dream, And the Finding of the American Dream
While reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed on (not) getting by in America, and Adam Shepard’s Scratched Beginning’s me, $25, and the search for the American Dream, I couldn’t help notice huge differences between the two books. Both of these authors were writing for the same cause, was it possible to survive on minimum wage in America, they had different ideas, tactics, work environments, pay, project time period, the seven year time difference, and of course the end result. Barbara Ehrenreich’s book was more focused on how you cannot survive on minimum wage jobs in America, she chose this topic to try and open the eyes of the law makers to show that having jobs like waitressing, or being a maid wasn’t helping the lower class. In the end of her book, she finally called it quits and came up with the idea that it is impossible to survive in America on minimum wage, therefore they need to bump up minimum wage to make it livable for most Americans. After reading the book several times throughout his time in college, Adam Shepard responded to Barbara Ehrenreich’s book by doing his own project, one that was the total opposite of Barbara’s. His response to Barbra was that you can survive with minimum wage, even though that was not Barbara’s main goal of her book. Adam Shepard’s audience was not the law makers, so he tried to almost motivate them with the “I did it, so you can too!” attitude, even though he stated that’s not what he was going for, it kind of was. But throughout his project he did what Barbara didn’t do; take chances and go outside his comfort zone to fully experience what it was like to live in the lower class.
In Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel and Dimed on (not) getting by in America, her tactic was that she