“Serving in Florida” by Barbara Ehrenreich is a story about Ehrenreich’s experience as a low-wage waitress in a restaurant. Ehrenreich discusses her experiences as a low-wage worker and the everyday difficulties she encounters in her position. Ehrenreich publicizes the plight of low-wage workers by using analogies, which highlight the challenges low-wage workers face, emotionally charged words, to allow the reader to connect with the story, and extreme language to arouse sympathy from the audience.
Ehrenreich uses the analogies of food and battlefields in order to emphasize the difficulties of her situation. Ehrenreich describes her workplace as a “a fat person’s hell” (Ehrenreich 179), which creates a picture in the mind of the reader. …show more content…
She uses the struggle of how people try “to be accepted into this sorority” (Ehrenreich 180), as grounds with which the audience can make connections with. Sorority is an emotionally charged word for many people because of people’s drive to join sororities and exclusive groups. Due to experiences that people have with these groups, people associate emotions with these words which are surfaced when the word is used. By using an emotionally charged word, Ehrenreich is able to produce and channel emotions which come from reading this word to create a link between the audience and this worker. The experiences attached to the word sorority also helps the audience to envision the narrator’s situation, allowing the reader to become “involved” in the narrative. Furthermore, Ehrenreich utilizes the connotative phrase that she is “a survivor” (Ehrenreich 180) of the first day. As a result, people will sympathize with this worker since by using the word survivor, it makes it sound like she had been through a major struggle and barely made it out. Furthermore, the reader is curious as to what the waitress has survived, so will become more attached to the narrative. To delve the reader further into her life as a waitress, Ehrenreich discusses her friends who she has at the restaurant. She calls Nita a “tattooed twenty-something”(Ehrenreich 183), which is a very general description. The vague description allows the reader to imagine someone they know who could fit under the description of a “tattooed twenty-something.” This allows a person to feel invested in Ehrenreich’s story, since the reader gets the impression that they have similar friends to the waitress, and therefore they are similar to the waitress. By describing George as her “saving human connection”(Ehrenreich 184), Ehrenreich uses the word “saving” which implies that she is drowning in her
Ehrenreich uses the analogies of food and battlefields in order to emphasize the difficulties of her situation. Ehrenreich describes her workplace as a “a fat person’s hell” (Ehrenreich 179), which creates a picture in the mind of the reader. …show more content…
She uses the struggle of how people try “to be accepted into this sorority” (Ehrenreich 180), as grounds with which the audience can make connections with. Sorority is an emotionally charged word for many people because of people’s drive to join sororities and exclusive groups. Due to experiences that people have with these groups, people associate emotions with these words which are surfaced when the word is used. By using an emotionally charged word, Ehrenreich is able to produce and channel emotions which come from reading this word to create a link between the audience and this worker. The experiences attached to the word sorority also helps the audience to envision the narrator’s situation, allowing the reader to become “involved” in the narrative. Furthermore, Ehrenreich utilizes the connotative phrase that she is “a survivor” (Ehrenreich 180) of the first day. As a result, people will sympathize with this worker since by using the word survivor, it makes it sound like she had been through a major struggle and barely made it out. Furthermore, the reader is curious as to what the waitress has survived, so will become more attached to the narrative. To delve the reader further into her life as a waitress, Ehrenreich discusses her friends who she has at the restaurant. She calls Nita a “tattooed twenty-something”(Ehrenreich 183), which is a very general description. The vague description allows the reader to imagine someone they know who could fit under the description of a “tattooed twenty-something.” This allows a person to feel invested in Ehrenreich’s story, since the reader gets the impression that they have similar friends to the waitress, and therefore they are similar to the waitress. By describing George as her “saving human connection”(Ehrenreich 184), Ehrenreich uses the word “saving” which implies that she is drowning in her