Ehrenreich: Chapter Summary And Analysis

Ehrenreich gave commendable data throughout her book. However, her process from beginning to end was anything but flawless. She lacked a great amount of authenticity in her experiment. The journalist’s entire journey was not a complete failure. One major aspect that really made her research a semi-success was her abandonment of her life. In the intro of the book she encourages, “…old fashioned…journalism” and believes it could gather accurate data about the lives of minimum wage workers (Ehrenreich 1). As she was pushed into poverty, she went about her investigation in a fair manner. She entered the work force unexperienced, closed all connections to her past life and began her new excursion. As stated earlier, her venture upon the low wage workforce was a semi-success. For example, in chapter 1 she breaks character where the foundation of her study is the survival of living a different life. Ehrenreich takes a break from her minimum wage life by stepping out of hardship and back into her comfortable life style as a PhD holder. She goes home to, “…catch up on e-mail and [to have]…conjugal visits with friends…” and reenters her poverty-stricken life (Ehrenreich 34). That …show more content…
However, her actions through her minimum wage journey were far from. To pin point an example, her tenure with the maids is perfect. In chapter 2, to become working member of the maids she was required to take the Accutrac test. At a point of defeat she becomes complacent with the idea of being fired after a mess up on the job. After talking to Marge, Holly interjects into their conversation saying, “You have to pass the test” to get the job (Ehrenreich 113). By then Ehrenreich is exhausted, fed up, and at her breaking point, so she is set off by her comment. She curses at her, a form of colloquialism and invective language, instantly losing any professionalism that she has