When America first started out as a growing nation—with seemingly endless opportunities and chances for success —a concept grew along with it. A concept that in it of itself is protected by the Declaration of Independence but was not coined until the late 1930s: the American Dream. The American Dream is the ideology, which many people follow, that states that there is an equal opportunity for Americans to attain success if they show determination and work persistently. However, this ideal today is far from what it started as. In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich explores the idea of not only thriving in the lower classes of the nation, but also surviving. She finds that it is difficult to survive, yet alone thrive even though she and others
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One of said characters that Barbara meets during her work at The Maids is Holly. When “Holly trips in a hole in the ground and falls down and screams… [she continues] hopping around the bathroom wiping up pubic hairs” (Ehrenreich 110). Holly continues to work even though she is injured; however she was never able to attain success. Ehrenreich remarks that “Holly [is] going to keep [working] until you pry the last cleaning rag from her cold, dead hands, she’s made that clear enough” (111). It is also found that there is a discrepancy of who got what jobs. When Barbara lived in Florida she stated that “most, but by no means all, of the working housekeepers I see on my job searched are African Americans, Spanish-speaking, or refugees from the Central European post-Communist world, while servers are almost invariably white and monolingually English-speaking”( Ehrenreich 29). People who worked with Barbara in Florida seemed to be separated by ethnicity, thus limiting their ability to find success. In other words, people are not given the equal opportunities to succeed as stated in the ideal of the American Dream. Even if they work hard, the racial barriers inhibit some to find success. In Minnesota, even Barbara was not able to succeed; the poor wages at Wal-Mart along with the inability to find reasonably priced housing created a dilemma. Even though Barbara …show more content…
Shortly after the time that Nickel and Dimed was published, “[t]he Economic Policy Institute recently reviewed dozens of studies of what constitutes a “living wage” and came up with the average figure of $30,000 a year… which amount to a wage of $14 an hour… [However] the majority of American workers, about 60 percent, earn less than $14 an hour” (qtd. in Ehrenreich 213). It is difficult to simply survive for most Americans, not to mention succeed. To add insult to injury, there is seemingly a barrier between the upper and lower classes. This includes minimal interactions, so the chances of finding success are greatly decreased. Americans believe that if someone holds an occupational position, then they should be able to survive and thrive, however as evident in this book, one can work hard and maintain a job and still not be able to do so. However, it must be stated that America today is not the same as the book to some degree. It is possible that it may be worse. During the book, Barbara was never short of finding a job. However, after the economic downfall of 2008, jobs seemed to be vanishing. There were not enough jobs for a larger, more competitive population, making the possibility to attain success even more of a distant goal. There is still a racial barrier for Americans, even though they so adamantly try to convince others that there is not. All in all, America today is
One of said characters that Barbara meets during her work at The Maids is Holly. When “Holly trips in a hole in the ground and falls down and screams… [she continues] hopping around the bathroom wiping up pubic hairs” (Ehrenreich 110). Holly continues to work even though she is injured; however she was never able to attain success. Ehrenreich remarks that “Holly [is] going to keep [working] until you pry the last cleaning rag from her cold, dead hands, she’s made that clear enough” (111). It is also found that there is a discrepancy of who got what jobs. When Barbara lived in Florida she stated that “most, but by no means all, of the working housekeepers I see on my job searched are African Americans, Spanish-speaking, or refugees from the Central European post-Communist world, while servers are almost invariably white and monolingually English-speaking”( Ehrenreich 29). People who worked with Barbara in Florida seemed to be separated by ethnicity, thus limiting their ability to find success. In other words, people are not given the equal opportunities to succeed as stated in the ideal of the American Dream. Even if they work hard, the racial barriers inhibit some to find success. In Minnesota, even Barbara was not able to succeed; the poor wages at Wal-Mart along with the inability to find reasonably priced housing created a dilemma. Even though Barbara …show more content…
Shortly after the time that Nickel and Dimed was published, “[t]he Economic Policy Institute recently reviewed dozens of studies of what constitutes a “living wage” and came up with the average figure of $30,000 a year… which amount to a wage of $14 an hour… [However] the majority of American workers, about 60 percent, earn less than $14 an hour” (qtd. in Ehrenreich 213). It is difficult to simply survive for most Americans, not to mention succeed. To add insult to injury, there is seemingly a barrier between the upper and lower classes. This includes minimal interactions, so the chances of finding success are greatly decreased. Americans believe that if someone holds an occupational position, then they should be able to survive and thrive, however as evident in this book, one can work hard and maintain a job and still not be able to do so. However, it must be stated that America today is not the same as the book to some degree. It is possible that it may be worse. During the book, Barbara was never short of finding a job. However, after the economic downfall of 2008, jobs seemed to be vanishing. There were not enough jobs for a larger, more competitive population, making the possibility to attain success even more of a distant goal. There is still a racial barrier for Americans, even though they so adamantly try to convince others that there is not. All in all, America today is