Nickel and Dimed

What is poverty? Poverty is the state of being extremely poor. Each year the rate of poverty increases. Meaning lots of people are struggling or in the border of survival. It’s not always easy to live under these conditions. The author of Nickel & Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich an undercover journalist, sets out to investigate the impact of the 1996 welfare reform act on the working poor in the United States. Why does poverty exist? Well there are many reasons, in a movie called Norma Rae the main…

In an attempt to expose the poverty and limited opportunities of poorer class citizens in the American economy, Ehrenreich utilizes personalized anecdotes to demonstrate the workers’ struggles. By discussing her temporary experience in the workforce, Ehrenreich provides compelling examples of her social experiment to promote awareness of the lower class situation. Specifically, Ehrenreich attempts to convince the reader that it is more difficult for a person to exhume themselves from poverty…

Tamara: Good morning, this is Tamara Benson, host of Book Talk. On today’s show, I’m interviewing Alex Quentin, the author of the new book Unlucky Penny. Alex, could you tell us a little bit about the book? Alex: Thanks for having me on the show. To put it simply, Unlucky Penny is my attempt to convince the United States government to get rid of the penny. Tamara: That certainly seems like quite the undertaking! What inspired you to write this book? Alex: When I was young, I used to collect…

In Nickel and Dimed Ehrenreich is going into different areas of the country to see if she can survive by being a low waged worker. A low-wage job is where you struggle to live off the money you make. Ehrenreich is doing this experiment because she is a journalist and is wanting to see what type of lifestyle workers have that are making minimum wage. While Ehrenreich limits may be unfair, her rules are fair because they lead her into living a low-wage worker’s lifestyle. Ehrenreich points out…

wanted to see what it would be like and experience the hardship that they go through. Barbara discusses the difficulty of living in the lower class with the use of her first point of view/ honesty and her use of figurative language. In the novel, “Nickel and Dimed”, Barbara Ehrenreich uses a sarcastic, dramatic tone to support her argument that people who live in the lower class have a difficult time getting by with the present American economy. Barbara’s argument that people who…

In her non-fiction, ethnographic book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, Barbara Ehrenreich journeys to find out if single mothers who depend wholly on the income from their low-income jobs can survive financially. To answer this question, Ehrenreich adopts several anthropological tactics as she does her fieldwork in three cities: Key West, Florida, Portland, Maine, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Throughout the book, Ehrenreich can be seen as a participant observer because she…

Another social factor that is impacting many individuals around the world and characters in Nickel and Dimed is food insecurity. According to the article, “Annually, 39 million persons experience food insecurity, Food insecurity is defined as having limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or ability to acquire foods in a acceptable way” (pg 71). This quote exhibits that large number of people face food instability meaning that they don’t have or have enough…

Although Barbara Ehrenreich does not directly state her purpose, she wrote the excerpt “Serving in Florida” to share an experience she had and explain how it is relevant to her readers. The author writes to raise awareness about the economic issues that many American families face as part of the “working poor” socioeconomic class. This article was intended for an audience of educated, financially stable readers with the time and money to buy and read books. Ehrenreich’s story is about how she…

One of the most debatable topics that is challenged today is the issue of healthcare. Although the United States has been trying to provide healthcare for all, the United States fails to supply all of its citizens for insurable healthcare compared to other countries. Compared to the illusion of majority citizens having health insurance, in reality 43% of low income Americans went without medical care due to cost, compared to the range of 8% in Britain and 31% in Switzerland in 2016 (Fox). Today,…

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…