"Nickle and Dimed" By Barbara Ehrenreich

Andrea Valle


     The first part of "Nickle and Dimed" , Barbara Ehrenreich, a writer, is playing the role as a white and native English speaker. She defines it very well in this book that these are the types of basic advantages people need in order to get a job. Most disadvantages such as your ethnicity and education are sometimes often ignored but what they take in consideration are the skills. Barbara Ehrenreich blended in the society and decided to write about how people live and manage the low-wage life. In order for her to blend in she had to change her way of living, that includes economically, and her vocabulary. Her first destination was Florida, there she had to start from the bottom and beginning to apply for jobs. Barbara had to keep in mind that the money she was willing to spend and to be kept in balance and had to keep options open or closed. The location where she was going to live had to be based on the money because she was not willing to over exceed of what was in her normal budget. As for starters she looked for jobs in the newspaper and was thinking which would be the best choice to make. In the past some of her job experiences were defining her choices due to the hard work that left her in pain. Filling out job applications was the next step and then there were the interviews which consisted of drug testing and lots of question of what would you do if...Barbara Ehrenreich got her first two jobs at "Hearthside" and "Jerry's", her rules were to prevent anyone from knowing her true identity and to not to get attached to anyone.Her job consisted of staying in discipline and following all orders. She got to know lots of people of all ethnicity and what was their story in staying in the job their at. The jobs at "Hearthside" and "Jerry's" had a low pay and the managers were unfair and mean. It wasn't easy for her to have two jobs because of time, she had to change clothing and limiting herself from getting into any trouble. She observed that many were happy and frustrated with the job they had because the pay wasn't enough, or they just needed money to at least make a living.


     The authors purpose in "Nickle and Dimed" was how certain people manage to live the low wage life without help. If they are not "white" and don't speak "English" they are not helped and are required to in order to fit in they have to earn their way up by working hard no matter what.