The book Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is a book about a woman in poverty looking for a way to get by in her daily life. She lives in Florida and begins her long journey there. When she leaves Florida she then heads up to Maine, where everyone speaks English. Then her third and final stop is too Minnesota where she becomes a Wal-Mart employee. Overall I was impressed with the book. It offered a lot more information than I thought I would about living life in poverty.
In Florida Ehrenreich learns valuable lessons. She gets a job in Key West at a restaurant called Heartside. Here she is making a little over two dollars an hour plus tips. She comes to realize that managers do nothing other than sit around and watch them do their tasks. The other problem, in addition to the less-than-nurturing management style, is that this job shows no sign of being financially viable. (25) This money is not enough to support her to get an apartment so she is forced to stay in a hotel which eventually cost more. She is then forced to get a second job at Jerrys in order to make due. Ehrenreich then has to quit one of the two, so she quit Heartside to work only at Jerrys because she was making more money there. She tries to pick up a hotel room keeping job but only lasted a day and then got yelled at by Joy at Jerrys and decided to pack up and leave. I think she shouldnt have just left Florida without saying anything. She should have given herself more time to think it through.
After leaving Florida she headed to Maine. She chose Maine because the population was primarily white, everyone spoke English, and the Portland area employment base seemed anxious for new bodies. I chose Maine for its whiteness. (51) She found a cottage for one hundred and twenty a week and now needed a job. Ehrenreich is offered two positions, a weekend dietary aide position at a nursing home for $7 an hour and a 40 hour per week maid position at $6.65 per hour. A maid gets hurt at her maid job and she tried to get other maids to quit. When that doesnt work she earns a day off. I believe she is hurting herself in the long run with these jobs and lack of rest. Its causing too much stress on her.
She then packed up and left for Minnesota. Here she decided she wanted to do something other than waitressing, nursing, or being a maid. She decided to do retail or factory work. She ends up getting a job with Wal-Mart at the fixed rate of seven dollars an hour. After time, she begins to ask other employees how they live off seven an hour. One lady replied, she is making seven dollars and seventy-five cents after two years of working there. Underneath those vests, though, there are real-life charity cases, maybe even shelter dwellers. (175) Ehrenreich strives to raise the standards there at Wal-Mart. Almost everyone is eager to talk to her and she becomes a walking repository of complaints. I think she is doing the right thing standing up for the employees, but with a company like Wal-Mart it would be hard to get your way in the end.
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