An Analysis Of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

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Nickel and Dimed
In the book Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich disguised herself as a minimum wage worker, and also lived as one to determine what it is like to live that way. While working as a waitress she met Gail an unsuspecting coworker of Ehrenreich, who actually is living off a minimum wage salary. Even though living off minimum wage is difficult, Barbara Ehrenreich did not have it as difficult as Gail because Ehrenreich could have gone back to her luxurious life anytime she pleased while Gail would have to continue her way of living, and Ehrenreich also had multiple amenities such as the one thousand dollars she had been saving and her hotel room. As stated on page 2 by Ehrenreich “The last time anyone had urged me to forsake my normal life for a run-of-the mill low payed job was in the seventies.” (Ehrenreich.2) …show more content…

Gail on the other hand is a middle aged woman as stated on page 20 “ … looks 50 age wise…” (Ehrenreich.20) had to pick up a job because her boyfriend had recently been murdered in a prison scuffle as stated on page 16 “ … the reason she is tired today is that she woke up in a cold sweat thinking about her boyfriend who was killed a few months ago in a scuffle in upstate prison.” (Ehrenreich.16) Gail’s current living situation “And after he was gone she spent several months living in her truck, peeing in a plastic bottle and reading by candlelight at night.” (Erhrenreich.17) was indubitably sub-par, and unlike Ehrenreich she has not life to return

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