Serving in Florida

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In “Serving in Florida” by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author discusses the living condition in a lower class society. Ehrenreich described her experiences as a waiter and housekeepers. Throughout the article she vividly expressed her thought and her situation by using tone, voice, word choice and imagery to show the struggles that she went through while trying to live on minimum wage. At the beginning of story, she describes how difficult it was to find balance between two jobs. Although the author quit one of her jobbed, she was very quickly to start looking for another job at Jerry’s. When she was on her shift, one of the employees states “Well, it’s good to see you again,” (269) and “Hardly anyone comes back after the first day.” (269). Although, her coworker talks to her in sarcastic way, we can see from the quote that the author use tone vividly expressed her feeling and she felt proud and powerful. However, in my opinion this quote is going to be elaborating another plot as the story continues. As the story progresses, Ehrenreich was able to meet two people at Jerry’s that became very close to her, Gail who was a waitress and she lived in her van. She also formed a very good friendship with a young man named George; he was the dishwasher at Jerry’s. George was from the Czech Republic and as story goes further, he was convicted of stealing and the truth was never discovered. As text states “I wish I could say I stood up to Vic and insisted that George be given a translate and allowed to defend himself…” (275). I felt the author believed that George did not stole anything from the dry storage room, but on other side, she does not have the courage to tell her manager; she is afraid that she might get fired. Therefore, she kee... ... middle of paper ... ...e persuasive and understandable. The most important lesson I learned in this article was to appreciate those people who provide services to us. They are work at poor conditions and are forced to work as a nonstop machine to fight for their daily living. According to work perspective, for majority of the time we do not stand out for others despite their innocence, “So why didn’t I intervene”? (275). we would just remain silent in order to keep our jobs. In this essay, Ehrenreich recounts how she felt guilty for not standing up for George when he was accused of stealing goods. This feeling of inability is common in low-income people, not well-educated workers limits their opportunities to find better jobs. Work Cited Ehrenreich, Barbara. “Serving in Florida.” Rereading America. 9 th edition. Ed. Gary Colombo. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2013. Print. (267-280)

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