Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed

Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed

In the novel Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehnreich, there are many hurtles she must overcome to experience the life of a low income worker. She sets some ground rules for herself, such as always having a car, and starting out with a certain amount of money for her down payment on an apartment. Although the rules are doable, she admits that she broke all of the rules at least once. Even though Barbara didn't hold to her original plan, she was still able to reveal her appeals clearly.

Barbara has many examples of the three appeals in the first chapter alone. Pathos, aimed at the readers feelings. Ethos, aimed at the reader to trust her because of her experiences. Logos, aimed at the readers intellect. These three ideas are quit easy to pick out, and give a little more weight to the story, and they make the book more enjoyable for the reader. It is easier to find the pathos rather than ethos, and logos because you usually tend to look for something in a book to connect yourself with the writer. Ehrenreich's idea to persuade the reader is to connect with them on a personal level, or even just let them in on her character's feelings, and ideas just enough to feel for her. This technique works well, because it actually gets the attention of the reader and holds it.

Ehrenreich gets a job as a waitress and one of the first times she uses pathos is when she explains what she had to go through to get the job. "…if you want to stack Cheerios boxes or vacuum hotel rooms in chemically fascist America, you have to be willing to squat down and pee in front of a health worker(who has no doubt had to do the same thing herself.)(Barbara Ehrenreich, 14) In this appeal Ehrenreich is stating that all lo...

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... of what it's like to work in the low wage work force. Readers can understand from that statement that a lot of the population is low paid, and is struggling. This in a way could be an appeal of pathos also because your getting a fact, but it is a sad fact that you might feel for those people who have to work these kinds of jobs.

The biggest appeal that Ehrenreich makes is after she ends up walking out of the housekeeping job/waitress job because she cannot handle it anymore." I have failed… I don't cry, but I am in a position to realize, for the first time in many years, that the tear ducts are still there and still capable of doing their job." (Ehrenreich, 48) This is the biggest appeal because Ehrenreich is quitting on the whole project. She is basically telling the readers that it is impossible for her, a "well-off", woman to live the life of a low wage worker.