Nickel and Dimed discussion

This is a place where my students can voice their opinions of Ehrenreich's book.

This is such an awesome idea! I am not one of your students but I read this book for one of my Sociology classes. I thought it was a great study. I thought it was well written and even enjoyable.

Millions of Americans work full-time, year- round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6-$7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved to Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; youneed to least two if you intend to live indoors. This book is not a fair assessmetn at all, for she only lives in one place for about a month or so. If one wanted to really know what it is like, one would have to stayi in city and work the same job for a long period of time. Barbara had a stash of cash in her bank account that she could use if she ever needed it; therefore this isnt a true life scenario at all.

I dont think this book is a fair assessment of what life would be like living off of minimum wage. I feel that Barbara Ehrenreich is very oppionated and chose certain cities that purposly had very low vacany rates and very high rent. Barbara feels that she did a good job yet she only lived in each place for a certain amount of time. People who live off of minimum wage do it for life not for a month so she doesnt know the full effect of stuggling.

My review of Barb's investigation is she did get by in America but I don't think it was fair. When the investigation starts off Barb is very picky on which job she chooses. This is not fair because people in this real life situation cannot be picky, when they get offered a job they take it because it might be awhile before these people get another offer. Also in the novel Barb says she will not go a day without food even if she has to cheat a little and use her credit card, I also think this is not fair because some people in a low income situation do have to go a day without food. Readers should know the investigation is kind of boring in a sense, I think the book should have been written on someone who is actually struggling and going through trying to get by in America. Barb being middle class, you can tell she isn’t really getting a full experience.

In this book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America, The main character Barbara Ehrenreich sets off on her journey to see if a person can make a living by working minimum wage jobs. Ehrenreich visits different locations such as Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. While in these places she works at places as a waitress, house-keeper, and sales associate. Before reading this book people should realize that this woman is very critical and closed minded, she is trying to prove that you can't get by instead of trying her best to get by. She chooses the most expensive places to live and she is very picky about what job she wants. I think although I did not like this book, I did feel it was a fair assessment. This book was a somewhat easy book to read for me just because I would get frustrated with how she would say things and I would keep reading just to see what else she would say or do to make me mad.

While reading this book, Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, I noticed a few things that I believe she did wrong. She didn’t do any research on where she was going to move, which includes Florida, Maine and Minnesota. I think that if she was smarter about her approach to this assignment she would have tried living in three different social class areas, such as a high-class city, a middle-class and also a lower class city. I had a hard time reading this book because she complains quite a bit and doesn’t try to look at the positives of anything good that comes her way. Barbara in my opinion gave herself too much money for extra expenses, and emergencies, she would not have that much in savings if she was actually lower class. She didn’t give the experience a chance I feel she went into this journey with an idea and she would do anything to make her idea true. The last problem I have is that she didn’t give herself enough time to fully understand what living on minimum wage means, she could have spent more time, and actually learn to survive.

With Enrenreichs investigation she had a good intent but she with it all the wrong way. I understand that she did try and kind of live poor. But she went into this whole thing with a bad attitude. Right away she said she won’t go without eating or a car or this or that. Many people go weeks without eating and may never get a car and sometimes no home. She knew in this investigation that within a few months she would be going back to the privilege lifestyle I think someone should have thrown her into a place and let her go and don’t tell her when she is going back to her life. The whole time she complained about these jobs she did and I would too, I do complain about my job all the time I hate it and I know it but I have to do it. She complains about cleaning someone’s toilet well that’s your job and it is gross but you signed up for it. When she work in the nursing home she had the time when everyone was gone and machines weren’t working that happens to people all the time In every job you just work with what you have. I didn’t like this book it had a good concept kind of but she just look at everything negative. Every once in a while something nice has to happen.

I do not believe Ehrenreich made a good investigation on how people live on low wage jobs. It just isn’t fair because the whole time she is working those jobs she knew she was going back to the rich lifestyle. I believe he could have picked different cities to show the different economies. Ehrenreich chose Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. The economy systems there seem to be all the same. Where if he would have chosen somewhere like California it would have shown a more expensive economy instead of just normal. The jobs he chose were an okay representation of what jobs someone without a college degree could have received. He chose Wal-Mart, being a waitress, a nursing home, and being a maid. I think he could have chosen a few better jobs than a maid and working in a nursing home. A more common job would have been working in a fast food place. I don’t recommend this book to others. Nickel and dimed does not do a good job assessing what it’s like to make a living with a minimum wage job.

I think that this book is not a fair assessment. She only lives at each place for a month or so. She doesn’t get to experience it for enough time because she starts off with $1000 or so, and I think that’s what she lives off of most of the month. Also she works at places like waitresses at restaurants, or a nursing home, and I think she would get more money if she worked for a bigger store. She also doesn’t work at these places long enough to get raises or anything like that. Also the places she decides to live at are no the best. First she lives in Key West, FL which is pretty expensive, then she lives in Portland, Maine at a Motel 6 for most of the time which is also expensive. I think that the readers should know that she has a lot of money and she thinks she can just go out and do some “research” and write about it. Also they should know that she can drop everything and go back to her normal life whenever she wants.

In "Nickel and Dimed", the author makes it sound like no one could get by living off minimum wage. However, I believe the author does not bring justice to the situation. Millions of Americans every day survive off minimum wage. Sure they don't live in luxury, but it doesn't mean they can't survive and be have a happy life. The book is not a fair assesment. Also, she went from living in luxury, to living the lesser life style. Therefore, of coarse she's going to have a negative and biased opinion. People who are born into the lesser life style, I believe, are most able to cope better with the consequences that a low-income job bring. It's all they've ever known. In the story, she works at a restaurant, in a hotel, as a house keeper, as a dietary aide in a nursing home, and as a sales associate at a Wal-Mart. She works in many different cities and states, including Key West, Florida, Portland, Maine, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Readers should know that her views are biased, and many people in America get by, living off minimum wage.

Reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, I completely disagree with her beliefs on getting by in America. There are a few things she should have done to prove her belief about not being able to make it in America with a minimum wage job. The places she went were Florida, Main and Minnesota. She didn’t do any research about these states. I didn’t enjoy this book because throughout the whole book she complained about everything she did. She was never positive about things and it got annoying to read when all she does was complain. I feel like she went into this experience with an idea of how it would be and she would find any way possible to make what she believed true. Another thing I didn’t understand was that if she really wanted to get the “experience” that you can’t make it with these jobs why didn’t she stay in them longer. It would have made much more sense if she would have done so.

In the chapter I read “Serving in Florida”, Barbara lives in a trailer park and works as a waitress. One of the places she works at is Hearthside, and she works as a waitress. She is paying $500/month to live in her trailer. The job at hearthside she is being paid $2.43/hour plus tips she earns while waitressing, so you can make it in America on the kind of pay she gets. Most of the time she is complaining how she has a minimum wage job, when she has a PHD, which I don’t get why she is doing that, when she could start her own business. She moves around, because she changes jobs, she went from waitressing to working at Wal-Mart, so she had to move from Florida to Minnesota just to work somewhere else, which makes no sense, because she could of got a Wal-Mart job in Florida. That is what I think about Nickel and Dimed.

I didn't like this book. Ehrenreich at the beginning was cocky about doing this. She didn’t want to do it in the first place, so I think because she had a bad attitude about it, it didn’t work out very well. I feel like her assessment of not getting by in America wasn't fair. I feel this because she knew going into it that she would be able to go back to her money and her job. I don’t think she should have done just a month. I also don’t think she put enough effort into working, she only gave the job a month and that’s not enough time to see if you can make it. The life that she made for herself wasn’t normal. She was living in houses that, if somebody was really trying to get by in America, they wouldn’t have chosen that house.

With the book Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich, starts out her adventure in Key West, Florida where she is a waitress. She believed that it was a cheap city to live in, which she was wrong for thinking such a thing since the city was such a tourist attraction. Barbara never chose mediocre/ middle class cities. After going to Florida she made her way to Portland, Maine where she worked as a maid and at a nursing home for weekends. Also another high end city she went to was Minneapolis, Minnesota taking a job at Wal-Mart. I don’t think it was fair to readers that she came in to the experience with the opinion already imbedded in her head that It was impossible to make it by with a minimum wage job. There are six things that the reader should know before reading the book: Barbara goes into the experience with rules for herself, she will always have a car, she won’t go homeless not matter what, she won’t tell her employer about her high level of education, must find the cheapest housing but must be safe, has to take the highest paid job she is offered, and lastly Barbara won’t allow herself to go hungry.

"Nickel and Dimed" written by Barbara Enrenreich is a story on not getting by with a minimum wage job in America. Readers should know that Barb will be going back to her well paying job, home ad cars. She has a PhD. She is just doing this as an experiment. I do not think this is a fair assessment. She knows she will soon be back making money. She has spare money she can use in case of an emergency. If you really were making a living on minimum wage you would only have the money you were making. Barb starts off in Key West, Florida. She rents a trailer to live in and finds a job at a hometown dinner restaurant called Hearthside. The money she is making is not enough for rent so she has to get a second job as a hotel cleaner. She needs these two jobs to pay rent. The second place she decides to live is Portland, Maine. She is a maid for a house cleaning service. She also gets a second job at a nursing home. The third place she lives is in Minnesota and she works at Walmart in the juniors section.

Back in 2000 Mrs. Ehrenreich worte a book about the struggles of surviving in America with only the income of a minimum wage job. Her investigation spanned three years and many miels across the country. First she was a waiterss in Key West, Florida, next a maid in Portland, Maine and finally Barb was a retail associate at a minneapolis Wal mart. While I do not believe that the book is a fair assessment of the situation of all low income worker's in America, I do think that it brings up some intersting points about how there can be impovements in programs desigend to help the working poor and the growing gap between the minimum wage and cost of lving. Now the reasons why I don't fell this book is an accurate depiction of the predicament of the working poor are also related to what I feel other shouold know before reading this book. First she only work's these jobs for one month out of an entire year. Second she even admits to breaking her own rules at one point or another during this investingation.

Barbara Ehrenreich wrote the novel, Nickel and Dimed to describe that people can’t get by on minimum waged jobs. Barbara visted Florida, Minnesota and Maine to try and make a living on minimum wage jobs. Her salary at these jobs were $7 an hour and she found it hard to survive. Barbara worked as a waitress, cleaning lady, in an old folk’s home and at Wal-Mart. Some back ground to know about Barbara is that she didn’t take his experience to the max- she arrived home and life to go back to after 3 months, 3 had $1,500 to start with and if things got too hard she quit. This novel was not a fair assessment, as my opinion, Se didn’t live the life of a minimum wage worker to their fullest and she complained a lot. I think it is possible to get by on a minimum wage job because the wage has increased from $7 and hour to $7.40. A lot of people get a lot of outside help too, so that does make it easier to survive.

I do not think that the book is a fair assessment of how minimum wage living really works. If Barbera Ehrenreich really lived the minimum wage life she would have taken and applied for different types of jobs. If Barbera really needed the money in chapter 3 Selling in Minnesota, when she had to pick out of Wal-Mart who is going to pay her $7 to $8 per hour and Minards who is going to pay her $10 per hour, she would have picked the job at Minards and who would make more money. Also Barbera wouldhave taken the apartment or room without a kitchenette so then she would have a real place to stay so she wouldn’t have to stay with her friends friends and their bird that she doesn’’t really like. I feel that people should know that there are many different types of jobs before reading this book. This book gives you a controlled way of expressing minimum wage jobs.

I'm not one of your students but this movie is pretty authentic. I worked with the working poor for years and it can be bleaker than what Ehrenreich wrote here.

Bar Enrehreich chooses 3 states to live in throughout the book. Seh chooses Minnesota, Florida and Maine. These are all liberal states and very expensive places to live. For only having a minimum wage paying job. She is a wal-mart salesperson, a hotel maid and a waitress. She chooses really low paying jobs ranging from $6-$8 an hour. I don't believe this is a fair assesment. Barb has a really bad attitude throughout the entire book. She seems to complain a lot and have poor work effort. I feel as if she worked harder as a waitress she could have made more. She also is a drug user which jepordizes her trying to find a job at one pint. She also isn't very smart about where she chooses to live. Maine florida and minnesota are expensive places to live. She also chooses to live by herself. She should have had a roomate to make it cheaper. If she worked harder she could have had a better experience leading to a better outcome.

In Ehrenreich's investigation of getting by in America, I think she didn't truly go all the way into the commitment. She still had that safehold of her money behind her so she chose to be picky about the jobs she wanted and her living standards. I think the book was not benefitting to read, although it was a good example of the real world. She also picked her places as she pleased. It is boviously going to be hard to get a job in Key West and she should've known that. She also chose Maine and Minnesota, which are bigger cities. Someone tryly trying to get along will look for places tha will have jobs and not high living costs. Also the ywould take what they could find, whereas she was picky and whiny the whole book. Beofre reading the book people should know her politcal views and that she set out to prove you couldn't survive on minium wage. I did not enjoy the book at all because she was very biased and seemed rude and disrespectful throughout the whole book, praising herself for her great job when she didn't even put in her full efforts.

I thought the book, ‘Not Getting by in America’ written by Ehrenreich were more of a lesson then an interesting story. We see the situation from her point of view and she already has ideas or biases ideas in her head. It does however get the point across that is very hard to live on minimum wage without getting assistance. She doesn’t even have a family to support. Some workers have kids they have to pay for which is even more difficult. Another thing I don’t really like that she chooses to do is go to some of the most expensive areas. Her first place to live is in Key West which is a tourist destination and everything cost a lot more. Main is a bit pricy too. The jobs she gets are good examples of the jobs people with minimum wage have. She waitresses and cleans for a company which are both tough jobs to have. These are a few things I think you should know before reading this book.

I thought that she had a good idea on trying to get by with a low wage budget, but she could have done alot better executing it. First off, she chooses three very expensive cities to live in. I also think that she could have stayed in each place a little longer than she did. she also needed to try harder for some things in my opinion. the readers should know that this is a pretty boring book, but it has some useful stories and infomation for those who are actually trying to get by in America.

This book is insignificant. Maybe if someone had no real grasp of reality and did not know the struggle of working a minimum wage job and trying to live off those wages, however, altogether the general premise of this book is disinteresting. This book brings to light poor people who are marginalized because they have not earned enough money to get over the poverty line of the USA, and people simply just ignore them and not try and put themselves in their shoes. This book would be a more fair assessment if there were less startup money, and if she had spent her own money that she had earned on food. The liberalness of the book doesn’t really matter because minimum wage is minimum wage no matter what. Overall the assessment is not that bad of an assessment but there were biases, and she should have been more neutral in writing the book than she was. And the writing style was boring and rough to read.(less) Mikael D

Barbara Ehrenreich wrote the novel, Nickel and Dimed to describe that people can’t get by on minimum waged jobs. Barbara visted Florida, Minnesota and Maine to try and make a living on minimum wage jobs. Her salary at these jobs were $7 an hour and she found it hard to survive. Barbara worked as a waitress, cleaning lady, in an old folk’s home and at Wal-Mart. Some back ground to know about Barbara is that she didn’t take his experience to the max- she arrived home and life to go back to after 3 months, 3 had $1,500 to start with and if things got too hard she quit. This novel was not a fair assessment, as my opinion, Se didn’t live the life of a minimum wage worker to their fullest and she complained a lot. I think it is possible to get by on a minimum wage job because the wage has increased from $7 and hour to $7.40. A lot of people get a lot of outside help too, so that does make it easier to survive.

Barbra Ehrenreich's main goal for the investigation is to see if it is possible to get by in America on minimum wage. She starts off in Key West, Florida at a super market called Winn-Dixie working for only $6 and some change an hour. I find her judgement on jobs a bit brutal because she is very choosy of where she works. The object of this investigation is about getting by on minimum wage which, to me, means finding any job you can to get by. Barbra, on the other hand, turns dow jobs such as waitressing because it makes her tires or hotel desk-clerk because that requires standing in one spot for hours a day. She takes up a job as a cleaning lady and, I believe, she judges them as well. Barbra is too judgemental and misses the point of her own investigation. She finds loop holes to "beat the system". In my opinion, I think readers who want to read this book should be open minded before reading this book.

Ehrenreichs investigation I believe was a good idea but not for her. She has money and has never really had to save money before. By this she thinks that it is hard to save money. But if you this investigation with someone who has had to struggle with money i believe that they could do it and would be able to do it easily.When working as a waitress she couldve easily been able to make enough money if she was good to the people she served and worked at a decent resturaunt where the people tipped well.

To me, this book is mostly just a narration of her personal experiences that ends not with a bang, but a whimper, as she leaves Minneapolis. Ehrenreich’s description of her experiences is very journalistic — and works just fine. I feel that it’s when she tries to get into commentary that she tends to come across very stuck up and ungrateful. For example, when she starts describing the plus-size section at Wal-Mart, she refers to the clothes as tent-like and uses a few unflattering remarks to describe the customers. In this book, it describes Ehrenreich’s adventures slumming it in blue collar jobs for most of the time. Along the way, she meets some very hardworking and eye-opening individuals. Throughout the book she seems to become a little more humbled towards the overall outlook, and her opinions seem to change. She started out in Florida, and waitressed in a small town restaurant; next was Portland, Maine, where she worked for a cleaning service; and in Minneapolis, she took a job at Wal-Mart, and her constant struggle to find affordable housing finally broke the experiment. Overall, I would not recommend this book unless you are really trying to look very deep into opinionated, personal experiences. sorry:)

Barb chooses three liberal cities in Key West, Portland, and the suburbs of the Twin Cities. This should help get her benefits from organizations like welfare. During the project she worked as a waitress, maid, and at Wal-Mart. Neither of these jobs got her overwhelming pay or good benefits. Also, these are common jobs that people who aren’t highly educated receive. This wasn’t necessarily a fair assessment because she knew she had money if she needed it. I don’t blame her for having the safety money. The readers have to understand that she’s trying to show that it’s very hard for a single mother to support her family. Not that it’s impossible, but too hard, not the American way. People need to realize what side of the political spectrum each state and city she visits is on, and more importantly they need to realize what side of the spectrum they are on.

I do not think that Ehrenreich did a very good job at making it a fair investigation. I mean she was very picky about the jobs she would do. If you really needed money and were a single mother you would take what you could get. You wouldn’t have the time to be picky; you have to provide for your family. I guess you could say she succeeded in her project because she did live on minimum wage jobs in big cities, some of the most expensive cities in the United States. I think that since she came from having money to just going right into this she had a different aspect on what it would be like. I think that she probably learned a lot from her experience, she realizes how it’s like to live in poverty and how to live her normal life. It’s something that I think a lot of people need to understand how hard it is to get by in the world that we live in.

In the chapter “Serving in Florida”, Narrorator lives in a trailer park and works as a waitress at Jerrys and Hearthside.One of the places she works at is Hearthside, and she works as a waitress. She is paying $500 per month to live in her trailer. The job at hearthside she is being paid $2.43 per hour plus tips she earns while waitressing, so she makes it sound like you can make it in America on the kind of pay she gets but most of the time she is complaining how she has a minimum wage job, which I don’t get why she is doing that, she knew it wasn't going to be easy. Then She trys to attempt two job by working at jerrys too but ends up not being able to do it which I think is unrealistic because she is not in school and anyperson in her spot wouldn't just quit.

Overall, the book Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich was horrible. I did not enjoy reading it and disagree with everything she had to say. Barbara Ehrenreich made getting by in America sound a lot harder than what it really is. From what I remember, Ehrenreich complained throughout the whole book, and never had anything positive to say. She went to three different states; Florida, Maine and Minnesota, planning on showing the world she could not get by. She also only exhibited the jobs that people would expect her to get like working at Wal-Mart, being a waitress/hostess, and being a housekeeper. There are many more jobs out there that she could have gotten with no experience. Ehrenreich could have made a better living out of making minimum wage than what she portrayed. What readers need to know before reading this book is that Barbara Ehrenreich is a rich woman who wants to show the world it is impossible to make it by in America. I recommend not reading this book because it was a waste of class time.

In the novel Nickel and Dimed, Barbra sets out to see if it is possible to live on a minimum wage salary. She works in many different places including: Key West, Florida, Portland, Maine, and Minneapolis Minnesota. In all of these cities, she has a wide verity of jobs. She works at a restaurant, a hotel-maid, a house keeper, a nursing home aid, and at Wal-Mart. She works many different jobs because she has trouble holding on to them. Her goal through all of this is to see what it is like to live with the bare minimum and if it is even possible. Readers should know that she comes from a life of luxury; meaning that the transition from a life of the rich and famous to just down right poor is going to be very difficult. Knowing that about her I believe that this book is not a fair assessment and I do know that it is possible to get by with having little to nothing.

I don't think this book was a fair assesment because i feel like she didn't grasp the whole idea. Ya she went and did her expieriment but i dont think you can have a real understanding unless you are really going through it. Barbra was not she still had her writing job and her house and car and everything so she could pick and choose what she wanted to do even though one of her rules was to not do that she still did. She did a good job as a maid and when she work at the nursing home and at Wal-Mart but she would always complain. If you were someone who really needed a job and having a house and food on the table was a problom you would not be picky about anything you would take what you could get because somthing is always better than nothing.If someone really wants to know the real perspective of a middle class person who is struggleing in america they should pick a better person to do so. Someone who is really going through the struggles.

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I think Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed is an accurate representation of what working a minimum wage job is actually like. I found that the people Ehrenreich met and worked with were real people, with real stories. When the author worked at the hearthside in Florida, a lot of the people there had trouble finding a place to live. One of the workers named Gail, actually lived out of her truck. I feel especially bad about this person because her boyfriend was killed while he was serving in jail, so she had nowhere to go. When you read this book keep in mind that it is an experiment for her. Although she is working these minimum wage jobs, she still has her money and education at the end. She does not know what it truly feels like to be just getting by. You can learn more about what it’s like from the people she works with, a lot of them open up to her.

I feel like Barbra Ehrenreich’s investigation was highly biased. Before even going into this whole project she had given herself a false sense of what work it would entail. She mentioned several times throughout the book of how educated she was. It felt like she was up on a pedal stool while everyone else was beneath her. She just seemed very pretentious to me. She spent a month in three different states; Florida, Minnesota, and Maine. She worked various minimum wage jobs such as a waitress, maid, and worker at Wal-Mart. Overall reading this book was just a rather tedious experience. She seemed to be repeating the same the thing over and over again. It was pretty annoying have to read her complaints. I would not recommend reading this book.

Did someone send out a script for responses to this book? Many read like copy and paste jobs, the same words and ideas appearing over and over. She shouldn't have gone to these places where it is hard to live on minimum wage. She should have gone to places where it is easy, so that then she could proven to the world that no one in America has any problems.
She shouldn't have been a phd, shouldn't have complained about having a sore back from vacuuming, of not having enough money after working a long tiring day, shouldn't be telling people these things.

I read the book a long time ago and compared it to Orwell's Down and Out in London And Paris. What she did has a precedent and the way she did it was reported honestly, as I remember. I'd agree that you get a much better view of this life from the people who really live it and she tried to put a lot of that into the book, but she didn't just make this a dry opiece of academic research. She got in there and got her hands dirty. For me, that earns respect.

Bob wrote: "Did someone send out a script for responses to this book? Many read like copy and paste jobs, the same words and ideas appearing over and over. She shouldn't have gone to these places where it is h..."

Bob, reading the comments and then reading yours I totally agree with you. She was trying to show how difficult it would be to live on minimum wage and IMO succeeded. She didn't try to hide (in her book) that she had extra money or was well educated. Her purpose was to see if you could survive working a minimum wage job and she concluded that it was very difficult. I am suspicious of those who are using $7 as to what she was paid. The book was written in 1998 and the minimum wage was $5.15 which would make
a weekly check of $206 and a yearly earnings of 12,712. I also think she respected the people she worked with and told their stories. That was the purpose of the book.

Another point, why would you consider the book to be socialist propaganda? I don't understand that.

I hope each member of this group of young people commenting on this book will find some job or some project that will bring them into closer contact with the poor, somewhat as Ms. Ehrenreich did. I suspect they may not have lots of experience at maintaining a budget and creating desirable living conditions while working very hard, but obtaining small wages.

This book becomes more relevant with every passing day.


Shelley
Rain: A Dust Bowl Story
http://dustbowlpoetry.wordpress.com

I have worked for minimum wage. I have read this book. I think most of the commenters read like high school students writing answers to the same 3 questions over and over. They seem to miss the point of the book. (which isnt a "novel" and she isnt a "character")
The author does a decent job of going where folks are trying to survive as working poor. She tells their stories in a way in which upper class educated folks can hear how it is a struggle to get by. She decribes how the system is set up to prevent success. I thought it was quite interesting.

I think this book is a very accurate portrayal of being a low wage worker in this country. My experiences were very similar to Ehrenreich's book. It shouldn't matter where she went in the US because living poor in one state or another is always a struggle.

I am relieved that some of you who posted at the end of this did so... I've been following this thread because I saw the title and was curious what young people today would think of this very moving book. I agree - it seems these young individuals are so far removed from everything the author wrote about. Boring? You think people starving because they can't afford food even though they work 50 hours a week is boring...? Hopefully the teacher is monitoring this and filling in the blanks because it seems that many of the students did not understand the point of the book.

What an odd thread. Good for Ms. Zemanek for using this site to deepen students' reading experiences and to help them learn to express and defend their opinions. It was curious, though, as Bob observed, that these opinions are so similar that they appear scripted. I agree with Shelley that the book is more relevant today than ever. I'm not sure that the students understood the genre particularly or what Ehrenreich's goal was. I wish more of them came away from the book with a greater appreciation and understanding of poverty and women. How about it, Ms. Zemanek? Will you just grade papers & be done with it, or do you have something else in mind? Like I say. . .a curious thread!

I noticed a lot of comments about the locations being expensive places to live. I think something to ask is - who do you think the people working these type jobs in these expensive locales are? They certainly aren't the well-heeled residents who expect the services these low paying jobs are there to provide.

First of all, to all the non-students responding to this discussion. This was a homework assignment, we had to answer the same three questions. Second, why would you wish that we have to go through a struggle. Just because you had to, and your life didn't lead to the large paying jobs doesn't mean you should wish that upon someone else. That's very immature and just as childish as some of the reviews you declared to be. Third, to say that my classmates and I don't care about people in the world that are starving is so far off. Just because we didn't enjoy this piece of literature has no connection to how we feel about the poor people outside of the book.

The cities and jobs she works in them consist of; Key West, Florida where Barb finds a job at a hometown dinner restaurant called Hearthside. But then she gets a second job as a hotel cleaner. The second place she decides to live is Portland, Maine. She is a maid for a house cleaning service. She also gets a second job at a nursing home. The third place she lives is in Minnesota and she works at Walmart in the juniors section. I find that this book could have been a fair assessment if Barb would have really tried to live the life of a poor individual. Barb i believe relied on the fact that she had her old life to go back to and never got into the lifestyle. It was a great idea but i just feel like the execution was poor. Readers should know that its a book and shes trying to make money. if you would really want a true perspective of it is to "rough it" go out in the world and find a person that has done it your whole life. This was an average book that could have been done by anyone.

Nick - Thank you for sharing your insight and passion. I think that is what was missing from the initial postings... It is great to see some "feeling".

I read this a couple years ago and I am NOT a student of the person who started this thread. I think this book had good intent. the writer who has a successful career has to try and make it on her own on minimum wage {or around that} she tries in different states. she may have had the chance to see what it may be like for People who really are trying get by. but she never had to go hungry since she had a credit card to fall back on. it might have given more sympathy to the people out there who are really living this life.who have kids to support and wonder if they will have enough to eat.some of us really DO know what it is like to lay awake and worry about how to make ends meet. it may mean more to read books from people who really have struggled and it does not go away in a year.

Unfortunately, most of the people whose stories this author tries to bring us some empathy towards do not have the time or resources to write and get published the stories that would tell their lives in their own ways. Probably there are journalists who have attempted to do so, somewhat as Rebecca Skloot attempted in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks , also with debatable success.

I am truly discouraged by the chutzpah exhibited in many of the remarks of these students. I hope my feelings are as misplaced as Nick claims. Also, that their teacher is clarifying the meanings typically associated with the term "literature" and the conditions under which it would be appropriate to apply it to Nickel and Dimed" Likewise, "socialist" and "propaganda."