Nickle_and_Dimed_Book_Review

Barbara Ehrenreich's, “Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America”, is a book that strives to change the way Americans perceive the working lower class. Integrated into the book is a journal of the time spent by the author, with her true identity concealed from others, working in order to discovery whether she could maintain a basic life style working minimum wage jobs. She soon realizes that this is not such a simple task. This mere experiment Ehrenreich conducted brought to light the struggles that is a detriment to many other people, such as stress in the work place, lack of funding for basic living items, and not only physical but mental exhaustion as well. In this book , the author uses clear and vivid descriptions from her personal journal to place mental pictures in the readers minds. Moreover, at the bottom of some of the page are facts that pertain to what she is writing about, it adds more information and credibility to the book. Ehrenreich not only explains her living conditions working minimum wage jobs but also the those of her coworkers. Thus reader is once again reminded that this isn’t just a book, it's real life. The readers will often see that she tells subtle jokes which are often masked with sadness and reality. The subject of the working lower class trying to make ends meet hits close to home for me, literally. A few times throughout Ehrenreich's experiment she has been employed as a waitress in a small “hole in the wall” restaurant, my mother currently works as a waitress at a restaurant similar to that. Every financial problem that occurred during the author's experiment, I already have. Every complaint that the author has had about costumers not tipping as they should, or complaints about the aches and pains, I have already heard. All the descriptions the author gave about taking the same sandwich to work everyday, I have already had to pack. However, this book has made me come to the realization that there are people even worse off, living in hotels or in the back of their cars. I believe that this book completely achieved it's goal of bringing attention and informing Americans about the working lives of lower class people. At this day in age, people know that things are difficult, however, I do not believe they stop and think about what it's like for people at the other end of the spectrum. There are people that live out of their cars and can't afford food, their poor living situations are not always due to laziness contrary to popular belief. This book makes Americans think twice about their own lives as well and how fortunate they are. I believe this is a splendid novel and would unquestionably recommend it to people as a real wake up call. The theme of this novel is about lower class working people trying to maintain a basic lifestyle. The author uses many types of descriptions although she usually stays with slight and explaining what she saw. The book is in chronological order according to when it happened during her life. Lastly, the argument is it's extremely difficult to live a basic life when working a job that only pays minimum wage. The author's opinion is that it is virtually impossible to live a basic life when working at a job that pays only minimum wage, and I agree with her. The coworkers that the author encounters at her jobs do not leave a basic life, they are living out of their cars, or in motels, or in trailer parks. Moreover, most of them have trouble paying for basic essential items such as food, shelter, and clothing. Now one might think that the simple solution would be to work two jobs instead of one, but the author attempted to do that. What she came to realize that with working multiple jobs came more stress and more exhaustion. Yet, unlike her coworkers and real lower class people, the author had the leisure of dipping into her “emergency money” whenever it was necessary, such as to put a deposit on an apartment. I do not agree with her doing that, it's not realistic, however, I still find her experiment valid and intriguing.