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Summary Of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed

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In the book of Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich presents to readers an overall perspective on how the unskilled women to be forced to join the labor market after the American welfare reform on 1998. Interestingly, this presentation is actually based on Ehrenreich’s practical experiences. She participates into the lifestyle of the poor in the low-wage labor market in order to experiences and researches that living style as an “undercover journalist”. Moreover, Ehrenreich wants to find an answer for the question if she could survive and maintain her living with low wage just like the way “four million women about to be booted into the labor market by welfare reform going to make it on $6 or$7 an hour” (Nickel and Dimed, pg.1). In fact, three …show more content…

To support her experiment, Ehrenreich builds credibility to readers, especially the low-wage workers. Ehrenreich tells that she has a Ph.D. in biology and has a wide knowledge and experience on writing about the issue of poverty, particularly the poor working class. Moreover, she also mentions that her family’s members are also in the working class; “my husband and companion of seventeen years was a $4.50-an-hour ware-house worker” and “my father had been a copper miner” (Nickel and Dimed, pg.2). By giving such information, Ehrenreich successfully prove her knowledge on the subject she is writing about. Moreover, on chapter three, she mentions that there is a woman who also interests in what she is doing; this particular information encourages audiences to believe that whatever Ehrenreich is talking about, it does happens in real life. “Who, in real life, plops herself down in a totally strange environment – without housing, family connections, or job – and attempts to become a viable resident? Well, it turns on that my friend’s aunt did exactly that in the early nineties: got on a Greyhound bus in New York, with two children in tow, disembarking in the utterly strange state of Florida.” Besides, throughout the book, she indicates many notes, facts and citations at the bottom of the page to support her points, which also create the credibility of the

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