In the distressing novel, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich travels undercover exploring the life of low income workers striving to live. Living and seeing firs-thand the lives of these poverty-restricted workers in society. Barbara travels to three different states taking the cheapest living arrangements, accepts jobs such as; hotel maid, nursing home-aid, waitress, house cleaner, and finally Wal-Mart sales associate. In her book she presented the reader with the premise that she would disconnect herself from her upper middle class life and join the “world of the low-wage worker” as she describes. Barbara has a means of transportation for affordable housing, pride or courage to stand up for herself, and the ability to eat well, while these privileges were apparently not available to her co-workers. Before beginning her journey across the country Barbara sets few reassuring limits, one including her car. This gives her the capability of having a mean of transportation, “I would always have a car.” (Ehrenreich, 5) First arriving in Florida, finding a job …show more content…
Pete himself is a cook she has to stay cordial with to make her job easier. She states, “A dietary aid, as I understand the job, is as dependent on a cook as a waitress is. He or she can either make life relatively easy for a server or, if so disposed, set her up for serious fall.” (Ehrenreich, 64) The workplace is not the only obstacle standing in the way of her co-workers ability to stand up for themselves; Holly a pregnant co-worker at “The Maids” is forced to continue to work by her significant other. He forces her to continue to work, while she hides her pregnancy from her boss Ted for fear of losing her job, or hours, neither of which she can afford. Barbara’s co-workers face a double-edged sword between not being able to speak up for themselves at work, and the pressures from home