During the process of researching lower-class life and conditions for her book Nickel and Dimed, author Barbara Ehrenreich faces several struggles. For example, while waiting tables in Florida, she has to serve a group of 10 picky British tourists in addition to several other tables simultaneously. In Maine, Ehrenreich is, on one day, the only dietary worker in the the Alzheimer's ward of a retirement house. She has to handle the meals of many people with much less help than she would normally get. In Minnesota, Ehrenreich struggles with finding employment. She is particularly worried about passing drug tests due to her marijuana use. These experiences, and others, show her how poor people live. Becoming poor and just struggling to put a roof over her head reveal the tribulations of some of the poorest of Americans. Her argument in the "Evaluation" chapter is that wealthy America is in control of the fate of poor America and remains ignorant to its troubles or deliberately tries to push them out of sight.
Reader's Guide: Question 17
1.) After reading Nickel and Dimed, do you think that having a job-any job-is better than no job at all? Yes.
2.) Did this book make you feel angry? Yes; the author's liberal bias and cynicism often got in the way of the telling of her experiences.
3.) Better informed? No.
4.) Relieved that someone has finally described your experience? No; the situations described in this book are dissimilar to my own experiences.
5.) Galvanized to do something? No.
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