Low Working Class In Nickel And Dimed By Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich frequently uses pathos in her novel Nickel and Dimed to make the readers feel sympathy for the hardships of the low working class, who do not get recognized. Throughout the novel Ehrenreich discovers the difficulty of searching for a place to live that is reasonably affordable and accomadable to her life. Ehrenreich describes the lunches her former co-workers eat. Ehrenreich calculates that her co-workers do not take in enough calories for the work they are doing. Once Ehrenreich acquires a job, she talks to her co-workers and the hard labor they put in everyday. Along with the jobs, workers have to worry about healthcare. Most workers cannot afford health care, therefore they have to be careful not to get injured. Many

At a housekeeping job, Ehrenreich works with Carlie, and Ehrenreich thinks that the bag of hot dog buns that Carlie carries around is something she finds in one of the rooms while cleaning. Ehrenreich later discovers it is, “not trash salvaged from a checkout” (44), but it is Carlie’s lunch for the day. Ehrenreich displays how the reality of low working class can be unimaginable, based on Carlie’s lunch of hot dog buns. Working at The Maids, Ehrenreich often experiences similar situations. Ehrenreich notes, “we grab lunch - Doritos for Rosalie” (80). Rosalie does not have an actual lunch, she could only afford a bag of doritos. What she didn’t eat that day of the Doritos will be her lunch for the next day. Ehrenreich creates sympathy for Rosalie, because she spreads out one small bag of doritos for her lunch for two days. The same day, Ehrenreich encounters young women whose “lunch consists of a “pizza pocket”” (78). The pizza pocket was not an actual pizza, it was dough with some tomato sauce on it. It’s devastating that people who are putting in hard back breaking work do not have enough to eat. Ehrenreich would not consider Doritos or “pizza pocket” as her lunch, but as a snack during a break. Other than food expenses, employees have to think about health

Ehrenreich creates sympathy by highlighting the disadvantages of not having health care, and what employees have to do to substitute. Ehrenreich learns that employees’ pain is, “managed by Excedrin and Advil” (89). When a health problem arises, employees turn to pain relievers, and not actual help. Employees can’t afford to ask for help, they can barely afford to pay for the Advil or Excedrin they are purchasing. Gail, from Heartside, has an estrogen problem and has to take estrogen pills. Gail tries to file for health insurance, because she cannot afford the pills herself, and they “claim to have love her application form” (27). Jobs such as Heartside don’t want to give healthcare so they claim to lose their employees’ applications. Ehrenreich depicts pathos with health insurance, because she uses Gail who has a serious issue and needs estrogen pills, therefore she won’t get migraines. Marianne’s boyfriend gets injured while he was working, and he “lost his job as a roofer” (28). He cut his foot and couldn’t afford insurance or the antibiotics, therefore he lost his job. Ehrenreich displays how people like Marianne’s boyfriend are working people trying to survive, but gets into accidents, and it affects the rest of his life. Working in jobs that getting injured is more likely than working in an office, don’t cover health insurance. If the jobs did