Nickel and Dimed 1-119 Reflection

The thing that shocked me the most was that as a maid Ehrenreich was given almost no thanks by the home owners that she was cleaning for, and she was almost never offered water. We have a cleaning lady at our house and my mum and I always chat to her and offer her lunch when we are eating. She is working just like my mum and I are.

I also could not understand why the girls who worked as maids remained working as a maid under such horrible conditions and at such low pay. There are other jobs like working at the front desk of a hotel that have about the same low pay but do not require such harsh physical conditions. There boss was so cruel and they still almost worshipped him. I feel as if these people are so downtrodden their whole lives that they almost feed off of people who abuse them.

It is so sad when Ehrenreich describes one of the maids, who is pregnant and then sprains her ankle and refuses to stop working. The people that Ehrenreich interacted with are so desperate that they can’t even see that they are breaking their bodies slowly into pieces.

What also surprised me was that the hardest part initially for Ehrenreich seems to be finding living accommodations. Everything is so overpriced or too far. I could not believe that at the first restaurant that Ehrenreich worked at that there were people living in cars. Also, I thought it was ridiculous that hotels and restaurants put up help wanted ads when Ehrenreich was looking for work, even when they don’t have spaces to fill just so they can replace people easily. That should not be allowed because it wastes so much time for people who really need jobs and don’t have the time or money to spend time applying to jobs that aren’t even available.

I think it is also important to mention how Ehrenreich presents her experiences as a waitress and as a maid in a very colloquial way. She illustrates her point, that minimum wage jobs in America are not enough to support a decent life, without ever stating it. She makes the reader feel connected to all the experiences of the other waitresses and maids went through. Ehrenreich can then more easily inspire desire to change the situation for the people she worked with when the reader feels an emotional connection. I think this is a very interesting way to argue a point. Ehrenreich, warms her readers to the people she worked with in the book and then makes the reader feel all the pain and suffering that these people go through. For my essay I could interview teachers at Santa Clara, and try and find out about their experiences with sexism in science. That way, I could present theses cases to first emotionally connect the reader and then present my point.