Chunk #3 of Nickel and Dimed: Selling in Minesota

Part three of Barbara Ehrenreich's novel Nickel and Dimed titled Selling in Minnesota emphasizes that trying to live off of a low wage job and rent an apartment is almost impossible. While in Minnesota Barbabra decides that she will not be a waitress, maid, or nurse. She plans to work in retail. The search for a place to live was extremely hard in Minnesota. Everywhere is either too expensive or there aren't any rooms available. Barbara soon realized that she is beginning to make some mistakes. Her first mistake occurred when she decided not to take a room because it did not have a kitchenette. Many, including herself, wind up living in...............motel rooms, renting by the week. Her second mistake was when she decided to work at Wal Mart earning only seven dollars a hour instead of a hardware store called Menard's where she would earn ten dollars a hour. While working at Wal Mart she realizes that workers are not paid enough for what they have to do. They are required to do so much to please the "guest". Throughout her stay in Minnesota Barbara also notices a change in her attitude. She finds herself getting upset with the Wal Mart atmosphere-from the customers not putting things back to her nagging boss . Before resigning from Wal Mart Barbara tries to encourage some of her coworkers to start a union. If she could have stayed a Wal Mart employee any longer she believed she would have been able to help the start the union they deserved.





Dscussion Questions



Barbara says " I think we could have done something, she and I, if I could have afforede to work at Wal Mart any longer." Do you think she could have afforded to stay? If she wanted to help so bad, don't you think she would have made a better effort to stay and help?



Barbara declined the job at Menards because of her lack of plumming terminlogy. Menards didnt seem concered with that fact so do you believe it was wise for her to work at Wal Mart instead?

Chunk # 2 of Nickel and Dimed: Scrubbing Maine

Part two of Barbara Ehrenreich's novel Nickel and Dimed titled Scrubbing Maine illustrates how those who have jobs that require janitorial work, work excessivley, yet they are looked down upon and are seen as outcast.Barbara chose the reside in Maine because it is mainly populated by Caucasians , so finding a low wage work force would be accessible. In this section of the novel Barbara takes a job as a maid and a dietary aide for Woodcrest Residential Facility(not the real name). She works at Woodcrest on the weekends and is responsible for serving the elderly their meals and doing janitorial work such as vacuuming and washing the dishes. Her second job consists of being a maid. It requires a lot of physical work and is extremely tiring but its necessary that she works both jobs to make ends meet. She soon comes to realize that maids for the most part are ignored. For example,one day while at a dinner she tried to order an iced tea but the waitress continued with her conversation and simply ignoired her as if she was superior to a maid. Barbara endured more that just stares and being ignored though, at one point she was forced to call for some source of help mainly for food. It took about a hour of calling but she recieved the food that was neccessary. While staying in Maine Brabara began to feel defeated and became frustrated. She even found herself sticking up for a coworker to their boss. Surprisingly, it earned her a raise and a praise of approval from their boss. As the end of the month approached Barbara revealed her true identity to her fellow coworkers and questioned "How do they feel, not about Ted(their boss) but about the owners whohave so much whle others, like themselves barely get buy?" One woman looked at it as motivation, while the other felt that she did not need all that they had.





Discusson Questions

In Scrubbing Maine Barbara states that maides are ignored and are outcast.Do you agree with her? Do you see yourself looking down on those who do the jobs that most of us could not imagine dong such as janitorial work?


In one secton of the chapter Holly says"If we're cleaning their house they're wealthy." Do you agree with this? Is everyne who has someone clean ther house wealthy? Is this saying that many wealthy people are too lazy to clean their own homes?