Madarang,

Alex Madarang (815206971)

Lecturer Sager

RWS 280/Section 30

5 February 2014

ROUGH DRAFT

In the chapter, “Selling in Minnesota,” from her book, Nickel & Dimed: On

(Not) Getting By in America (2001), feminist and award-winning columnist Barbara

Ehrenreich argues that unskilled Americans, especially single mothers on welfare,

are not able to afford the most basic necessities while working a minimum wage job

without the assistance of another person or federal agency. With sarcasm

permeating her writing, she validates this claim by her use of ethos when providing

firsthand experiences of her hardships while living as a working class, single woman

surviving on a minimum wage paycheck searching for a job and an apartment,

applying pathos when describing the mental and physical tolls of finding and

maintaining a job and a place of residence, and utilizing logos by presenting

statistical data that proves minimum wage jobs to be insufficient when compared to

the costs of living. Ehrenreich’s purpose is to give insight on Ehrenreich’s purpose is

to answer the question, “how does anyone live on the wages available to the

unskilled?” in order to bring awareness to the effects that the, then current, welfare

reform will have on the “unskilled” sector of American society. With a cynical yet

humble tone, she reaches out to people who have yet to immerse themselves into

the real world as well as congressman, policymakers and anyone else who could

change the current conditions of the lower-middle class.

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Madarang,

In this paper I will examine the author’s claims and the notions that she

challenges with her first-hand experiences throughout the chapter. Next, I will tie in

the rhetorical strategies, such as ethos, pathos, and logos, which she utilizes in

attempt to strengthen her claims and draw in her audience. In addition, I will

discuss her use of allusions, as well as her tone throughout the text, in order to

create a better understanding and provide a more in-depth explanation of the issues

Barbara Ehrenreich was trying to bring about attention. Lastly, I will discuss how

her story and its claims are relevant to the present day economy in the United

States.

In an attempt to build on her main argument, Ehrenreich sets out to test

various claims while immersing herself in the everyday life of a low-wage worker.

She asserts that the lack of affordable housing on the market, as well as the ways in

which corporations exploit their workers while “nickel and diming” them along the

way, makes it increasingly more difficult to live the comfortable life that many claim

the middle class is capable of having. In addition to the financial hardships that

come with minimum wage jobs, she argues that the poor treatment of workers by

corporations and their customers not only hinders the morale of the workplace, but

is also detrimental to the individual worker’s mental health and well-being.

In support of her claims, she denounces many of the preconceived notions

that Americans hold against the lower-middle class. From the start of her essay, she

quickly realizes from her own experiences that low wage employees are far from

being lazy and that even with constant hard work and determination things

oftentimes don’t pan out the way one would hope. Although she might have had her

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Madarang,

own expectations of what life was like working and living on a minimum wage

paycheck, Ehrenreich soon realizes that even with certain qualifications it is not

easy getting a job in retail.

NOTES

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