The author Barbara Ehrenreich wonders if single mothers, whom depend solely on what they can make at low-wage jobs, will be able to survive financially. The first city she stopped in was Key West, Barbara works at two different restaurants and as a house keeper in a hotel. She lives in an efficiency apartment and a trailer park. In the Key West, Barbara first learns that there are hidden costs to being poor. She said that if you cannot afford the security deposit for an apartment, you are forced to live in a hotel or a small efficiency. If you have no health insurance, you end up with significant and costly health problems. On some of the rough days Barbara walks off the job and never returns. Barbara then moves to Maine because of the virtually all-white low-wage workforce. There she lives in a cottage and works for a cleaning service during the week and at a nursing home on the weekends. An important thing that Barbara learns in Maine is that there is little assistance for the working poor. She tries to get some sort of assistance and encounters rude people who are willing to do little for her. The last place Barbara moves to is Minnesota. There she gets a job at the local Wal-Mart. In Minnesota, Barbara has the most difficult time finding housing. She then moves into a hotel, which is way too expensive for her. Barbara then comes close to organizing a union at Wal-Mart, but leaves before anything happens.
The theme of this book is to show how single mother can live financially on low waged jobs in America and how difficult it is to survive. Barbara shows us how difficult it is and what she has to go through in order to live. One literary element that is very critical is the setting of the book. Barbara lives in three different cities in America to show how difficult it is to live on low waged jobs and how to just get by. In this book there are a lot of strengths and weaknesses. One strength of this writer is that she had a lot of courage to go out to three different cities and get low waged jobs and try and survive. I would recommend this to any American who is going through similar problems and to show them that they are not alone. The weakness though of this she finds out really fast that she can’t afford certain things and that life gets really tough. Sometimes with low waged jobs people can’t afford health insurance, they can’t stay healthy. A lot of people can’t afford groceries. Working a low waged job as Barbara describes is really tough and can be complicated at times. I feel every part of this is true I have a low waged job and am going through some of the same difficulties as Barbara is. Life definitely sucks and this book is an amazing example on how we as a society and most of what we used to be called middle class are not anymore. Most of us don’t want to classify ourselves as poor, but you really have to think about it we aren’t rich! And we are not middle anymore with the amount of unemployment around Cortland County there is a lot of lower middle class. This problem needs to be fixed and our god damn president is not doing shit. We need someone who will turn this pissing country into a whole again. As the saying goes money talks and bullshit walks. This is true! Why there are no jobs like Obama said there would be he says we are getting better? Really? Well I think 80 percent of us Americans will tell you different. We are all sick and tired of the lying garbage that he is feeding us. They are worried about other countries, but what the hell you can’t help your own country. To be honest I’m done writing I feel this country will end soon and that if our president don’t get his head out of his ass we will once be at war again it will happen.
