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Rhetorical Genre analysis
Ehrenreich argues her case for a national minimal wage increase through her use of dependable sources and emotional, personal anecdotes. When one is charged the least bit at a time until the expense grows beyond prospects, that is called being “nickel and dimed.” (Ehrenreich,02)
She argues that their spirit and nobility are stripped away by a culture that allows biased working conditions. Give the incentive to recent welfare betterment and the growing occurrence of the working climate in the United States. Ehrenreich poses a theoretical question that relates to many Americans: how difficult is it to live on a minimum-wage job? What does it take to match the income one earns the expenses one must pay for the lower class?
Ehrenreich succeeds in putting up a persuasive argument to her middle-class audience. The motive of the novel, Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, is to inform the public of matters about low-wage jobs with rhetorical devices and appeals, such as pathos, logos, and ethos. The author cites ethos, showing the readers that she had written several books to build on her credibility as an author. (Ehrenreich,005)
Ehrenreich gets herself into a low-wage worker’s life to show how difficult it is to live a healthy life under such conditions. She includes rhetorical devices to give a convincing argument and also gather support for her assertion. She studies this issue by investigating one month by living on just a salary from the low-wage jobs. The rhetoric devices assist in creating an appeal to emotion and also gather support.
The author shows the use of rhetorical devices in the novel. The use of Allusion adds a bit of flavor to the book and makes it more natural. She uses Metaphors, “all I can see is a grass fire raging in the back of my eyes,” to show just how anger. The simile expression is used in some texts, “Laughing like pagan,” to show how shallow she felt at that time. Sarcasm is utilized to introduce humor to the situation. the use of Hyperbole in the novel”What is a self-respecting restaurant cook doing in a flavor-free environment anyway? Has been used to express doubt about Pete’s genuineness, she exaggerates on bland the food he serves is. Antithesis has been used in texts to juxtapose two contrasting ideas. An example is how she paints an accurate picture of those who have Alzheimer’s (Ehrenreich,05
Ehrenreich uses an Anecdote to tell the story about the hotel that is dirtier than her current one and at the same time adds humor to it. She also gives another example of the less fortunate’s awful living conditions—a story where she despairingly avoids her manager by hiding behind clothing racks.
The author also uses the idiomatic expression, “no diners, no fast-food joints or grocery stores, no commercial establishment at all,” to give the reader an emphasizing emotion. Use of Personification “each item wants to be reunited with its sibs” to show the two concepts were relatable in a way. The author uses these rhetorical devices to evoke an emotional response in the audience on minimum wage workers’ predicament and a reason for raising their wages, including the hidden costs involved for necessities such as food and shelter.
Ehrenreich criticizes the notion that low-wage jobs require only untrained labor. She found that manual labor needed a lot of focus, memory, fast-thinking, and quick learning. Continuous and repeated movement generates a risk of injury and must work in pain to keep a job in a market with continuous turnover. The days are full of degrading and unexciting tasks (e.g., mopping the floors and cleaning the toilets). She also comments on different people in the management roles who served mainly to obstruct the worker’s productivity, compel employees to undertake needless tasks, and make the entire low-wage work experience even harder than it was. Besides, she marks out her managers, who changed her shift schedule without even notifying her.
Ehrenreich describes how questionnaires are designed to isolate incompatible potential employees and take urine drug tests as an unfortunate standard in the low-wage market. She argued that they discourage potential applicants and violate rights while having a less positive work performance effect. She also comments that she believes that they are ways for an employer to put down what is expected of them behavior-wise to an employee.
She argues that the vacancy signs do not necessarily indicate a job opening. their motive is to keep a pool of applicants in fields with an infamously high employee turnover. She also disposes of that one low-wage job is often not enough to support one person. With high housing prices and low wages, it becomes hard to maintain a quality of life. Many low-wage workers survive by living with relatives, friends, other persons in the same position they are in or even in their cars.
Ehrenreich concludes with the argument that all low-wage workers, recipients of government or humanitarian services like welfare, food, and health care, are not merely living off the generosity of others. Instead, she suggests, we live off their generosity.
References
DIACONU, Ruxandra. “Contrastive Analysis of the British and the American Working Class, as presented in David Lodge’s Nice Workand Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.”
Lemke, Sieglinde. “The Documentary: Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed and David Shipler’s The Working Poor.” Inequality, Poverty, and Precarity in Contemporary American Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2016. 61-84.