Tara Banks
English 101
Rough Draft
11/15/10
Serving in Florida
This essay is a personal reflection of Ehrenreich's experiences working "under- cover" in
low paying, blue collar jobs in Florida. This essay is a descriptive narrative that shows how
hard it is for low paid, working class Americans, to make it in the world. Ehrenreich vividly
describes her experiences and sends a message to the reader that many working class Americans
live in harsh, sub-human conditions. People living in this situation do not have the opportunity
to succeed, and are stuck in a downward spiral of increasing poverty and despair. The essay
reveals the sad truth that many people take for granted what they have in life. It reminds the
reader that there are Americans living in horrible conditions, who are unable to afford the simple
necessities in life; like new pants for work, or a decent meal. Ehrenreich demonstrates through
her personal experience, that it is almost impossible to survive on the wages a low paid
American works for.
Serving in Florida is extremely effective because Ehrenreich places the reader in the shoes
of poor Americans, by narrating her personal experience about the subject. The fact that
Ehrenreich left her "privileged" lifestyle to conduct this experiment connects with the reader on a
personal level. In essence, Ehrenreich's experience proves that this situation can happen to
anyone. It brings a sense of reality to the subject, and has a far greater effect then if Ehrenreich
had used statistics alone to prove her point. In addition, firsthand experience gives Ehrenreich
undisputable credibility on the subject. The author paints a realistic picture of the conditions
through her use of colorful and straight forward language. The reader is instantly submerged
into the environment and is given the opportunity to experience the conditions.
In this essay, the author tries to establish her trust with the readers by stating since the
beginning of the essay that she was not poor herself. “My own situation, when I sit down to
assess it after two weeks of work, would not be much better if this were my actual life.” (p.246).
It is as if her mission was to see whether the lower-class life was worthwhile. Instead of me
feeling good that she was trying to portray what an unskilled laborer has to go through, I felt like
she was making fun of them. She was trying to demonstrate that “she” was not one of “them.”
Ehrenreich makes the assumption that this personal experience is a valid way of estimating what
a low-wage lifestyle is like. It could have been better if she presented herself as a scholar who
was writing a book and conducted interviews, instead of writing it as a story. Even if she did try
to place herself in the position of the working poor, she is never going to feel the same way that
they will.
Barbara Ehrenreich is a journalist who posed as an unskilled worker in 1998 to highlight
the struggles encountered every day by Americans attempting to live on minimum wage. Ms.
Ehrenreich had always been interested in poverty. As the result of the new law, people would be
expected to leave welfare and get jobs, sounds good. Unfortunately, the jobs they were able to
get really didn’t pay enough to live on. Serving in Florida is about her experience as waitress
trying to make ends meet just like millions of Americans do every day. The overall message of
the story is that wages in America are too low and rents are too high.
Single people and especially families cannot survive on the wages that unskilled workers
are paid. Many families spend their whole life behind in their bills and often have to forego such
necessities as food and clothing to keep a roof over their heads or buy medicine for a family
member who’s sick. There is a shortage of people actually willing to work for the wages that are
being offered. And it’s not because they don’t want to work or that they are lazy. It’s because
they cannot afford the childcare or transportation for these low paying jobs. They can’t afford to
take a job that would cost them more money in the long run.
Another main point very clearly made in this story is that there is an affordable housing
crisis in this country. Many people have to work two or sometimes three jobs a week just to pay
rent. Rent for a decent place often takes up more than half of a family’s income, leaving them
with not enough for other regular expenses. Any unexpected expense such as an illness or a car
problem is a catastrophe. Many of these families wind up homeless or doubled up with relatives.
This story was striking in many ways and I learned some interesting things. One thing I learned
is that just because a job doesn’t pay much doesn’t mean it’s easy. The low wage paying jobs in
this story were hard work and required long hours.