Rhetorical Analysis Of Serving In Florida By Barbara Ehrenreich

I just finished Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed and it really heartwarming to read. Cleverly Subtitle “ How (Not) To Get By In America,” The book is about Ehrenreich’s “adventures” in survival as a member of the low- wage workforce that serves our meals, cleans our homes, and cares for our elderly. The book divvied into three sections, each of which find’s Ehrenreich in a new location, looking for new work and a place to live. , she took the job as a waitress at one restaurant before moving to a busier one attached to hotel. But exhaustion (and accompanying pain) got to her

Karl Marlantes, in his book What it is Like to go to War argues that, “concepts of loyalty change…and warriors have to cope with that” (134). Marlantes supports this thesis by presenting a strong emotional appeal to the audience and supporting his appeal with ethos and logos. He mentions that he, “was facing a hard choice between duty and heart…as a unit or even ideals and loyalty to a person” (139). Marlantes uses ethos and pathos to connect the reader with sympathy and have credibility for being a part of a unit.

A mortified United States Marine observes the dead body of the North Vietnamese as a victim of the deadly Vietnam War in October of 1966, photographed by Larry Burrows. In the photograph you see a soldier with a gun wearing little and torn clothing while looking down at a dead body. The dead body has blood on his chest and hands and is located in the middle of a grassy area. The U.S. Marine is standing over the dead body implying that he is more powerful than the body which lies helpless on the ground while the focal point is on the Marine whose hands are framing the gun he’s holding. The green color of the grass and leaves gives the photo an eerie tone and makes the soldier look helpless and lost.

Moreover, there is a copious amount of stories of people struggling to survive. We experience some of those accounts in Nickel and Dimed by journalist and author Barbara Ehrenreich, a novel about the working class of America, and also in Living

When you consider the thought of war what is the first thing that pops into your head? A few may conclude of the people fighting for our freedom. Others may envision of the happiness and joyful atmosphere after the war has ended. Some others may even try to grasp what may be happening during this conflict. The numerous people after the war were left homeless, starving, and victims of these hostilities.

liberties of...people” to intervene on behalf of Cuba (McCartney, pp. 240). His rhetoric portrays a common belief of Americans that the United States’ destiny is to help others achieve the same success and freedom America possesses. Moreover, it portrays the American belief that the United States holds a distinctive role in Providential history and a sacred responsibility to further Christian values abroad. Eventually, when an American battleship, the USS Maine, exploded in the Havana harbor, Americans called for action, which finally led to the American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. During this time, Americans redefined the United States as being interventionist and asserted that the United States’ history of freedom proved

Carelessly, the working middle and the high class people always forget about what the poor working class has to do in life to survive. In a passage from the novel, The Working Poor Invisible In America, David Shipler compares the poor working class wages to the amount of food they are able to buy. Shipler is able to creatively inform the audience using description, exemplification, and cause and effect what the life a poor working class citizen does everyday.     David Shipler shapes an image in the minds of all of his readers with his selective word choice. As a result of not having the money to pay for food, parents are forced to let their children starve, and as a result those children start looking “listless”.

“Serving in Florida” is a piece of literature that comes from Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich that discusses her experience in as an undercover journalist trying to live a life working low-paying jobs. In 1941, Barbara Ehrenreich was born in Butte, Montana, a blue-collar mining town where her father used to work before he earned a degree in the Butte School of Mines and moved the family. Ehrenreich became a part of a middle-class family and attended Rockefeller University where she graduated with a doctorate in biology. However, throughout the years she became more involved with politics, such as advocating for the women’s health movement in the 1970’s and wrote Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers. Eventually, she quit her teaching job at State University to become a full-time writer to create pieces relating to the

Thesis: I believe that Ehrenreich’s thesis is that no matter how hard you work or how chipper you act, it is nearly impossible to make a living for oneself in minimum wage conditions such as those of her coworkers. Narration: Narration is present on page 765 where through the narrator we are told Gail’s story about how her husband died and her what has led up to her current situation. Report: Paragraph 2 is an example of report writing where she details the types of housing in the area and the possible houses she can afford because she is being illustrative and informational about the topic of real estate in Key West. Analysis: The section on pages 771-772 is an analysis because she is breaking down the housing situations of her coworkers based upon her prediction of their salaries.

Using this metaphor was a good strategy because while comparing the restaurant to body insides it enables the audience to feel the way the author does about the atmosphere. This quote also uses imagery in the sense of her saying “Picture a..” and it is effortless to imagine what she is trying to express about the restaurant. The

Rugged men who fight willingly are those who the country and leaders rely heavily on for support and protection of the civilians. The army is built with these rugged men to insure that they will go to no end to save American’s lives. General Patton delivers a motivational speech to the members of his new army, subsequently informing them that the rumors that were spoken about him are clearly all false. Through vulgar diction, simple syntax, and self-appealing diction, Patton makes the army become successful and be united as one, in order to be able to restore the confidence and motivation of his army.

In Eugene Collier’s short story, Marigolds, the author used figurative language and diction to convey a serious and angry tone on poverty. Marigolds, a tale full of voice elements, addressed the theme of poverty with indignation and sincerity. Though Lizabeth, Collier narrated the story; it was about a girl recalling her life during World War 2 in a poor family. In the first example of voice element, Lizabeth described poverty as “the cage in which we all were trapped” (Collier 1). She uses this metaphor to explain how penury anchored her family.

In the essay “Richer and Poorer: Accounting for Inequality,” written by Jill Lepore, and published in The New Yorker in New York in 2015, the author raises awareness to the educated middle class about the many inequalities in the United States and the various causes and effects of such an issue. This writing was a proficient example of a job well done as far as the author’s use of rhetorical strategies is concerned. Jill Lepore was very effective in using logos, ethos, and pathos to serve her purpose of motivating the enlightened working class to make a change. Dr. Lepore accentuates her impeccable use of logos in this excerpt from “Richer and Poorer: Accounting for Inequality:” Between 1975 and 1985, when the Gini index for U.S. households

Jacob Riis’ photo, Five Cents Lodging, Bayard Street (1889), expresses a moral environmentalist approach similar to that of Van Hoffman because of its cluttered and humanizing elements that display the tired and sleeping faces in a dull, crowded, and unclean lodging room. The first thing that comes to the forefront is the scenery. The crowded and dirty room distracts people from the people who are actually living in it. The viewer is immediately distracted and displeased with these elements. Riis uses this tool to create a visceral reaction of disgust with the living conditions of the lodging.

During the past year, the protest, Fight for $15, has become a prominent issue amongst the working class, specifically those employed in low-income jobs such as fast food services. The purpose of this four-year-long fight is to raise the current minimum wage to a living wage of $15. While reading Barbra Ehrenreich’s essay, Serving in Florida, although written in 2001, its themes of economic inequality and oppression of underpaid workers continue to be relevant nearly 15 years later. Despite the age gap between Serving in Florida and the protest Fight for $15, the issue of overwhelming poverty amidst hard-working Americans remains prevalent today.