Making A Living

The two articles discussed herein both involve women who take roles in the service industry as waitresses. One is Vivian Gornick in Working in the Catskills and the other is Barbara Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. Gornick’s work as a waitress is from a time when she actually worked in the profession, while Ehrenreich’s time served as a waitress is an undercover journalistic enterprise. While both of these women have similar experiences and attitudes toward this service profession, Gornick viewed the opportunity as a means of material advancement while Ehrenreich views it as a dead-end profession dooming one to a life of poverty and sacrifices. There are numerous similarities differences between the two stories, despite the main difference that Gornick views waitressing as a means of getting ahead in contrast to Ehrenreich’s view that it remains an inadequate means of making a living.

There are a number of similarities between the two stories of Gornick’s and Ehrenreich’s days as a waitress. Perhaps the biggest of these is that they both view the profession as one wherein one must lie to get ahead and where one must suffer humiliation to endure the rigors and abuses of the profession. Both Gornick and Ehrenreich must lie in order to secure their menial positions in the first place. As Gornick tells us about the woman who interviewed her, after tellin

. . .
he discusses the enormous expenses for most people in such jobs, including housing, childcare, and healthcare. She discusses the economics behind her first month at work, one that barely covers her minimal expenses and will not amount to enough to pay the rent. She informs us of the burdensome and horrific living experiences of most of the people she works with, from those who must overpay for housing in a motel because they do not have a car and need to walk to work to those who live out of their vehicles and shower at a coworker’s. As Ehrenreich says when complaining about such aspects of the work, “In addition to the less-than-nurturing management style, is that this job shows no signs of being financially viable,” (769). Ehrenreich also includes a number of issues and problems faced by such low-paid workers, from suffering in pain due to lack of affordable health care to living out of their vehicles because of being unable to afford housing. Gornick, in contrast, seems to have worked at waitressing jobs that are in sharp contrast to the job held by Ehrenreich. For Gornick seems to view her waitressing job as a gold mine, a lucrative opportunity that will enabled her to get ahead in the world. She discusses how she has t
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Ehrenreich Gornick, Chow Mein, Gornick Ehrenreich, Bronx Brooklyn, America Gornicks, Gornicks Ehrenreichs, Dimed Introduction, Gornick Catskills, Getting America, gornick describes, Nickel Dimed, nickel dimed, ehrenreich nickel dimed, getting america, humiliation endure, health insurance, suffer humiliation, ehrenreich nickel, dimed getting, dimed getting america, humiliation comes, nickel dimed getting, profession gornick,
Approximate Word count = 1768
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Making A Living