Nickel and Dimed

The novel Nickel and Dimed depicts the trials and tribulations the author, Barbara Ehrenreich encounters as she attempts to experience life as a woman living on a minimum wage salary. My first impression of the novel, since I have not yet finished it, is one of frustration. I feel that although she places herself in predicments that may be accurate representations of experiences poor people go through, she will never truly experience the emotions people have as they struggle to make ends meet. The emotional pain that a person who struggles with day to day life in probably the most hurtful aspect of being poor. The fact that Barbara was unable to experience the same emotions makes her experiment somewhat unsuccessful. Yes, she is able to reinact the experiences a poor person goes through but she will never be able to feel similar emotions to them because she has a life to go home to. When the experiment was complete she went home to her house and back to life as a writer. She does not have to deal with the same reality as the people she is emmulating.