Nickel and Dimed Chapter 3

Question 1

What does this quote say, “Call me gutless, but what I was looking for this time around was a comfortable correspondence between income and rent, a few mild adventures, a soft landing.” (Page 122)

Answer 1

This quote shows that the experiment could be very biased by choice of location as some lower wage families are forced to stay in an area where it is not always even.

Question 2

What does Barbara realize she has to do in order to get a job?

Answer 2

she has to exhibit her personality by meeting with the managers

Question 3

What keeps barbara from joining walmart?

Answer 3

the drug test because she doesnt think she would pass

Question 4

Where does Barbara begin to work?

Answer 4

at a home depot like chain in the plumbing section for 8$ an hour

Question 5

“Equally draining is the effort to be both perky and compliant at the same time, for half an hour or more at a stretch, because while you need to evince ‘initiative,’ you dont want to come across as someone who might initiate something like a union organizing drive” (page 127)

Answer 5

This quote shows that the ability to be a people person and survive in the job industry through personality is not a strong suit. She will have to work extra hard in order to accomplish these jobs.

Question 6

What is barbara still afraid of failing?

Answer 6

the drug test.

Question 7

what does she do to help her chances?

Answer 7

she goes on a detox program in order to flush out everything bad in her system

Question 8

“This is not, all things considered, my finest hour. If I could just surrender to my increasingly aqueous condition and wait out the weekend with a novel, things would be looking up” (page 130

Answer 8

This shows that she is falling away from this life, and would just like to return to her own life of reading and writing without struggle

Question 9

What is surprising about her friend’s friend?

Answer 9

they live in a shanty room with horrible conditions and yet they are considered middle class because they make 40,000 dollars a year.

Question 10

“Its hard not knowing” (Page 133)

Answer 10

in context she is referring to caroline not knowing about her friend’s predicament. However, this could also show that it is hard for barbara to not know what the future city holds.

Question 11

“Why, for example, am I supposed to leave her with my purse while she doesnt even trust me not to sprinkle some drug dissolving substance in my urine” (Page 135)

Answer 11

This shows that her trust is being called into question, and the way in which she values trust has changed.

Question 12

What customer service job stood out from the rest?

Answer 12

The one for Mountain Air

Question 13

What is Menards all about?

Answer 13

self discipline, money motivation, and positive attitudes.

Question 14

What happens when Barbara calls Wal-mart after the mountain air interview?

Answer 14

they dont have a job for her

Question 15

What is wrong with working in the plumbing section?

Answer 15

she doesnt know any of the names or uses.

Question 16

What is the wage at Menards?

Answer 16

10$

Question 17

What does she have to do in order to work at Walgreens?

Answer 17

she has to attend an orientation run by Roberta

Question 18

“The three principles are: Respect for the Individual, Exceeding Customers expectations, and strive for excellence, which are surprisingly unparalleled.” (144)

Answer 18

This shows that she does not believe that these principle should be grouped together. Possibility for quarry against the industry of Walgreens.

Question 19

What is a major theme of covert tensions?

Answer 19

stealing and trust

Question 20

“You have to wonder, I imagine, why such fiends as these union organizers, such outright extortionists, are allowed to roam free in the land.” (145)

Answer 20

This shows that the company and Barbara herself are completely against the Unions and what they stand for, but many of the minimum wage employers are a part of it

Question 21

“Time left is doing anything other than working during company time.” (146)

Answer 21

Similar to the first Chapter with not being able to take a break and always having to do something for the company. They believe that if you are on the job you should be working. The way in which you present a principle makes a huge difference.

Question 22

How many final exits exist on the parkway?

Answer 22

infinately many

Question 23

What does the bird do because she has not been home in a while?

Answer 23

scratch his feathers off

Question 24

Why can she not just drop walmart?

Answer 24

their orientation has grabbed a hold of her.

Question 25

What happens with Menards?

Answer 25

she drops the job because the wages and hours were not right

Question 26

What is wrong with her at this point in time in the experiment?

Answer 26

she is tired. tired of working

Question 27

Where is the tightest labor market?

Answer 27

Minneapolis

Question 28

What happens when she goes to Twin Lakes?

Answer 28

she cannot get an apartment.

Question 29

What is the Clearview in compared to the other bad inns?

Answer 29

the worst

Question 30

What does she think about the neighbors?

Answer 30

she is questioning their personalities and people.

Question 31

“I am not a congenially fearful person.” (152)

Answer 31

This shows that she is not afraid to do anything that most people are very afraid to do. She is referring to going to different cities alone and not worrying about being raped like every other girl. She gives thanks to her mother for this ability to not be scared.

Question 32

What does she call herself as a worker at walmart?

Answer 32

a walmartian

Question 33

What is the part that she will be working in in Walmart?

Answer 33

the soft lines which is really the women’s clothing

Question 34

Why do people in the stores not want employees to interrupt and ask if they need help?

Answer 34

they do not want to be interrupted and caused to stop what they are doing to answer the employee.

Question 35

What does she have to figure out while working at walmart?

Answer 35

she has to figure out the lay of the land and decide where to put each of the things.

Question 36

What is the manager’s name that she will be working with?

Answer 36

Ellee

Question 37

What is the good thing about her working at Walmart?

Answer 37

there is no stress and no problems if she messes up.

Question 38

How does she measure the work load in a day?

Answer 38

by carts of clothes after people try them on.

Question 39

What is the basis of judgement for Barbara when she talks about Ellee?

Answer 39

she says that she is a feminist

Question 40

What is wrong with her motel room?

Answer 40

there is a sewage back up.

Question 41

What is wrong with Barbara’s Shirt?

Answer 41

it is not a polo

Question 42

“Who are these nutcases who would volunteer for an artificially daunting situation in order to entertain millions of strangers with their half-assed efforts to survive” (160)

Answer 42

She is one of these nutcases. She is volunteering her time and doing a daunting task for the enjoyment of the people reading her book. This is an example of irony.

Question 43

What did Melissa do for Barbara?

Answer 43

she brought her a sandwich because she felt bad for her.

Question 44

What has her job turned into?

Answer 44

it has turned into a troublesome time of fast returns and carts that never become empty.

Question 45

What does Barbara turn hospitality towards people into?

Answer 45

Hostility.

Question 46

What does she begin to become attracted to?

Answer 46

the order of the clothes that she puts away

Question 47

Why does she not like when clothes or sold?

Answer 47

she doesn’t know the messiness of the closet they are going to

Question 48

What does she think of the new “Supervisor”?

Answer 48

she hates her because she always blames her on the things being in the wrong places.

Question 49

What does she begin to turn into (Mindset)?

Answer 49

she is turning mean

Question 50

What kind of schedule does she want?

Answer 50

she wants a stable schedule.

Question 51

Why is she not ready to leave walmart to go to the dorm room from 19$ a night?

Answer 51

she does not want to leave her place in Minneapolis society where she belongs.

Question 52

What is happening at the Charitable place she is staying?

Answer 52

two people are causing trouble by asking for bread

Question 53

“Many of my coworkers are poor. Yellow teeth are a sign as well as insufficient shoes and Straight shoulder length hair held back by two bobby pins” (174)

Answer 53

This shows that she is learning the signs of a minimum wage worker. They have a distinct look to her, and she can tell who is having a tougher time than others. She relates her experience to theirs and is saying that hers is nothing compared to theirs

Question 54

What is the process she now uses to put away clothes?

Answer 54

she bypasses the creative portion of her mind, and she lets the clothes take charge and bring her to her siblings.

Question 55

What is her view on the industry from Walmart?

Answer 55

she believes that the people are completely industrialistic.

Question 56

what does she relate her work to?

Answer 56

she relates her work to the people that come in. The people that come in are often mothers themselves, and it is their turn to throw clothes around instead of their kids.

Question 57

“Even the woods and the meadows have been stripped of disorderly life forms and forced into a uniform made of concrete” (179)

Answer 57

Business is destroying nature

Question 58

“But the labels serve only to remind me that none of these places is exotic anymore, that they’ve been eaten by the great blind profit making global machine.” (179)

Answer 58

Capitalism is destroying everything.