LITERARY ELEMENTS

SETTING

During the course of this investigation Ehrenreich visits three places: Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. She begins her research in Florida because it is close to home. She goes to Maine because there is a virtually all-white low-wage workforce. She chooses Minnesota more or less at random; although finally decides to go because she in under the impression that there is an abundance of jobs and homes there.

LIST OF CHARACTERS

Barbara Ehrenreich
Ehrenreich is the author of this work. She attempts to find out if single mothers could make ends meet with low-wage jobs and no Welfare assistance.

Lewis Lapham
Lapham is the editor of Harper’s, with whom Ehrenreich develops the idea for her investigation.


Gail
Gail is the “middle-aged wiry waitress” from the Hearthside; she is responsible for training Ehrenreich.


Billy
Billy is a cook at the Hearthside. He has a temper and is frequently mean to the female servers.


Lionel
Lionel is the Haitian busboy at the Hearthside.

Timmy
Timmy is the fourteen-year-old white busboy at the Hearthside.

Joan
Joan is the “svelte fortyish hostess” at the Hearthside.

Phillip
Phillip is a manager at the Hearthside.


Stu
Stu is a cook at the Hearthside.

Joy
Joy is “a plump, blowsy woman in her early thirties”; she is a manager at Jerry’s.


B.J.
B.J. is the other manager at Jerry’s. She is mean and disliked by the employees.


Nina
Nina is “a tattooed twenty-something” waitress at Jerry’s.

Ellen
Ellen is a waitress who once managed a restaurant in Massachusetts but will not try to manage at Jerry’s because she does not like ordering people around.

Lucy
Lucy is in her fifties and easygoing. She is a waitress at Jerry’s.


George
George is a nineteen-year-old Czech dishwasher at Jerry’s who has been in the country for only a week when Ehrenreich meets him.


Millie
Millie is the housekeeping manager.

Carlotta
Carlotta is a “middle-aged African American woman” who trains Ehrenreich in housekeeping.


Linda
Linda is Ehrenreich’s supervisor at the nursing home in Maine. She is “a kindly-looking woman of about thirty.”


Pete
Pete is one of the cooks at the nursing home. He quickly befriends Ehrenreich, taking cigarette breaks with her in his car. Ted Ted is Ehrenreich’s boss at Merry Maids; he owns the franchise where Ehrenreich is employed.

Tammy
Tammy is the office manager at Merry Maids.


Liza
Liza is the leader of the one of the teams Ehrenreich cleans with while working at Merry Maids.


Rosalie
Rosalie is a fellow “maid.” She is fresh from high school, and Ehrenreich pesters her about eating healthy food.


Pauline
Pauline is another Merry Maids employee. She owns her own home, but sleeps on the couch because her grown children and grandchildren live with her and fill up the bedrooms.

Maddy
Maddy, who works for Merry Maids, is “a single mom of maybe twenty-seven or so”; she has difficulties with child care.


Holly
Holly is the leader of another team Ehrenreich cleans with while working at Merry Maids.

Roberta
Roberta is a “bustling platinum-haired woman of sixty or so” who works in personnel at Wal-Mart.


Caroline
Caroline is the aunt of Ehrenreich’s friend. Ehrenreich talks with her about what it is really like to live a low-wage lifestyle.


Todd
Todd conducts the group interview at Mountain Air.

Melissa
Melissa works with Ehrenreich in ladies’ wear. She has only been at Wal-Mart for a few weeks longer than Ehrenreich.


Ellie
Ellie is “[g]ray-faced and fiftyish.” She is another Wal-Mart employee.

Howard
Howard is an assistant manager at Wal-Mart. Ehrenreich is not fond of him because he is typical of management.


Rhoda
Rhoda is a “bossy and self-satisfied” Wal-Mart employee.

Isabelle
Isabelle supervises Ehrenreich at Wal-Mart.

Visit our partner PinkMonkey.com for more online Study Guides
Privacy Policy
All Content Copyright©TheBestNotes. All Rights Reserved.
No further distribution without written consent.
159 Users Online | This page has been viewed 17532 times
This page was last updated on 5/13/2008 2:29:08 PM