Bait and Switch

Barbara Ehrenreich's bestselling book, Bait and Switch, shows how difficult it is to find a job in the real American world. In the first "chunk" of our reading, Barbara Ehrenreich says that her ego, Barbara Alexander, was going to easily swift through finding a job s a blue-collared woman, but in our second "chunk" of reading, Barbara Alexander seems to be having a much more difficult time on a task she thought would be very simple to complete. Barbara Alexander was bound to have found a job after a couple of weeks of searching, yet after four months of turning every stone in her path, Mrs. Alexander was nowhere near finding the job that was right for her. Alexander has gone seeking for jobs through several programs that were to help her obtain the job she desired, though no company or interviewer ever called her back for a second chance at the position she hoped to receive. Throughout all that wasted time foraging for the perfect job, Barbara Alexander spent thousands of dollars on internet job searches, job coaches and counselors, and career boot camps—all which were useless in finding a company that will hire her. As she continues her search for the perfect job that will bering her up form the blue-collar class, to a white-collar member Alexander considers herself useless, yet striving for success. Even though Barbara Ehrenreich believed her life as Barbara Alexander would be very simple, in the past few chapters, she is beginning to learn that life in the real world is not as easy as she once thought.

Tone: Determined and Weary

Metaphor: "I am 'angular' in shape..."
Page: 107

Allusion: For a moment I reeled, feeling like a character in an early Pynchon novel..."
Page: 123

Question: Why does Barbara Alexander attend so many programs, boot-camps, and job consultants, only to find a job, when a 'real' average person searches for a job only through simple resources?