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?
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2 comments:
This is so true, it's kind of sad how she went through so much and still hasn't had a job 4 months later. well i believe that the fact that she went through all the trouble of going through coaches, bootcamps, consultants, ect. was to be able to go through the whole process that some would go through if she was actually living this. Though i do think she did take some of this extra help to the extreme because i don't one need that much help or has that much money to spend and still has not found a job. Which can be realistic, though only on the aspect of people not finding in a job for months.
Barbara went to all the coaches and bootcamps because she felt some people believe this is a good way to find a job and she wanted to experience what they have. Even though she probably could have found a job on her on, the opinions of the different job coaches helped her form her own opinion about what she need to do to get a job.
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