I found the passage about her alter-ego Barb on page 169 particularly interesting. Here, she claims that the Barbara from her normal life and the Barb who works at Walmart are completely different people. Barb, she explains, is “meaner and slyer” than she is. While this passage stands out to me, I am having trouble deciding what exactly I think of it. On the one hand, it seems quite honest and understandable. On the other hand, it seems almost like she is claiming that minimum-wage workers are inferior (personality wise) to those with a higher income. What do you all think of this part?
One thought on “Interesting Ehrenreich Passage”
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I think it shows a slight superiority complex on Ehrenreich’s part. The Barb from her normal life is clearly perceived to be the better Barb, and I think her comment here shows how easily it is for Ehrenreich to act as though she is better than the people she works with.
At the end of the “Scrubbing in Maine” chapter, I feel like Ehrenreich is similarly condescending. She writes, ” I visit Lori on Sunday and let her have the satisfaction of returning my uniforms to Ted and explaining my departure however she wants” (119). I read that as Ehrenreich “privileging” Lori to the truth of the experiment. Lori gets the gem of knowledge that Ehrenreich is doing this experiment, and then Ehrenreich just leaves to go back to her normal life, completely forgetting about the very poor working conditions that Lori is going back to.