Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed provokes a range of responses in the reader, the most surprising of which is laughter. However, this laughter is problematic, because it is not consistent throughout the text. Ehrenreich seems to be unsure as to whether or not she desires to use a sarcastic tone when describing her experiences as a member of the working class, if she finds the situations she is in actually humourous, or if she really believes she has become part of the working class, and her humor is unintentional. In return this confuses the readers, and distracts them from understanding the overall purpose of her writing.
             Now the first thing a reader might laugh at when reading this text is what Ehrenreich calls "reassuring limitations" (5). In a situation where Ehrenreich is suppose to be "getting [her] hands dirty" (4) by submerging herself into the lifestyle of the working class, it is amusing to find her driving around in a car from job to job with $1300 to start up with, and a credit card practically in her back pocket ready to be used if it means that it would keep her from going hungry or becoming homeless. Ehrenreich disallows herself to truly become a "wage slave" (2) in this sense, because a person who is really a part of the working class does not have a car, can not afford to pay three months worth of rent on an apartment, and does constantly worry about finding a place to stay or having any food to eat. After reading this, a person might question whether Ehrenreich's experience is a real representation of what the working class life is like, and snicker at her weak attempts to "cheat" through this lifestyle.
             As a new member of the working class, Ehrenreich goes through a number of firsts, the funniest being her experience with drug testing. After a recent encounter with marijuana, Ehrenreich finds herself in Minnesota "with the t...