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Teaching Suggestions:
There are many
events in Nickel and Dimed that recall the rich tradition
of artist hearing the call of the poor, the struggling worker,
the person out of work, the person fired or not hired because of
their color, beliefs, poor choices, ethnicity, religion, bad
luck, political leanings, gender, sexual orientation. The author
herself struggles with this at the beginning and wonders what
her experiences would have been like if she was a person of
color (pages 6 & 10, Nickel and Dimed). An artist's
ethnicity, politics, gender, views about poverty, working, the
American Dream, etc. will play a role in how artist see the
world and what eventually comes through in their creations.
Barbara Ehrenreich was playing a "role" and going undercover:
pretending to be someone she was not. She went from Barbara to
"Barb" e.g., leaving her home, a two-income marriage, author,
and PhD in biology behind. She kept her health insurance and
debit card just in case of an emergency. What she did was not so
unusual when put in an artistic context. For centuries artists
and their audiences- have been inspired by the poor, the
outsider, the person down on their luck.
The United
States has a long history of artist integrating people who are
economically struggling into their work (film/video,
photography, music, painting, dance, stage, three dimensional
expressions). A tread runs through the American artistic and
mythical landscape of the "underdog" reaching the brass ring.
The great comeback (Rocky Balboa), David vs. Goliath (Rosa
Parks), the downtrodden employee beating the system (On the
Waterfront), a peanut farmer becomes president (Jimmy Carter).
At the turn of the century the photographer Jacob Riis exposed
the desperate and dangerous living conditions in New York City.
During the Great Depression (1929-1930s) Dorothea Lang and
Walker Evans' textured photographs of the farmers, share
croppers and migrant workers showed that life on the plains
could be just as bleak as living in city tenements.
Alex Haley
monumental book turned into a television series portrayed the
enslaved journey of West Coast Africans to the North American
colonies, the founding of the United States through to the 20th
Century. Award winning play-write August Wilson and Grammy
composer Wynton Marsalis would highlight the journey, or the
"struggle" of African Americans in a series of historically
based works. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Odetta,
Joan Baez, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and hundreds of other
singer -song writers would compose folk, blues, rhythm and
blues, operas and jazz compositions with struggling workers as
a theme during the 1960s. The acclaimed PBS documentary "Eyes on
the Prize" is a powerful example of the documentary film
medium applied to those struggling to be free trying to get
their piece of the economic pie. This theme continues today in
the work of Hip-Hop and Rap artists.
The 2006 novel
by Sara Gruen 'Water for Elephants' highlights the desperate
times of a circus troupe trying to survive during the rough and
desperate 1930s. America likes to believe it is possible for
anyone to rise from "rags to riches," from poverty to being a
millionaire. While some call this the "American Dream" others
call it a long shot, even a myth. Somewhere in the middle of the
dream, the myth, and the events in the 24-hour news cycle, the
artist pushes, pulls and filters their experiences. This page
offers ideas/resources related to the arts and the themes in
Nickel and Dimed.
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