Serving in Florida
What do you consider hell? Hell is a place where you fear punishment and consider it the place of utmost suffering. Your answer may vary from others. Because for Barbara Ehrenreich, she finds hell to be in a typical busy Florida restaurant. In Barbara Ehrenreich's essay “Serving in Florida,” she explores the lives of the lower working class in America by depicting her firsthand experiences as an undercover low-wage server, maid, and sales clerk from 1998 to 2000. Through her experience, Ehrenreich targets the middle and upper classes to highlight the immense challenges and economic inequalities that minimum-wage workers confront in America, commenting on their insufficient pay, unpleasant work environment, and the mistreatment they face from the public. Specifically, in paragraphs 1-7 of her essay, Ehrenreich enhances her critique, utilising vivid diction to appeal to pathos and logos to the workers' mistreatment and expose the dehumanising and oppressive environment that minimum workers are forced to endure.
As many narratives and societal attitudes encourage society to view minimum wage workers as inferior, Ehrenreich explores this perception, utilizing vivid diction to appeal to pathos, allowing her to achieve her purpose. According to Ehrenreich, the conditions in which the workers at Jerry's are exposed to are rather inhumane and disgusting. In fact, when portraying the kitchen and its hostile condition, she describes the kitchen as having “bizarre smells combining the edible and the offal: creamy carrion, pizza barf, and that unique enigmatic Jerry’s scent. Citrus fart” (394). By employing vivid diction such as “creamy carrion” and “citrus fart,” and juxtaposing words related with foods such as “creamy” “pizza” with words related to waste such as “barf” and “fart,” Ehrenreich aims to curate a sense of disgust by illustrating the nauseating conditions of the kitchen, reflecting the oppressive environment and emphasizing their mistreatment as they are forced to work under these circumstances. By utilizing this vivid diction, it encourages the audience to feel and smell the disgusting working conditions, evoking a sense of empathy towards their dehumanisation. Ehrenreich employs vivid diction to further appeal to pathos when illustrating the condition of Jerry’s kitchen, describing that the “sinks everywhere are clogged with scraps of lettuce, decomposing lemon wedges, water-logged toast crusts” (394). By utilising this descriptive diction, such as “decomposing” and “waterlogged” and listing her observations of the kitchen, Ehrenreich curates a sense of chaos, portraying the kitchen as a dysfunctional mess, highlighting its overwhelming atmosphere and lack of cleanliness. By utilising this descriptive diction, she encourages the audience to visualize the disorder of the kitchen, thus evoking a sense of pity towards the workers and disgust towards the unpleasant conditions of the kitchen, which showcases the harsh realities of working in this industry. Moreover, Ehrenreich appeals to pathos to enhance her critique of the chaotic atmosphere of her workplace further when describing a tip she uses during service, mentioning how you should always treat the situation as a one-time emergency, that "you’ve got fifty starving people out there, lying scattered on the battlefield, so get out there and feed them"(396)! In this instance, Ehrenreich establishes a connection, comparing the busy service at the restaurant to a “battlefield,” which symbolizes chaos. The use of this vivid diction helps depict the chaotic and busy work environment, and the overwhelming feeling of pressure and stress the workers endure. Her description of the customers as “starving people” enhances the chaotic atmosphere as it demonstrates a sense of desperation from the customers, where workers feel a sense of urgency to serve while under immense and unbearable pressure. This chaotic environment which Ehrenreich establishes was foreshadowed earlier in her essay, as Ehrenreich mentioned before how her “conversations, either with customers or with fellow employees, seldom last more than twenty seconds at a time.” In this instance, Ehrenreich suggests how she barely has any time to exchange conversations with her coworkers during her shifts, which highlights the disorganisation and enhances her emphasis on the chaotic environment.
Apart from Ehrenreich's appeal to pathos, her use of vivid diction allows her to appeal to logos to achieve her purpose of emphasizing the oppressive and dehumanizing work environment. Ehrenreich builds her logic through the structure of her essay, when she immerses her audience within her lens, first mentioning the state of the kitchen, where she describes how the counters were so sticky that “you risk being stuck to it by the film of ancient syrup spills” (394). The use of the descriptive diction “ancient” to describe the syrup spilled over the counters illustrates the poorly cleaned work environment, as “ancient” suggests that the syrup spills were from the past. This emphasises the lack of cleanliness throughout the kitchen, thus allowing Ehrenreich to establish her emphasis on the filthy and harsh environment the workers endure. Furthermore, Ehrenreich appeals to logos when she utilises vivid diction when explaining the break rooms, suggesting how there actually are “three folding chairs at a table immediately adjacent to the bathroom,” but nobody ever sits there as their location is the “rectum of the gastroarchitectural system" (395). Since the “break rooms” are said to be in an undesirable location, the use of the grotesque diction “rectum” provides a rationale towards the rejection of the breakrooms, as “rectum” suggests the final stages of digestion, possessing negative characteristics. This grotesque diction helps establish Ehrenreich's point that the working conditions and environment are oppressive, and equivalent to waste, much like what the “rectum” symbolizes. Finally, Ehrenreich’s appeals to logos to demonstrating how the constant demand at work within the oppressive environment and lack of breaks causes her to experience pain within her body, evident when she describes a way to relieve her pain by taking “ibuprofens as if they were vitamin C, four before each shift, because an old mouse-related repetitive-stress injury in my upper back has come back to full-spasm strength, thanks to the tray carrying” (396). By utilising the vivid diction to curate vivid imagery within the audience, Ehrenreich links her physical pain to the work of carrying trays to portray the physical toll on her back and demonstrates the demanding environment at the restaurant, as the intense and overwhelming workload has led to the reliance on medication to help endure the pain. Ehrenreich’s insight helps emphasize the dehumanizing and oppressive environment the workers are immersed in, highlighting the unbearable experience.
Until now, Barbara Ehrenreich’s publication of her essay “Serving in Florida” remains a relevant and evident portrayal of the oppressive environment endured by the lower-wage workers in America. By utilising vivid diction to appeal to pathos and logos, her firsthand experience forces the audience to confront the harsh realities of the lower working class in America. Whether her findings foster empathy within the audience or reveal shocking truths, will society bear the responsibility or continue to remain ignorant of this injustice?
Work Cited:
Barbara Ehrenreich. “Serving in Florida.” The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric, edited by Renee Shea et al.,2nd Edition, Bedford / St.Martims, 2013, pp. 394-397