"Reading Response"

" Low Wages Strong Backs"

This story was a great story . It could open the eyes of most people. The journalist uses his own experience as evidence. And he read that story from the 1930's.The journalist uses facts that he obtained from the Legal Services of a New Jersey Poverty Research Institute. The facts are taken on or about single people living in Passaic County.
The journalist/author has taken the approach of placing himself in the same situation as a temp. worker. The journalist only starts out with so much money to his name, no car or bicycle. He is trying to figure out how to maintain what money he has without knowing how much money he will make once he is hired as a temp. worker. The journalist tries to understand how it might feel to be a man from another country, trying to live on as little as he can so he can send most of the money back to his homeland to his family there.
As an outsider the author knows how life is with what he makes at his current job. Perhaps he thinks he would like to make more. But then he gets on the inside and walks in yet another pair of shoes and realizes how hard it is to make ends meet working in this temp. job. I think looking from the outside the journalist might not have realized how tough it was going to be. Yes, I think the writer has appealed to ethics as he truly looks around and tries to see how it would feel to be one of his co - workers. The writer talks about the man from Peru who he befriends and how hard it is for him. As he only knows very little English. The writer mentions how the other workers wonder why he is there being someone who is white and speaks very fluent English. I think the author has a good leg to stand on for credibility because he places his self in the same situation for one month as the other temp. workers. He realizes that it is worse for the people he works with because it is not just a trial period for them, it is there life. Even though he deprives himself and gets real hungry. He endures physical hardships from the hot sun and all the walking to get places that he does so he can really live the part. He still can't feel the way someone from another country must feel.
I think that the target audience are those people who think they have it tough when really they don't. People with lots of money. This story should open there eyes to how good they really do have it. The audience could be the people who are in a lower income bracket to show them that someone does care and worked as they do and now understands. I feel the message or main point in this reading is: There is someone who has it harder than you just around the corner. So think about what you have and be a better keeper of what you have. I think the author thinks the people he worked with are courageous and strong, tough cookies. And I think he wishes they could have it better. He is grateful he could go back to his 30,000 dollar a year job, what he already had. But I don't think he will ever forget his experience or even want to.
Mustang Sally