1. American Literature Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed By Lily Yeung

3. Overview satirizes America’s sense of patriotism setting: World War I (1920’s); hospital room protagonist: Joe Bonham antagonist: controllers of war (government & wealthy, upper classes)

4. Literary Techniques Themes: working class suffers during wartime war=gamble and human lives=chips Internal/External Conflicts: unable to communicate coping with the effects of war

5. Excerpts “Four maybe five million men killed and none of them wanting to die while hundreds maybe thousands were left crazy or blind or crippled and couldn’t die no matter how hard they tried” (85). “If they weren’t fighting for liberty they were fighting for independence or democracy or freedom or decency or honor or their native land or something else that didn’t mean anything” (112). “It robbed him of any respect for his own thoughts and that was the worst thing that could happen to anybody. He was so mixed up that he wasn’t sure whether the nurse or the rat was real. Maybe neither was real. Maybe both were real. Maybe nothing was real not even himself oh god and wouldn’t that be wonderful” (100). “If you can keep track of time you can get a hold on yourself and keep yourself in the world but if you lose it why then you are lost too. The last thing that ties in with other people is gone and you are all alone” (126).

6. Personal Connection © Health Treasures © Act for Peace

8. Overview Ehrenreich’s personal accounts of low- wage America: wages housing living conditions & problems the underprivileged people work does not guarantee a better life both the lazy and the diligent face poverty

9. Literary Techniques Motifs: “free-for-all” type of job environments high rent & low salary combination Internal/External Conflicts: tourist perspective managing two lives personal: most vital professional: essential for maintaining personal life

10. Excerpts “My guess is that he had taken—if he had taken anything at all—some Saltines or a can of cherry pie mix and that the motive for taking it was hunger… Then again, in a month or two I might have turned into a different person altogether—say, the kind of person who would have turned George in” (41). “If I had been able to find an apartment for $400 a month or less, my pay at Wal-Mart--$1,120 a month before taxes—might have been sufficient, although the cost of living in a motel while I searched for an apartment might have made it impossible for me to save enough for the first month’s rent and deposit” (198). “True, I take occasional breaks from this life, going home now and then to catch up on e-mail and for conjugal visits (though I am careful to ‘pay’ for everything I eat here, at $5 for a dinner, which I put in a jar), seeing The Truman Show with friends and letting them buy my ticket… And when I sit down one morning in my real home to pay bills from my past life, I am dazzled by the two- and three figure sums owed to outfits like Club Body Tech and Amazon.com” (34). “… she certainly doesn’t have any money to buy lunch, as I find out when I offer to fetch her a soda from a Quik Mart and she has to admit she doesn’t have eighty-nine cents” (78).

11. Personal Connection © The White House © 1Up Travel NY CT

12. The American Experience Connection Between Both Books

13. The American Experience JGHGN&D (Criticized) Ideals: Patriotism Freedom Honor Past: Unthinkable Present: Considered (Criticized) Ideals: Fulfilling Dreams Opportunities Past: Hopeful Present: Uncertain

14. The Connection SimilarityJGHGN&D Working Class Cons Must serve if drafted Possessions and life at risk The poor only become poorer Stripped of standard rights American Dreams and Ideals? What is freedom if we cannot refuse to die? What is equal opportunity if it isn’t given to everyone?

15. Works Cited American Success Institute. Act for Peace and Freedom. 2003. 5 Sept. 2004. Sunburst Communications, Inc. Health Treasures: Nuclear Radiation. 2004. 5 Sept. 2004. The White House. 5 Sept. 2004. University of Texas-Austin. The General Libraries. 5 Sept. 2004.