This essay "Down but Not Quite Out: Portrayal of Poverty and Inequality in Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Through Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London " analyzes the portrayal of poverty and inequality in Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and a George Orwell classic Down and Out in Paris and London. By studying and analyzing Ehrenreich’s text in the scope of Orwell this study will be able to look at what poverty tropes are different, similar, or looked through in a different perspective. While both Ehrenreich and Orwell face the theme of poverty and inequality their experiences differ yet possess noticeable similarities. Orwell familiarizes the reader with the heaviness of being down and out through his personal experience whilst Ehrenreich pushes through and navigates the precarious edges of poverty, barely getting by. This research seeks what tropes of “down and out” are similar or different to the tropes of “getting by". This will be done through close reading of different passages of the books. The analysis shows the different depictions of poverty in Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and Down and Out in Paris and London might depend strictly on the term “precariousness”. Living an insecure life not knowing when you might be down and out.