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Gutter Child Quotes

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Oppression is pervasive that has shaped history, society, and individual lives in profound ways. Jael Richardson’s “Gutter Child” is a dystopian novel. The novel Gutter Child is about various people who live in a society that is filled with injustice and oppression and is displayed throughout the entire book through the difficulties faced by people referred to as gutter people. Jael Richardson's “Gutter Child” displaces the topic of oppression leading characters to make impossible decisions due to the situations they are left in. This is shown through the character of Tilly who has to make decisions for the sake of her child and Violet who committed suicide left with no other decision due to her situation. The way the oppressive gutter system …show more content…

She made the painful decision of giving up her sick baby's life along with her own through suicide. It shows the extent of suffering caused by the system. This is shown through the quote "She just cries and cries like this. All the time. Because she knows what is coming. She doesn't want to go in there either." (Richardson 287). This quote is supposed to define some of the last words said by Violet before she committed suicide as it seems she had no other choice because she was not allowed to give away her baby. After all, the baby was too sick. This conflicted with her plan in life because she wanted to get rid of her gutter debt but was unable to because she cannot give away her baby leading her to make the sad decision of suicide. The Gutter system has a major impact on everyone's lives, including Violet's. If the oppressive system didn't exist, their lives would have turned out differently, and Violet might not have chosen to end her life. The Gutter system is the reason behind her decision to commit suicide. This is through the quote “-I can't go back.” (Richardson 286) showing Violet talking to Elimina before her and her child's death. This quote shows Violet telling Elimina that it's too late and that she had came to the universal conclusion that suicide was the only way. Through this, it comes to show how much this oppressive society can affect one's emotions

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Expected it to feel like one of those commercials where they play mournful music and some white actor's compassionate voice-over urges you to sponsor a child because it's the only way they will be saved from their hellish third-world country” (Ribay 197). The combination of the discrimination of these two groups against people who live in the slums creates social injustice. People are treated differently because of

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She includes her sympathy for a woman with seven children with the fear in a mother’s eyes that her one night old baby will not fall into enemy hands. From there, she goes into detail about women and families who suffer. Wilkinson wrote, “But who can forbear the tear of sympa-thy for the distressed families, who are left behind to mourn the fall of those they highly valued, and from whom they derived their support?”

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The barrier between her and the neighbours after her husband’s death forced her to become reserved and quiet. Her and her son only went into town if they had to. They preferred to stay close to the garden where they felt safe. The death of the husband is the cause of the mothers’ complete change in character. The death let the audience connect with her on a deeper level to understand her pain and suffering.

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Numerous people's lives are affected by the crushing grasp and ruthless force of oppression, which binds and deprives them of their basic freedoms and rights. Jael Richardson, the acclaimed author behind the celebrated novel "Gutter Child," delves into the depths of oppression within the pages of her known work. Richard expertly captures the struggles that Elimina and other characters face on a daily basis through the moving story of Elimina and various other characters in the book. Elimina's mother passed away, leaving her to live in the gutters and fight for her freedom. However, they face numerous difficult obstacles on the way to freedom.

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She started experiencing the brutal truth of the outer world as when her mother was alive she was given every comfort never made her realize that she was a slave. This clearly means that to deal with the hardship around

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801 Words | 4 Pages

She set a goal of becoming free from the drugs she was using. She was put on morphine to stop the pain from her illness. However, she became addicted to it which is something she wanted to change before she died. She didn’t want to die the weak way by continuing with her addiction problem, so she decided to stop taking the pills. After a while of her slowly stopping to take them she got used to being free from them and beat her addiction before she died.

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This wonderful man wanting to take care of his child become a father and have a family. He was willing to man up and help raised that baby he created and she denied him. The image imprinted into her skull making sure that she never forgets what she caused or done to him, will forever be played in her mind “Holland stumbled backwards, smoke wisping out of his chest like his heart was a fire that had been doused” (Rash 91). “I ran over to see how bad it was and saw Holland’s face gone white as August cotton bolls.”

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During 1980’s, much racism and indifference to adversity openly ruled in places such as Chicagoan slums. Children aged untimely, stripped of their youthfulness, happiness, and ambitions. This distinct social injustice became very apparent in Alex Kotlowitz book “There Are No Children Here” through his successful application of figurative language, powerful expression, and appeals to emotions and logics. To readers, now the question become is whether to continue to turn a blind eye to the uncomfortable conditions of the poverty-stricken or to intervene in improving their cause to restore balance in

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548 Words | 3 Pages

She feels like she has nothing left to live for and at this point in time the only ending she can see is death. Through this quote she doesn't want us to feel bad for her. She mentions how she is feeling because everyone experiences depression differently. This is how she feels about it. She wants us to be ok with her decisions and her thoughts because at the time she was ok about them.

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The speaker is uneducated, so the writing in the first person is readable for beginners as well as educated adults. Walker addresses the audience specifically to to create deeper imagery, where the audience can add their own experiences to the story, such as “You’ve no doubt seen those TV shows” (46). The speaker directly addresses the audience, and so anyone reading the story, whether a minority, or the majority, will be connected to the story. Purpose: Walker describes the impact of oppression on the relationship between mother and daughter, and how the oppressed view themselves.

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She lived a normal life but the war that keeps going on gets too dangerous and they have to move. They need to walk miles and miles but no matter how

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By creating characters in the novel who are excluded and labelled the author demonstrates how cruel society can be to people. The purpose of this essay is to show how the author reveals the experiences of marginalised characters in society. Joseph Davidson is an introverted, fourteen year old boy who feels that he is trapped within his own world of chaos, and he too is a marginalised character in the book. It is suggested by the author that other characters believe that Joseph’s mother smothers him too much and his father has

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Throughout this treatment, she becomes much more interested in suicide and seems completely focused on coming up with a plan that will work. In one introspective moment, she explains that “Lately I had considered going into the Catholic Church myself. I knew that Catholics thought killing yourself was an awful sin. But perhaps, if this was so, they might have a good way to persuade me out of it” (Plath, 1971, p. 164).

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This shows what she had to endure to try to keep her baby healthy. It appeals to the loving protective side of the reader. It makes them think about what the baby must be going through beacuase of their economic situation. Rhetorical questions are used to directly engage the

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The reality of the situation was that she had no control over her father’s death. There was nothing or no way that she could have prevented the events that took place. Although she was extremely angry with the situation at hand she learned that she had other things to be grateful for. She wanted people to know that even though something or someone has passed away you can’t stay stuck in the state of depression forever. You have to step back and look at your life because the reality is, life still moves on.

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