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Poor Kids Documentary Analysis

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The movie titled Poor Kids highlighted three families living and dealing with poverty. The family that caught my attention was Johnny's family. Johnny’s father was a business owner and provided well for his family. The economy went into a recession and his father's business failed. The family was not prepared and lost everything except what they could carry with them. Though they were living in the shelter, Tom, Johnny's father, continued to work to support the family. Classy, Johnny’s mother did not work outside the home but maintained the family by monitoring the children, driving Tom to and from work. Johnny’s family was the largest, with six. His father Tom did not let his situation determine his fate. Tom was the head of the family. He worked as he always did, and was determined to get his family back on their feet. Classy was a strong mother and wife. She supported her husband in every way possible. They were a team, and by working together, they were able to support the children and improve their situation. The children did not regress, emotionally or academically. Johnny wanted to attend college to ensure a bright future. …show more content…

For Johnny, graduating from college ensures a good job and a secure future. His motivation, according to Johnny “If I don't succeed doing what I have to do in school and making good grades, I will fail. I'm going to live this life, a life of shelter and going through hard times, can't feed my kids, trying to figure out where I'm going to lay my head every night”

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I viewed Frontline a documentary series, which episode was entitled Poor Kids. The frontline personnel spent time with three children Kailey, Johnny, and Britany along with their families as they all struggle financially. We perceive a glimpse of what it is like to live below the poverty line in America through a child’s eyes. While observing the documentary, I became consciously aware that children who are considered poor or living below the poverty line were more mindful of the responsibilities of life. The children were worrisome of the lack of employment for their parents, bills, and in Britney’s case; how they would accommodate their way of living to support a new addition to the family.

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875 Words | 4 Pages

In the hospital, he is finally realizing that there is so much in the world to explore and wants to live so he can explore it. “There’s still lots good in the world” (Hinton 179). Johnny knows that he can be whatever he wants to be, but doesn’t have enough time to do so. By the end of the novel, Johnny shows that he can be brave, gallant, and a strong leader.

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904 Words | 4 Pages

Oscar Lewis’s paper, “The Culture of Poverty,” discusses many of the different ways poverty can shape people’s actions. The movie Los Olvidados has many examples of the types of lives one can lead in a poverty stricken society. Meche is a young girl that must face the harsh reality of womanhood early and Pedro is a young boy who does not know how to be good and suffers dire consequences because of it. These two characters stand out from the movie because they fit many of the observations from Lewis’s paper. Peter has no father figure in his life because his mother never knew his father and the other children’s father had passed away.

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1088 Words | 5 Pages

While he seems to be stressing the significance of schooling, he also appears to be attempting to persuade young adult that choosing the college path is not only superior to the work force but easier. The author claims education is important; however, with a little insight of his college life that consists of sleeping in, watching sports, drinking beer, the author unintentionally shows his claim is more of a declaration that college is the easier path than the work force.

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744 Words | 3 Pages

His parents were rarely mentioned. Their names, personalities, and many more important factors are left unknown to the reader or analyzer. If he were truly responsible or caring, he would be thankful for his

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913 Words | 4 Pages

Generational Poverty Poverty has been around for numerous years. Poverty can be a generational problem if people let it. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” and David Joy’s “Digging in the trash” both show that families in poverty do not have it easy, the children will live in poverty unless something is done, and people either find a way of escape or stand up against it. In the short story, “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin shows how the lack of monetary resources affects many generations.

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771 Words | 4 Pages

His mother and father’s dreams were just fantasies played in the hands of poverty. If his mother and father couldn’t achieve their dreams, Junior himself can’t reach success if destitution is dragging him down. To illustrate this point, “And it's not like my mother and father were born into wealth. It's not like they gambled away their family fortunes. My parents came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people,” (Alexie 11).

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364 Words | 2 Pages

"A Daughter of Han  written by Ida Pruitt revealed what life was like for a Chinese woman in the 19th century. It allowed us to follow an ordinary woman's life story during the end of the Qing Dynasty. Our main character, Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai, lived a full and difficult life. In her time, she gave birth and buried children, she worked as a maid, she begged for money and food to raise her children, she sold her daughter for she could not afford to feed her, and she felt fortunate for being able to age with her family close to her. As the story unfolded, we learned more about the culture and the traditions at the time from Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai's view.

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727 Words | 3 Pages

The reason being is because the group of neighborhood kids are born into a sense of poverty. We can come to a conclusion towards the middle of the story that they and their families do not have a lot of money. The conflict of the children is that they

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879 Words | 4 Pages

Jasmine along with her three brothers and parents lived in a homeless shelter at the Salvation Army. She often felt sad when they drove past houses and saw people entering their homes, she wished that was her sometimes. Her brother Jonny shared how difficult it is living in a shelter and how that 's something you don 't want anyone finding out about it. If people found out you would lose your friends and others would make fun of you. Their family was considered middle class before the recession hit.

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596 Words | 3 Pages

This documentary film explores the poverty issue in America. They follow three families who are struggling with financial difficulty due to the down fall of the economy. They interview the kids from each family while allowing them to freely express their feelings about being poor. These families do not come from the infamous welfare system. They are the victims of the market crash that led to the economic recession that started in late 2000’s.

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867 Words | 4 Pages

In the documentary, Children for Sale: The fight to end sex trafficking, Jada Pinket-Smith explores sex trafficking in Atlanta, Georgia. Mrs. Pinket-Smith took to Atlanta with her T.V. crew from CNN to speak with underage children that was exploited and took advantage of by human traffickers. She conducted interviews along with CNN Projects with Sergeant Torrey Kennedy a supervisor at Dekalb County Police Department Special Victims, and Internet Crimes Against Children, and Lisa Williams the Founder and executive director of Living Water for Girls and the Learning Resource Center. In addition, they interviewed two young ladies named Sacharay and Rachel McCool, former sex slaves, Kasey McClure a motivator, and Dalie Racine, the assistance district attorney in Dekalb County. This documentary discussed the terms used in the sex slave trade industry.

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553 Words | 3 Pages

The biggest impact that the video left on me is seeing that families being in poverty has the biggest effect on their children, which is heartbreaking and very eye opening. I believe that children should have the best care and growing up conditions as possible; however, a family in poverty will not be able to provide as well for the child as an upper class family. Proper nutrition and education is critical for the developing youth. Many children that are in poverty drop out of school to help support the family, which repeats the cycle for their generation and makes their situation worse. Without an education they are crippling themselves from reaching farther in life to gain the potential to support themselves and their family.

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813 Words | 4 Pages

At the beginning of the novel, Johnny lacked confidence and self-esteem. At times he thought about attempting suicide. S.E. Hinton describes Johnny as, “A little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and lost his crowd of strangers” (11). This is because Johnny 's parents are abusive: his mother verbally and his father

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1259 Words | 6 Pages

His idiosyncrasy remains loving and understanding, even when his younger son returned home after many of been away with not a penny to his name. The young son showed disobedience to all the goodness his father had offered to him. The young son showed traits such as selfishness as well as being ungrateful. He had no worth for his father’s property nor did he want to work alongside his father on the family farm.

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