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Poverty And Barbara Ehrenreich's How I Discovered The Truth About Po

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What do most individuals think of when they heard the word “poverty”? Some may imagine a person panhandling on the side of the road. Others may picture a family or group of people making an abandoned alleyway a place to call home. Upper-class people may view poverty as someone having to use public transportation because they cannot afford the cost of owning an automobile. Jo Goodwin Parker’s “What Is Poverty?” and Barbara Ehrenreich’s “How I Discovered the Truth about Poverty” both have rather divergent views of the same topic. But which one is right? Who really knows what poverty is? In the United States, the Census Bureau “determines the official poverty rate using poverty thresholds that are issued each year” (“National Poverty Center | University of Michigan”). Each author considers what the true …show more content…

Parker writes about poverty through her own eyes, because she lived in a life of poverty. She grew up in poverty, and even after she started a family, her family lived in poverty with her. Parker’s family lived a life of uncleanliness, sickliness, and overall in hazardous conditions. She explains the smells, family life, disappointments, and safety issues she faced for herself and her children due to this unfortunate way of life. Between the lack of hygiene and the scanty amounts of food she had to share between herself and her children, it is a wonder how they managed to survive both mentally and physically. As Parker describes her life in poverty more, readers can see that her family support system was not ideal either. Between job issues and difficulties in making ends meet, Parker’s husband left her. Though her husband was the

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In the article “How I Discovered the Truth about Poverty” Barbara Ehrenreich gives her view in poverty and explains why she think Michael Harington’s book “The Other American” gives a wrong view on poverty. She explained that Harrington believes that the poor thought and felt differently and what divides the poor was their different “culture of poverty.” Ehrenreich goes on to explain on how the book that became a best seller caused so many bad stereotypes on the poor that by the Reagan era poverty was seen as “bad attitudes” and “faulty lifestyles” and not by the lack of jobs or low paying jobs. And they also viewed the poor as “Dissolute, promiscuous, prone to addiction and crime, unable to “defer gratification,” or possibly even set an alarm clock.”

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The Truth About Poverty “Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit” this quote was said by Mahatma Gandhi and it relates so well with this article “It is Expensive To Be Poor”, answer the question yourself, Is it expensive to be poor? This article is titled like that to get the audience's attention early and have them thinking ahead of reading. The author Barbara Ehrenreich is building a pre thought when she does this which helps support her claim. “It is Expensive To Be Poor” by Barbara Ehrenreich is an article posted on “The atlantic” “which is where you can find your current news and analysis on politics, business, culture, and technology”. Knowing what “The Atlantic” offers for readers this gives Ehrenreich a detailed look at who she is writing to.

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