Summary Of Is A Hard Life Inherited By Rick Goff

Many wealthy Americans believe that the millions of people who don’t reach their definition of success simply aren’t trying hard enough. Kristof emphasizes in his New York Times article, ‘Is a Hard Life Inherited?’ the advantage that those same wealthy Americans have over the people they judge because they were born into better families. A family that, “loved them, read stories to them, and nurtured them with Little League sports, library cards and music lessons” (1). He makes his beliefs clear when he chooses to focus on the topic of the working poor of America, highlighting the experiences of his hometown friend, Rick Goff. Goff is a middle-aged man with a crushed hand and an arrest record who struggles to find steady work. The

When Kristof describes Yamhill as, “a window into the national crisis facing working-class men,” it portrays him as someone who knows firsthand how a poor upbringing can impact your chances of success. He follows quickly with anecdotes and quotes from Rick Goff about Goff’s childhood and family that appeal to the reader’s emotions, otherwise known as pathos. By stating that Rick “grew up in a ramshackle home in a mire of disadvantage…” Kristof plays with the reader’s emotions hoping they will begin to empathize with him (1). It isn’t until later in the article that the reader finds out about the poor choices that Rick made that harmed his chances of success. His many arrests, smoking and drinking problems, and the knowledge that he didn’t always associate with the right people are holes in Kristof’s argument that he predicts people will notice and attempts to argue against as he continues his article. He tries to improve Goff’s credibility by including the fact that he had never been convicted of a felony, only arrested, and often for trying to help other people. The audience he’s targeting, wealthy Americans who lack empathy, but not success, are not likely to find an arrest record as long as Goff’s reassuring, even if many of his arrests were for helping people. It helps hat Goff was arrested for trying to protect women from bullies because it is liable to make his arrest record seem less appalling to the audience since Kristof portrayed him as a fundamentally good guy. The form of appeal that Kristof uses least is logos, or logical appeal. He does not bring statistics into the article until it is almost completed, and he only cites two statistics that pertain to his argument. He references that, “[h]igh