The thesis statement in “Another Kind of Poverty” by Anna Quindlen describes how poverty is effecting more than just the typical elderly man. The author mentions how families and young adults can now be found on the streets or in soup kitchens. The rhetorical style listed for this particular essay is definition. The essay mainly defines how poverty is a growing issue causing the lower class citizens to suffer.
Being one of the first quotes in the book, this quote nicely provides a better understanding of the interlocked conditions and problems that those in poverty often face. It beautifully illustrates how the poor are limited by their living and working conditions and find difficulty escaping poverty due to how closely interlocked their conditions are. In order to escape poverty, these individuals have to find a way to solve all of their problems contained within their environment. However, these poor individuals are unable to do so since they are facing financial problems. Reflection
I. Rank R., Mark.2011. “Rethinking American Poverty.” Context 10(2):16-21. II. Misconceptions the public has about poverty mostly who is responsible for preventing it.
In Carol B. Stack’s book, All Our Kin, Stack journeys into The Flats, an African-American poverty-stricken community and she narrates her one on one experience with the community themselves. Stack observes that the black urban poor or any other poverty-stricken communities do not come into poverty from an individual’s experience but comes from middle and upper classes, due to their need for lower class labor, which they think is needed for the economy. Stack also talks about the lifestyle of the people in the Flats and their survival to live on within their community. Stack discusses the two pre-requisites that Stack claims that the poor need to accomplish in order to get out of poverty and also the treatment of the poor in the flats from the larger members of the society.
In today’s society, people are defined by their ethnic, gender and class affiliations. For this reason, inequality and discrimination are factors in how minorities are treated in American society. John Iceland’s book, “Poverty in America A Handbook” discusses how even though the United States has the largest-industrialized economy; it has more poverty than any other country that has similar standards of living. Iceland focuses and examines why poverty is prominent to this day, what groups are affected, what defines being poor in America, and the causes and effects of the poverty. Michelle Alexander’s book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” discusses the issues specifically related to African-American males
In Jeanette Walls’ non-fiction life changing story about living in poverty, The Glass Castle, she describes the The Glass Castle reflects much of Jeanette’s life living in poverty with her mom, dad, Brother Brian, and Sisters Lori and Maureen. Constantly short on cash and food, Jeanette frequently has to move from city to city in the desert area while her dad looks for a steady job. When her dad finds a steady job in the desert on the west coast, the family is able to buy a house but unable to manage the income because her dad is an alcoholic and her parents never learned to manage cash. Both of her parents are educated but very lazy. Her mother manages to get a job as a teacher but soon decides it is too much and Jeanette and her siblings
For my research paper, I want to explore how people born into poverty are resilient and hardworking individuals, opposed to lazy and hopeless individuals. This issue was seen in Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle throughout her childhood until she went to New York. During her childhood, Jeanette and her siblings were bullied. They were bullied because their clothes looked ratty, they looked greasy, and often times eat out of the garbage because their parents didn’t have enough money to buy food.
Maria Shriver offers what working women need, to be successful in today economy. She shows how the economy has failed women and how living in poverty has increased over the years for women. This book holds a collection of research, articles and data that shows how we have failed women in poverty. The author also goes into detail showing the government has failed but taking fund away from much needed programs for women in poverty.
Views on Poverty In America there has always been five socioeconomic classes in which every individual is placed according to their birth family. With all these five socioeconomic classes in mind, brings the most widespread debate on the lowest category, also known as poverty. This debate consists of two main sides One: The government should not supply so many subsidies and programs, while the other explains that the government needs to establish a larger quantity of these programs and act against the deteriorated socioeconomic systems. However, by asserting two well versed and opinionated views America can agree that poverty needs to change. hardships closely followed the ever-growing population of American, in response of this the
Poverty The essay “What is Poverty” written by Jo Goodwin Parker talks about how she lived in poverty since she was a child, but she also makes it clear that she does not want anyone to feel pity for her or her family. Parker and her three children live in dirt and overall disgusting conditions. She also talks about all the different aspects of living in poverty. For Jo Goodwin Parker, personally, being poor destroyed her and stuck with her through childhood and adulthood.
This feature page focuses primarily on poverty in the 1960's. The war on poverty began in the 1960’s to battle the poverty that was striking Americans. It was to reveal and combat the causes of poverty alongside with prevention methods (1). In the 1960’s, more women were becoming the head of their household, mostly due to the Vietnam War. The more women that became the head of the household, the more the poverty rate for families grew.
Through the inclusion of specific literary elements in the public speech titled What is Poverty?, author, Jo Goodwin Parker, effectively reveals more information about her impoverished life. The narration and talking to the audience allows the reader or audience to feel as if they are in her shoes. For example, when she asks, “have you ever had to ask for help, knowing your children will suffer unless you get it?” (Parker 258), she includes the audience, reinforcing her point that her situation is very difficult and allowing the audience to fully grasp the confusion and the mental burden one must deal with when asking for help. Another one of the most efficacious uses of literary elements is the use of repetition.
The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee, is a coming-of-age story following the journey of two children, Scout and Jem Finch. The novel takes place in the midst of the great depression, consequently making poverty a prominent theme of the story. This focus on poverty opens up space for the reader to question the financial stability of their own time and region. An example of this can be poverty -- the inability to provide basic needs including food, clothing, and shelter, due to lack of money -- in Philadelphia in the past few years. The reader is likely questioning the following things: the amount of impoverished people, who those people are, if they have jobs, if they are homeless, if poverty is a cycle, and if the problem has improved or magnified over the last 10 years.
For example, her use of repetition of, “Poverty is…” throughout the essay keeps the reader interested and wondering what Parker will say next about poverty. She also uses metaphors to make the audience truly understand what poverty is. In the essay, Parker states “Poverty is an acid that drips on pride until pride is worn away. Poverty is a chisel that chips on honor until honor is worn away.” (3) these metaphors are very thought provoking and powerful, making you think about the impoverished in a new light.
In the passage “What is poverty?”, the author Jo Goodwin Parker, describes a variety of things that she considers to portray the poverty in which she lives in. She seems to do this through her use of first-person point of view to deliver a view of poverty created by a focused use of rhetorical questions, metaphors, imagery, and repetition to fill her audience with a sense of empathy towards the poor. The author’s use of first person point of view creates the effect of knowing exactly what she is feeling. “The baby and I suffered on. I have to decide every day if I can bear to put my cracked hands into the cold water and strong soap.”
