The novel “Scarborough” by Catherine Hernandez utilizes different perspectives to display the struggles civilians face in the east district of Toronto. This novel revolves around the author's own personal experiences giving readers a realistic depiction of the living conditions found in the community. One may believe the main message of the novel “Scarborough” is how there will always be support for you even if you don't realize it right away. Throughout the entire novel, the characters constantly support each other in simple ways demonstrating the community's altruism. Whether the characters realize it or not, they always have someone in their life that is willing to help them through stressful times.
She vividly describes the living and working conditions of lower income people in a costly city. Ehrenreich compels her audience to listen with the use of ethos and pathos. Ehrenreich establishes ethos, simply due to the fact that her argument is structured around something she experienced. Being personal allows the audience to form a connection with her because they can relate. Despite how awful her living and working conditions are, Ehrenreich is able to make light out of her situation by incorporating humor, “Picture a fat person’s hell, and I don’t mean a place with no food” (267).
In the novel, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, the lives of the Richardson and Warren families are tracked. The Richardons are a well-off family who have lived in Shaker Heights for generations, while the Warrens are new to the neighborhood and have never kept a residence for more than a few months. Through this expert from chapter ten, the author describes Mrs. Richardson’s analysis of Mia to communicate the theme that people of different social classes often misjudge those they cannot relate to. In this passage, Ng uses imagery, repetition, details, and diction to portray Mrs. Richardson as a person who values moral superiority through her threatened attitude toward Mia.
In literature, writers use a variety of points of view to convey their plot; these points of view can be first person, second person, or third person. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the unnamed narrator describes he or she killing an old man. “Harrison Bergeron” is a dystopian story about Americans in the future that have handicaps in order for them to be equal. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” tells the story of a grandmother and her family taking a trip to Florida that went wrong.
There are many aspects of life which we desire such as materialistic desires and happiness. Among the things that we desire, freedom is the most abstract and indispensable one. In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza, the main character, struggles trying to escape from poverty and getting restricted by men. From Esperanza trying to get out of Mango Street by education, to Esperanza’s mom giving up education, to Sally escaping from her dad by marrying a man, Cisneros suggests that only independence can offer a better life and freedom. Alicia and Esperanza are the only characters in the book who hope to find freedom through writing.
Wasteland is a documentary by Lucy Walker that depicts the lives of selected garbage pickers in Jardim Gramacho – a massive dumpsite found in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. The film is about Vik Muniz’s 2-year journey back to his home country seeking to give back to an impoverished community through making images out of an unusual material – trash. The film featured 7 garbage pickers from the landfill, and each has a story that brought them to their current places. One unique thing about the whole creative process is that the pickers themselves became part of it. Vik imagined that as they work on their own and each other’s images, the pickers will not only show themselves to a broader world that is for now comfortably oblivious of their existence, but also see themselves differently (Fuchs, 2010).
Everyone is affected by life’s circumstances. The responses to those experiences can have a positive or negative outcome in one’s future. In Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, the protagonist, Esperanza, gives us her views on life, how she views herself, and she views her future. Not only does she give her perspective throughout the story, she tells us of the numerous experiences that she grows through. These experiences have an impact on her, creating new emotions and new adult like perspectives she has never faced before.
Beauty is a very powerful and prominent thing. It’s what makes you get out of bed in the mornings and makes the world go round. Despite all that, there are some negatives of it as well. “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros gives a window back in time to a point where a little girl named Esperanza grows up on the streets of Chicago. Through the numerous rapes, abusive relationships, and the absence of respect for women, Cisneros portrays a theme that beauty is a double edged sword through the characters Esperanza and Sally.
In Andy Mulligan's novel 'Trash,' he presents a world that may seem unfamiliar to many readers. Set in a fictional and poverty-stricken community, the novel delves into the lives of three young dumpsite boys – Rafael, Gardo, and Rat. While the setting and circumstances depicted in the book may be foreign, the themes of life in poverty, hardship, and friendship and loyalty are ultimately universal, providing readers with relatable and thought-provoking insights into the human condition. Mulligan explores the harsh realities of life in poverty. Through Rafael, Gardo, and Rat's daily struggles for survival, readers are exposed to the socio economic challenges faced by individuals living in impoverished conditions.
In the fictional short story “Happy Ending’s,” Margaret Atwood utilizes multiple narrative perspectives. Third person omniscient is a powerful view as it gives a look into each of the characters minds and has control over the diction. While the second person point of view draws the reader into interpreting the story differently. She supports her ideas through the role of the narrator. Atwood uses both third person omniscient and second person point of view to narrate her feelings of the story telling process as well as the point of life as a whole.
The reading this week is by Mike Davis, and is titled Planet of Slums. Mike Davis creates an argument on how slums are a worldly issue that is spreading. Davis first begins his argument with statistics based on the monumental increase of population in all countries across the globe. He also uses examples of the increase of hypercities and megacities due to intensified urbanization in Mexico-city, Seoul-Injon, and New York. Which leads into the effects on the citizens, such as China and India, and the lack of proper housing and accommodations with such a rapidly growing population.
The use of first-person point of view, gave a better understanding of the thoughts coming from the janitor and how he analyzed 14-A’s mental condition throughout the story and used it against her. By using that point of view, the reader is able to dig into the janitor’s reasoning for wanting to mistreat 14-A as he had done. The janitor’s point of view has no limitations due to him being the main character and his being able to speak to the elderly lady in the story. Hinshaw uses the first-person point of view to reveal what is going on in the story, instead of not letting the readers know what is going inside of the main character’s mind. Not only is the point of view in the story important, but as a matter as fact so is the
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil is home to one of the largest wastelands in the world. In Lucy Walkers, Waste Land (2010), she gives insight into the lives that exist amongst that garbage and what little inspiration they have left for life. In order to provide the Catadores (pickers) of Jardim Gramacho (community/garbage tip) with a new found motivation for a better way of living, Walker, along with the infamous artist, Vik Muniz and his team, travel to Rio De Janeiro to put to practice the concept of turning someone’s trash into another persons treasure. Some of the main issues and ideas represented in Waste Land, run parallel with Dziga Vertov’s perception of the world, who says, ‘My path is towards the creation of a fresh perception of the world.
“No, this isn’t my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I’ve lived here (Cisneros 106).” This quote shows Esperanza’s unwillingness of accepting her poor neighbourhood because of the violence and inequality that has happened in it. In the House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, shows that there is a direct link between inequality, violence and poverty. The House on Mango Street shows women are held back by the inequalities that they face. Cisneros shows that racism prevents individuals from receiving job opportunities which leads to poverty and violence.
The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man, authored by Nels Anderson, offers an account of the behaviors, choices, relationships and living situations of the homeless in 1920’s Chicago. This study, conducted for the Chicago Council of Social Agencies, provides a platform to voice first hand accounts of the adventures and the hardships of the vagrant life. Born to a Swedish immigrant father and housemaid mother, Anderson spent much of his childhood moving around; from The West, to an Indian reservation, to Hobohemia, he moved 10 times over the course of 10 years. Anderson seeks answers to the many questions surrounding homelessness because he grew up in a milieu that only knew the vagrant life. Once he left high school, Anderson joined the
