Theme Of Poverty In The Eyes Of The Poor

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Poverty is defined as a state where a certain group lacks the means needed for everyday living, Inequality refers to a state where one individual or group receives unequal opportunities based on their financial or social status, and modernity refers to advancement which can be in terms of economy, industry, education, etc. Poverty, modernity and inequality are distinct realities of the world we reside in, however, they do not have direct relations to one another.
It is widely accepted that poverty is a state of relative deprivation within a given society (Townsend, 1979; Nolan and Callan, 1994).This deprivation leads the poor to become victims of inequality, whereby they do not receive equal opportunities and are frowned upon by society. The poor therefore experience inequality in its many dimensions-economic, social and emotional. These conditions are highlighted in the poems; "Rats" by Nasreen Anjum Bhatti and In "The Eyes of The Poor" by Charles Baudelaire.Nasreen Bhatti shows readers the dark and devastating nature of poverty. Rats are addressed as family friends, and this sets the tone as serious and tense as rats are socially looked down upon. We see the tragic emotional and social state of the poor, as the extent of their hopelessness leads the girl to ask her mother what rat’s meat would taste like. The extreme hunger and pain is therefore conveyed to readers accompanied by the harsh word choice employed by the poet and this enables readers to feel the state of the