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Why Chicken Means So Much To Me Summary

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Poverty is nothing new in the eyes of the United States. The homeless ravish the streets of New York City in simple cardboard homes, the trailer park down the street from me in Birmingham, Alabama is filled with people struggling to make ends meet, and multitudes of Americans flood the sides of streets begging for an extra dollar or a scrap of something to eat. We see it everyday, and we wonder why these people do not just get up and get a job. We wonder why the homeless do not get up and find a spot in a homeless shelter. We wonder all these things without considering how the poverty truly and deeply affects a person’s life. Sherman Alexie addresses this affect on his on life in his article, “Why Chicken Means So Much to Me”, as he briefly describes how growing up as a poor Native American raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation allows him to be …show more content…

Alexie points out that “poverty only teaches you to be poor” (553). In this statement he logically concludes that his family has not been able to advance because all they know is the poverty they live in. In contrast, Alexie, once again, only considers his viewpoint. Although his statement is the case for his situation, it does not address situations where people have risen out of poverty, whether it is himself or other people within the reservation. His situation is not the same situation for all. Another example of this appears when he writes, “Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance” (553). He again leaves out the masses. Alexie argues that his parents “never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams” (551). The argument that being poor makes you a nobody is not well developed because Alexie’s only source is his own family. Other people in the reservation are not in the same situation, and can have the potential and mindset to come out of their

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