Flavio's Home By Flavio Da Silva

    In her writing, George examines how certain organizations, such as the “Habitat for Humanity” that aim to eliminate poverty may be working against themselves by the way they choose to show the problem. The visual representation that the organization gives reflect the understanding that most Americans have when it comes to what poverty really is. Showing the typical shacks, dirt, and black and white photos will alter a person’s mindset on poverty and cause them to not be able to recognize themselves in that situation. In reality, the poverty in countries like Africa are no different than the poverty we have in America. Georges writing gives examples of how Americans within our society are not motivated to help people as compared to other countries. All the sources she uses in her analysis are representing

In professor and editor Diana George’s article, “Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation,” published in the printed book Popular Literacy: Studies in Cultural Practices and Poetics, in 2001, she insists that representations of poverty in the media, only reveal of a small percentile of everyone impoverished, which makes them counterproductive. Opening with a brief anecdote about donation appeals made by nonprofit organizations, George directs her article towards the organizations themselves offering a suggestion to maximize the impact of their work. That suggestion is that representing poverty in a wider light, helping to display the more complex ways individuals are considered to be in poverty. The examples that George provides, become a pillar for her thesis that these current representations of poverty, while emotionally capturing, work against themselves.

In ‘Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor’ by Bell Hooks, issues involving the poor and the rich in the society are brought to light. Hooks addresses issues such as how the poor are viewed in the community, common assumptions about the poor, and how the poor are represented in the media. In her analysis, it is evident that those living in poverty are grossly misrepresented. This misrepresentation affects these people’s daily lives.

In Ramirez’s view, economic need creates “interdependence and closeness.” In the barrio, when you are poor, which most of the residence are, you will do anything to help your family out, even if you are a kid. Children in the

In the documentary “Poor Kids”, Frontline explores childhood poverty from the eyes of the children that are enduring the epidemic. Through interviews and observations, the children from these poor families tell their stories uncandid, honest and in their own words. The outcome is remarkably discerning, by taking viewers into their livelihoods and day to day experiences, and displaying their unfortunate lack of resources and hope. Every single day, huge numbers of American families get pulled out of the middle class and dumped into poverty. The amount of reliable, secure jobs continues to shrink, and families don’t have any way to pay their bills, causing them to lose electricity, water, and even their homes.

Parks talks about Flavio and his family, describing the everyday struggles of Flavio as he tries to grow up in Catacumba. Flavio’s siblings are viewed as rowdy and unable to get along. Parks also shows how impoverished the da Silva family is when he finds out Jose da Silva, the father, earns seventy-five cents regularly. Parks also describes how hostile the favelas are during the night, and how they are no place for a child to be nurtured in. Later in the passage Parks describes another side of Brazil when he goes to the hotel he stays in, which is much more fortunate than the favelas. To conclude, the reader finds out Flavio will not live long when he is taken to the doctor, where the doctor proceeds to tell Parks and the da Silva family the news. Parks then ends the article by telling Flavio everything will be okay, upon which Flavio replies with saying he’s more concerned for his sibling than his own well-being Leaving the reader feeling compassionate towards Flavio and his family.

Parker also explains her purpose through the use of stylistic devices like imagery. She uses concrete images to portray the idea of poverty. She explains that “Poverty is staying up all night on cold nights to watch the fire knowing one spark on the newspapers covering the walls means your sleeping child dies in flames.” What adds to the readers idea of poverty is the horrendous image of a child burning to death, also the newspaper-covered wall of a make-shift house. There are plenty other nouns like grits with no oleo, runny noses, and diapers that paint an image of poverty in the reader ́s head. You also have the sense of ́smell ́ through this essay by phrases that describe the “sour milk”, “urine”, and “stench of rotting teeth”. You can also ́feel ́ poverty through hands that are “so cracked and red”, since the author cannot afford vaseline. The use of imagery makes the a!udience more conscious of the effects of poverty. !

Words provoke preconceived ideas and images in the mind, when it comes to a situation like poverty these preconceived notions can have undesirable and unintended consequences. Diana George examines the semantics and the imagery of the word poverty in her article titled “Changing the Face of Poverty; Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation. While also addressing the issue of the perception poverty and what someone in poverty truly looks like (676). Prof. George is arguing that organizations like Habitat for Humanity, which are created to help people in poverty actually perpetuate the wrong image of what someone in poverty looks like (678). Most organizations created to help those in need, especially those in the US tend to portray poverty as what is seen and thought of as living conditions in Third World countries (683). In reality, poverty is all around each and every one of us in this country on a daily basis, and people might not always recognize it for what it is (681,682). Furthermore, the majority of people living in poverty in the United States do not live like or look like someone living in a Third World country. But in reality they are still living in poverty nonetheless (682,683). Organizations that portray people living in poverty here in the US as totally devastated and completely impoverished are doing a disservice to the people they are attempting to help. Consequently, by doing this they are giving a limiting idea of what someone living in poverty

It’s no secret that poverty affects minorities not only here in America but abroad as well. Our inner cities see the blunt of legal system; with “African American males incarcerated at a rate of 4,347 per 100,000 as of 2010(Shaefer Wu Edin 89)”. Ayesha Jaco, sister to rapper Lupe fiasco, wrote the spoken word poem “Ayesha Says” to shed light on injustices of a system that overwhelmingly affects minorities. Ayesha’s poem directly addresses issues that have been not only plaguing the black community, but also compares the poverty we see here with the poverty we seen in conflict ridden countries. Things like police brutality and the school to prison pipeline leading to mass incarcerations of minorities overall, poverty and how it systematically affects minorities, and how people of all races and creeds are coming together to fight these injustices. She reflects on how these things impact communities and force a season of change among the people afflicted.

The book presented statistics about New York’s poverty and contained drawings of the photos from Riis’ unending tour of the city’s worst slums. Riis said that his motivation for presenting such a dark tableau was “that every man’s experience ought to be worth something to the community from which he drew it, no matter what that experience may be.”

Jonathan Larson lived a short life in poverty. He was born in New York 1960 and died 1996. During his short 36 year life he is credited for a few plays and received many awards as either a playwright or a composer including Tick, Tick Boom and the opera La Boheme inspired, Rent.

To argue for more widespread generosity towards poor children in developing nations, Singer uses examples from the Brazilian film Central Station and the book Living High and Letting Die by Peter Unger. In Central Station, Dora delivers a boy to a specified address to make money, only to rescue him after she finds out that his organs were to be harvested. In Living High and Letting Die, Unger presents a hypothetical scenario in which Bob must choose to let a train hit either his Bugatti or a child and eventually settles with saving his car. Singer draws parallels between the moral issues in these fictitious situations and the very real issue of forgoing donations to charitable organizations. He points out a key difference between Bob’s

During my experiences in and out of the country, I have noticed, everywhere in the world, that the lower class is being discriminated against. Poverty is the society’s way of perpetually dehumanizing people and subjecting them to unlivable conditions while calling it just (Taniguchi). Years ago in 1895, Dickens published A Tale of Two Cities, in which he highlighted that “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (Dickens 7). Unfortunately, this is still a fact today. The wealthy are in their best times while the poor are being oppressed against.

the story “THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO” is written in first person narrator, whom is also known as Montresor his has a goal “revenge” towards a person whom the reader believe that he had insulted his family in the past. The story is told based on Montresor’s perspective, readers do not know whether or not Fortunato insulted this individual the past, because the story is being told 50 years later. The narrator seeks for revenge and believes that “a wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser… and when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong” (). The narrator feels that his revenge was perfectly accomplished, he did not get punish for his wrong doing and got away with it.

“In the Maya civilization, a peaceful tribe is brutally attacked by warriors seeking slaves and human beings for sacrifice for their gods. Jaguar Paw hides his pregnant wife and his son in a deep hole nearby their tribe and is captured while fighting with his people. An eclipse spares his life from the sacrifice and later he has to fight to survive and save his beloved family.” Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.