Poverty In Katherine Boo's Novel Behind The Beautiful Forevers

Imagine coming home to a house that has no warmth or food. Constantly feeling like you are in a place you can’t get out of. This is how poverty may feel to others. The expeirences from the author Jo Goodwin Parker in the story “What Is Poverty” and the McBride family from the novel “The Color Of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute To His White Mother” show that there are various effects of living in poverty that include emotional problems, adolescent rebellion, and

By learning about the poverty in not only the city of Buffalo, but also the rest of the country, it inspires me to step up and be engaged in my community even more. We have learned so much about how things like the education you receive and what neighborhood you grow up in can heavily affect your future. In one of the readings from week 4, when the author is discussing poverty, he says, “What I see is the failure of society. I see a society that let that happen, that is not doing what it should. And it’s very sad” (Pilkington 25).

As a child, Jeannette’s sense of wonder and curiosity in the world undermine the need for money. During her young adult years, a new wave of insecurity associated with her poor past infects her. Finally, as an experienced and aged woman, Jeannette finds joy and nostalgia in cherishing her poverty- stricken past. It must be noted that no story goes without a couple twists and turns, especiallydefinitely not Jeannette Walls’. The fact of the matter is that growing up in poverty effectively craftsed, and transformsed her into the person she becomeshas become. While statistics and research show that living in poverty can be detrimental to a child’s self-esteem, Jeannette Walls encourages children living in poverty to have ownership over their temporary situation, and never to feel inferior because of past or present socio-economic

Linda Tirado, author of Hand to Mouth Living in Bootstrap America, tells her story of what it’s like to be working poor in America, as well as what poverty is truly like on many levels. With a thought-provoking voice, Tirado discusses her journey from lower class, to sometimes middle class, to poor, and everything in between. Throughout the read, Tirado goes on to reveal why poor people make the decisions they do in a very powerful way.

In “Changing the Face of Poverty”, the author Diana George shows different ways poverty is advertised and displayed. She disagrees with the way poverty is addressed and visually represented, in a limited way. I agree with the way she wants people to acknowledge how poverty is being misunderstood.

Poverty is a main part of life for many people in the world, more importantly the United States. Jeanette Walls shows how big of a problem poverty is in her memoir “The Glass Castle”, with her stories of how she grew up and her family’s struggles. How her family was treated along with what the people living around them found important clearly shows their economical class. The problem of food scarcity, or not having the bare necessities are some of poverty’s main problems. In “The Glass Castle”, the issues of poverty are displayed through not having the basic necessities, not being able to provide for children, and how there is not always enough food to feed everyone in the family.

In a absorbing way that made me cringe at times, Shipler allows these ‘invisible’ poor to narrate in their personal stories the structural, social, economic and cultural barriers that impact the families. Although I tend to disagree, Shipler admits that one

For example, one of the slum’s young women, Manju is on track to become the first female graduate from Annawadi. Another can be seen in Abdul’s business of recycling and how it is helping improve his own economic conditions. Or through a number of the younger Annawadi kids going to these prop up free or “bridge” schools, despite them not being of the highest quality. While this may not seem to be rather huge events, or some may view them in isolation of each other, it at least demonstrates a slight trend of upward mobility and a subjective increase in quality of life for a number of Annawadi’s civilians. These smaller trends would perhaps distinguish Annawadi from India’s true poor citizens who were born in to poverty and have seen almost or perhaps no opportunity to escape the situation of which they were born in. This can be related back to the idea of development being a widening of peoples capabilities or opportunities, and that Annawadi may not be considered truly poor in comparison inside India due to a number of it’s people finding or having the smallest openings to exploit scenarios where they have been able to improve their life

In a world full of issues such as poverty everyone is just trying to survive to keep their families safe. Life is already hard on its own but when thrown issues such as poverty it just makes it harder. Paolo Bacigalupi displays the money issues people are facing when two kids from different socioeconomic rankings clash in the book Ship Breaker. When Nita and Nailer who have two very different lives meet their perspective on life changes. Nita opens her eyes to what is going on in the world when she goes from living her swanky life to living in fear and poverty. The book Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi demonstrates how people in a higher socioeconomic status have more appreciation for life when they experience poverty first hand.

Personal Reflection Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, a Pulitzer Prize winning US Journalist, telling the stories of the people of Annawadi. I liked this book because Boo spent four years in Annawadi (P-249), a slum near Mumbai airport to capture their stories, which is full of dreams, hope, aspiration, suicides, brutal murder and how they struggled to survive. I also liked how the author captured the economic disparity, poverty and humanity of the people of Annawadi. I am glad that someone in US has a reason, courage and motivation to bring the living conditions of three thousand people in three hundred huts to this world. I am fascinated when I realized Boo’s reason - “what it takes to get out of poverty in one of the richest

cruel conditions of poor people in Victorian England made this documentary a heart touching one , but it as well recalls in mind all those conditions that poor people here in all the 3rd world countries suffer, made it no way to compare the two cases to put the nowadays poor person in our worlds in the ultimate first place

Kamala Markandaya's A Handful of Rice and two virgins is nothing however a record of the torment of the rural and urban individuals, and how the brutality of social wickedness bringing about anguish, passing and disaster is more explicit in both novels. Poverty is the ordinary reality of the characters in both novels. Poverty is not a unique idea that one can truly consider, it resembles wolf at the door that must continually be fought off. Both books are a jolt to amaken the general public against shades of malice.

Poverty displays itself as the undeniable reality of what our society displays that needs to stop so that future generations do not become forced to live the terrible life it manifests. Poverty is an international problem that has the potential to end if individuals work together to care enough. In Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez explains the struggles of a Mexican-American student in poverty that expresses his hunger to become a writer and a teacher one day. In contrast, in Nora Ephron's The Boston Photographs the families that appear in the photographs display tiredness of how they have the ability to live in poverty. While a long time period separates these two pieces of work, both discuss families that appear to struggle due to the effects of poverty in their everyday lives. However, whereas Rodriquez illustrates the willpower and hunger to want to move on from his lifestyle that he lives and overcome his impoverish state, Ephron demonstrates how families in The Boston Photographs want to end their lives since they will have nothing else due to their state of poverty.

Mamoon Akhtar lives in the slums of Tikiaparah, in Kolkata He is a man who has spent his life giving everything that he could, and more, to the underprivileged. He has gained global recognition for the same. Mamoon Akhtar is no fancy social activist or superstar who engages in social work because it’s in vogue. He is one of those who first brought it ‘in vogue’. He has seen poverty, a deprived childhood and illiteracy first hand. And so, he didn’t need any introduction to it. He didn’t take too much time to jump in and help the not-so-privileged ones as soon as he saw an opportunity to do so. As a child, Mamoon Akhtar managed to study only upto ninth grade, after which his schooling was stopped because his father had lost his job. The family

My grandfather was born in a time of poverty and struggle in India, as India had just gained its independence on the 15th of August 1947. Statistics during this time period state that the poverty rate was approximately 45% to 50% in the urban population and 50% – 55% in the rural population. Being born in Saidapet, an urban city, he faced poverty at a high level.