Unit 4 Case Study Mason's Life

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

Evictions have a mental price on kids, who will remember that event for the rest of their lives. Desmond shows the huge impact it takes on the children who are not responsible for their upbringing and can ingrain the “poverty mentality” early on. An

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

Jeanette Walls’ The Glass Castle influenced my ideas about poverty by showing me that poverty can yield positive results. Before reading The Glass Castle, I believed that all poverty was tragic and life ruining. I thought that nothing positive or advantageous could come of out poverty. Reading The Glass Castle changed my opinion. In The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls and her siblings are resilient and brave. When the Walls family moves to Welch, West Virginia from Phoenix, Rex and Rose Mary Walls, Jeanette’s parents, travel back to Phoenix to pick up some of their old belongings and bring them to West Virginia. While Rex and Rose Mary are gone, Jeanette’s grandmother assaults Jeanette’s brother and banishes the children to the freezing basement. However, in the face of cruelty and cold, Jeanette and her siblings persevere and survive until their parents return. Poverty gives Jeanette and her siblings the ability to endure horrific circumstances. Because of their previous experiences with poverty, Jeanette and her siblings can withstand conditions and treatment that would have killed or crushed the spirit of a

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.

To begin, self-sufficiency is represented through symbolism. When Jeannette was little there was an incident where she was burned in a stove fire and when she was recovering her father, Rex says,”You can't live in fear of something as basic as fire.”(15) Rex says that Jeannette shouldn't let things in life scare her and she needs to overcome them. Jeannette’s need to overcome her hardships symbolizes her self-sufficiency because it shows that Jeannette is determined to support herself. Further, when the Walls family lived in Phoenix they could survive in harsh conditions with little to nothing, so Jeannette says ”We were sort of like the cactus”(22). Jeannette’s independence and how she can survive when she can't depend on other shows her self sufficiency. Jeannette’s self sufficiency is relatable to the reader because society is established in a way where in the end of it all, people can only depend on themselves to survive.

The author uses a seemingly endless cycle of poverty to emphasize the cage in which the characters are trapped. As Lizabeth muses over her childhood, she recalls the daily cycle of how “each morning our mother and father trudged wearily down the dirt road and around the bend, she to her domestic job, he to his daily unsuccessful quest for work.” (1). Every morning began the same way, passed the same way, and ended the same way. Lizabeth feels trapped, forced to go through the same series of events for what seems to be the rest of her life, with the same people, in the same place. When the author pairs this with the “dusty” setting of the town and the time placement of the Great Depression, it creates an effect of hopelessness for the first part of the story. This is only furthered by Lizabeth continually returning to the idea that “Poverty was the cage in which we were all trapped.” (1). Lizabeth opens the story by first giving a description of her hometown as “dusty”, remembering the poverty and hopelessness. She then continues by referring to the cage of not having enough money, and the cycle that it put them through, and ends by alluding to her future being limited to her poverty.

In Tressie McMillan’s “The Logic of Stupid Poor People”, it changed people’s views on the threat of keeping up with society, and the status symbol people think they must maintain. Society classifies it as Middle class, suburbs, or simply rich and poor. People feel threatened when someone looks better than them, or has something that they do not have. This story killed all reasons to even feel this way. McMillan also linked this story back to her own personal childhood. Their family was a classic black American migration family, with rural Southern roots. During this time most African Americans were considered as poor. Her family

Likewise, in the novel, there are also examples of being poor and people struggling financially. "Spanish Harlem needed a change and fast. Rents were going through the roof. Social services were being cut. Financial aid for people like me and Blanca who were trying to better

Imagine: A young boy scavenges for food to provide for his impoverished family which was composed of his ill mother and starving siblings or a homeless, single mom desperatley seeking for shelter. These synopses from "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and "The Street" by Ann Petry share a common theme: perseverance through hardships. In "Angela's Ashes," a memoir by Frank McCourt, he stells about the harships he endured through his childhood, such as, struggling to assist his family in the midst of poverty by stealing food to provide for them. Futhermore, in "The Street," a novel by Ann Petry, tells the story of young Lutie Johnson, a homeless single mom who is seeking shelter for herself and her children. In these two excerpts, the authors use the characters, settings, and events to develop the theme, which I've identified as perseverance through hardships.

Rex Walls had grown up in a poverty stricken town of Welch. He grew up in “big worn house” on the “downhill side of the street” (Walls 130). It smelled of “mold and cigarettes and unwashed laundry” (Walls 131). However Rose Mary Walls grew up in a very structured home in Texas where her mother made her follow

Poverty is one of the main subject matters that is present in the book of The Other Wes Moore, and its consequences are revealed through various outcomes that are being portrayed by both characters. Poverty is being characterized through the social environment that both characters live in. Both Wes Moore’s were living in an environment that had an impact not only on the way they behave, but also their psychological behaviour. “Living in the Bronx and Baltimore had given me the foolish impression that I knew what poverty looked like. At the moment, I realized I had no idea what poverty was even in rassing sense of pride tentatively bloomed in the middle of the sadness I felt at my surroundings” (Moore, 2010). Moore explains this notion of poverty when he realizes how different poverty can be depending on the country. Through this statement, the author reveals that poverty is inescapable and it exists everywhere. In comparison, Gabor Mate’s In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction book, explains the notion of poverty in a manner that demonstrates how poverty is a result of societal issues, and when problems are combined they lead to stress, anxiety as well as depression. He further establishes how every individual has a way of coping with life hardships and stressors, some choose to seek help and others try to forget about the issues in which they encounter by using drugs, and their choice frequently depends on their social hierarchy or status. “In the

The truth behind the poem “Poverty and Wealth” is bone-chilling, almost as if it was meant for a character like Ponyboy Curtis. On the east side of town, there lives

In his book Elijah Anderson tries to describe how life is, living in a black poor community in an American town known as Inner-city. In this area everyone is struggling financially and seem distant from the rest of America. The main social class in this town is the “decent” and the “street” families as the community has labeled them. The labeling by the local is as a result of social contest between the inhabitants. The line between a decent and street family is usually very thin, it’s based on a family evaluation of itself labeling itself decent and the other street. The irony is that families bearing a street label may value itself as decent and still valuing other families’ street. However, this labels form the basis of understanding inner-city community lifestyle. The community has many of the white society middle class values but they know the values don’t hold water in the street. They say it does not provide the attitude of a person who can take care of themselves in the street.

“Drafted the 17th pick in 2000 NBA draft from Oklahoma State, Desmond Mason’’. Desmond Mason was a basketball player for several teams. Mason is now an artist with a lot of paintings in art galleries and museums. He is also a dad with 2 kids and has 40 years of age. Desmond Mason is a great role model because he counciled previous teammates , dealt with a bad childhood, and he was a recipient for an award.