Poverty is a dark and chilly fog that follows me wherever I go. Even when luminous rays of sunlight are beaming at me, it is a ubiquitous blanket that suffocates me. Ultimately, it is also the grim reaper who took away my innocence at an early age.
For as long as I can remember, my father’s favorite motto was, “Trong cái xui, có cái hên.” In English, this means, “When times are bad, look on the bright side.” At six, my family and I immigrated from Vietnam to America. As a young boy living in a small rural farm, America was the dream. Never did it occur to me in the last ten years that I would have to live in a rundown mold-infested apartment or move eight times. Because of the constant relocation, I gave up on having a home and eventually
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As I recall my experiences, I realize that I am very fortunate to be given the opportunity to be independent at such an early age. Requiring private lessons to join the top group in the orchestra, I persuaded my conductor to let me join by playing a series of complicated repertoires, proving to her that my tenacity could overcome those expensive lessons. At fourteen, I offered to tutor other elementary students to help my parents pay off our rent. At fifteen, I worked part-time as a receptionist at a tax office. No longer afraid of what life has to hit me with, I have learned to accept the blow and ricochet it back ten times stronger. Despite my reluctance to embrace my background of emigrating from Vietnam into poverty as a child, I am proud of it today. Throughout the years, I have learned not to treat my setbacks as boulders to drag me down, but as stepping stones to help me flourish. Even though life is full of variables, I know that my relentless tenacity and optimism will always remain constant. Although it was hard to see through the mist in the beginning, I will do just as my father’s always said, to see “Trong cái xui, có cái hên.” And piercing through that mist, wow, does it look
Jo Goodwin Parker argues what it truly means to be within the poverty, social class in her text, “What is Poverty?”. She does not complain to receive empathy, but more so to draw attention of the poor’s living conditions. Poverty dehumanizes its victims, physically and emotionally. Parker’s aggressive tone is a rhetorical strategy intended to ignite a fire within the reader to not remain “silent” of poverty victims.
Poverty is a difficult and horrible way to grow up in life. It causes people to become stressed, and terrified of the world. It also demonstrates the ugly side of the world. When you ae in poverty. It causes people to become desperate and do horrendous things like murder, rape, and prostitution. But poverty can also produce strong, determined, and hopeful humans. In Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus by Carolina Maria de Jesus, we see the ambitious mother of three living the daily struggle of living in the poor favelas in Brazil. She provides the best life she can to her kids, while also perusing her dream of becoming a writer. In Testimony: Death of a Guatemala City by Victor Montejo, the readers follow the inspirational
I remember the first time I came to America; I was 10 years old. Everything was exciting! From getting into an airplane, to viewing magnificent, huge buildings from a bird’s eye view in the plane. It was truly memorable. After staying few days at my mother’s house, my father and I wanted to see what Dallas looks like. But because my mother was working the whole day, it wasn’t convenient for her to show us the area except only on Sundays. Finally, we went out to the nearby mall with my mother. My father and I were astonished after looking at a variety of stores. But after looking at different stores, we were finally tired and hungry, so we went into McDonald’s. Not being familiar with fast food restaurants, we were curious to try American
In this article, Eric Liu presents his life as a native immigrant to an Asian American individual. He shares his experience through his reflection of ideas and emotions. Along with his story, it relates to the ideas of people’s journey from adolescence to adulthood. Eric’s inspirational experience is directed towards minority groups who try to adapt to the American culture and lifestyle. His parents emigrated from China to America, before he was born which he later became exposed to the freedom and diverse society. This results in beneficial effects for his individuality, career opportunities, and lifestyle. Although his parents have lived in a different culture than him, his life in America has made him assimilated into the American society
The United States is a country known for its variation of nationalities and ethnic races. After extensive research, and questioning I discovered that my ancestors originated from Norway and Switzerland. My family migrated to the United States in the late 1800’s from Norway due to social, economic, and religion reforms as well as, a surplus in the population. Learning of my ancestor’s migration to America has very much influenced my views on the existing immigration problems that the U.S. currently faces.
In the beginning of September 2005, disappointment and excitement revealed on my face when I boarded the plane to move to the United States of America. The feeling of leaving my families, friends, school, clothes, and culture in Cameroon presented a hardship for me on this journey. Of course, I anticipated this new life because it indicated a fresh start. I envisioned it resembling life in movies, where everything appeared to be simple and life was simply excellent. All things considered, I was heading off to the United States, known for the American dream. To me it meant that everyone is given equal opportunity to prosper, achieve a family, and attain a successful job as long as they are hardworking and determined. I felt exceptionally honored and blessed to have this open door since I realized that it was not provided to everybody. Coming to America denoted my transitioning on the grounds that I deserted my previous lifestyle in Cameroon, began a new chapter in my life once again, and finally became a much grateful individual.
“You are in America, speak English.” As a young child hearing these words, it did not only confuse me but it also made me question my belonging in a foreign country. As a child I struggled with my self-image; Not being Hispanic enough because of my physical appearance and not being welcomed enough in the community I have tried so hard to integrate myself with. Being an immigrant with immigrant parents forces you to view life differently. It drives you to work harder or to change the status quo for the preconceived notion someone else created on a mass of people. Coming to America filled me with anxiety, excitement, and even an unexpected wave of fear.
"Poverty." Current Issues: Macmillian Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010.Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.
In Becoming American, the Hang Sou , Herr, and Cha clans underwent tremendous turmoil in leaving Thailand and coming to America. They knew that there was no future for their families in Thailand and escaped the hardship and turmoil to take on the risk of reestablishing their family. They also had to overcome numerous barriers to begin the process of moving to America which lead to many difficult emotions and feelings that the family had to go through.
“You have such an interesting accent; where are you from?” That is the question I have heard over and over again since I moved from Puerto Rico to Houston, Texas. While aspiring to a more challenging educational environment from the one exposed to, I made the decision of moving with my aunt and uncle to the United States. Consequently, I sacrificed the time spent with my family and discerned the obstacles that were prone to surface for an individual whose native language is not English.
Immigration has always been a large conflict people have faced all across the world. There are plenty of reasons why people migrate to a country, whether it may be the United States or any other particular one. Many people often come in an attempt to escape poverty, crime, or to simply have a better opportunity to better their lifestyle. Although there are people who migrate and commit severe crimes, there are others who sacrifice themselves in order to live a better life. In addition to that, I believe the government should approve new immigration laws in favor of immigrants who come to better their life and achieve their dreams.
Before I was five, I thought I was Chinese. However, I wondered why I couldn’t understand the Chinese patrons of Chinatown restaurants. Upon learning my true ethnicity, I pulled out a mammoth atlas we had under the bed. My father pointed to an “S”-shaped country bordering the ocean, below China. It was then that I learned my parents were refugees from Vietnam. “Boat people,” my mother, still struggling to grasp English back then, would hear kids whispering when she walked through the halls of her high school. Like many refugees, although my parents and their families weren’t wealthy when they came to America, they were willing to work hard, and like many Vietnamese parents, mine would tell me, “We want you to be success.”
Poverty is a global epidemic that contributes to the deaths of millions each year. However, poverty is more prominent in some areas around the world than others. The Oxford dictionary defines poverty as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support, but it’s so much more. Poverty can be defined as being hungry, lacking shelter, being unable to go to school, being unable to see a doctor, or being powerless and having a lack of freedom. The reason behind the many descriptions of poverty is that poverty has many faces, and its definition changes depending on the place and time, however the effects of poverty on the poor are always the same.
As one of the biggest problems facing the world today, poverty continues to have significant negative implications for the society. The effects of poverty are extremely severe and far-reaching, so much so that it was one of the top Millennium Development Goals agreed upon at the Millennium Summit of the UN back in 2000 (Hatcher, 2016). To understand the effects that poverty has on the society, one must critically analyze the societies in which poverty is rampant, as well as analyze poverty from the relative perspectives that it presents. The core aim of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding of poverty and elaborate on the diverse ways in which it continues to affect societies across the world.
In conclusion, sometimes actions take place that changes a person’s outlook on life and as you can see poverty is one that can have a huge effect on not only one person, but also the people around him/ her.