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Review of the effect of poverty
Review of the effect of poverty
Review of the effect of poverty
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In Loewen and Hooks, both authors talk about poverty and class. They both talk about class structure and social class in their essays. Social class is one of the most important things in society. Loewen’s essay is more about why people are poor and how they survive under what class someone is in. He talks about rich and poor children and how their health could be involved. He also says, “Everyone has a chance in this land of opportunity”. As the reader, he is saying everyone isn’t given an equal opportunity in this day of age, especially the lower class. Hooks talk about her experience more as a child in poverty and how poverty was no disgrace in her household. She shows a lot of her emotions and what she went through to get where she is today. She explains to her readers that water in her household was a luxury and using too much would result in punishment. Water is just an everyday necessity American use to take showers and drink. Thinking about not being able to use water whenever one needs it is tough to think about. Although, being poor should not be a considered a bad thing or be put into a negative light it is every day and they are judged. If someone is poor that doesn’t make them a terrible, lazy person. Where ever someone goes they may see it in the streets or in stores and, most of us don’t want to help anymore. Wealth differences are ten times larger than income differences in America. Every day people are judged on what they have and what they don’t. When someone comes into your home they always look at what someone has and if their home is nice or not. That isn’t right because what someone has shouldn’t define them, it should be the person they are and how kind and giving they are. What someone has accomplished and... ... middle of paper ... ...ess, dishonest, and unworthy. Hooks says, “It is better to be poor than to allow another person to assert power over you in ways that are dehumanizing and cruel” (435). Weather poor or rich everyone deserves and opportunity to be successful in life and shouldn’t be stereotyped. Everyone deserves the chance to be successful in life and have the same equal opportunities. Poverty is everywhere in this world some worse than others. Living in poverty once in life it can actually be a learning experience. To see and experience the struggle gives them not only a better understanding but appreciate what they have. Works Cited Loewen, James, April, Eds. From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader, 2nd Ed. New York: Bedford, 2012. Print. Hooks,Bell, April, Eds. From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader, 2nd Ed. New York: Bedford, 2012. Print.
In Downs and Wardle’s article, they argue and identify the flaws in teaching writing in college. Demonstrating the misconceptions that academic writing is universal, but rather specialized in each case. Citing studies and opinions from esteemed professionals, Downs & Wardle state their points and illuminate the problem in today’s many colleges.
Writing with Readings and Handbook. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 52-57. Print.
On the other hand, if you are surrounded by an environment which revolves around drugs and bad influences, you have a bigger chance of falling into those same paths. I wasn’t poor but I wasn’t rich either, I was surrounded by an environment in which many people were in need of shelter and food because their families could not afford both. Just like poverty played a major role in my life, so did an ambitious and hardworking environment. Because those people I would see every day on the streets without food or a home, were the ones that had a bigger passion than anyone else, to one day be able to have a stable job and home for their family.
In the article “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor” by Bell Hooks, one of Hook’s primary purposes for this article is how people view the poor in a negative connotation because of the media. In the article Hooks views the lower class and the higher class different than most. She starts off her article talking about the poor are now being represented. One of her first arguments is talking about the labels the poor has and how poverty places a part in that.
Meyer, Michael, ed. Thinking and Writing About Literature. Second Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.
America tries to stand for equality, but our system does not properly help the disadvantaged. In “The Land of Opportunity” Loewen’s first year college students do not understand why people are poor and simply think that it is their own fault for being poor. High school students are not learning about social inequality or class structure. The ideas that they are going to College with are not accurate and the textbooks in public schools are partially to blame for this. Coming from a background of poverty, Bell Hooks understands the moral values and work ethic of the poor and the privileged. In “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Hooks represents the poor to show that in America the image of being rich is viewed from many perspectives
Hooks pointed out that many of his professors insinuated that there were negative stereotypes of being poor. Moreover, that self-esteem is linked to financial wealth; women he met with were on government assistance, but chose to get further in debt to appear to have money, never wanting to be labeled poor. Hooks was raised to believe that morals and values made one rich; that one could have all the money in the world but still be poor because of their attitude. Who’s accountable for why people in our society are poor? It’s seems a vicious circle that is hard for poor kids to escape. Many people with low incomes are “intelligent, critical thinkers struggling to transform their circumstances” (Hooks, p. 488) There are many resources, such as theaters that are empty all day, to pay it forward and help the less fortunate gain skills from college students and professors sharing their knowledge. Barbara Ehrenreich’s “How I Discovered the Truth About Poverty” questions why negative stereotypes of untrustworthiness in poor people. Because of this mistrust, the introduction of drug testing for government aid was passed. Why are those negative connotations associated with poverty? “Poverty is not, after all, a cultural aberration or a character flaw. Poverty is a shortage of money.”
“This Course prepares students for reading, research, and writing in college classes by teaching students to consider the rhetorical situation of any piece of writing while integrating reading, research, and writing in the academic genres of analysis and argument. This course is said to teach students to develop analyses and arguments using research-based content with effective organization, and appropriate expression and mechanics”. (1)
Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel K. Durst. "They Say/I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing: With Readings. Vol. 2e. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. Print.
People living in poverty can be thought of as a “them” who can be easily ignored and forgotten; when, in reality, poverty can affect anyone. When people are living in poverty, sometimes it is not their fault. Often, unfortunate events that are out of someone’s control can set them up for failure. For example, the poverty rate for disabled adults from the age of 18-64 is 28.5%, while disabled 18-64 year olds only make up 7.7% of America’s population (Proctor, Semega, and Kollar 16). Therefore, poverty disproportionately affects disabled adults. The stories of those living in poverty are incredibly diverse, as Sasha Abramsky points out in The American Way of Poverty:
...to the welfare system and the power of the structural political systems, the difference between rich and poor in this nation is tremendous. Our society consists of thousands of working poor. These individuals are in constant struggle for survival, they work to eat and barely have enough to get by. They work minimum paying jobs, earning less then $7/hr., working long hours. It is easy to point fingers and blame others for the problems that exist, however if our goal is to eliminate poverty, then we most take a more empathetic stance and work on ways that we can improve these conditions.
Bell Hooks makes the claim that the poor are misrepresented in the mainstream, which bolsters a low value on our self-worth which we assign to ourselves. In the essay Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the poor by Hooks, we see how there is misrepresentation of the poor through the perspective of the author, she often weaves her personal narrative into the evidence and observations of the general population. One of the things Hooks mentions early on is that "When contemporary Left intellectuals talk about capitalism few if any attempts are made to relate that discourse to the reality of being poor in America."(Hooks). The statement sets a foundation on which the rest of the essay is being built upon, because even if the liberals are not
For the entirety of my undergraduate career I had the distinct ability to successfully write research papers, critical essays and journal entries. On the whole I feel that my writing was successful due to the fact that I received excellent grades as well as glowing comments of support from my professors. Please understand that I am not boasting about my grade point average, class rank or even attempting to claim that I am a good writer. However, I do feel confident in my abilities to write papers that speak directly to the question at hand while simultaneously addressing, although not necessarily adhering to, the professor’s point of interest. I must credit much of my success as an undergraduate to Mr. M of the High School English Department. My outlook on academic writing was drastically altered during the fall of 1997 with the help of Mr. M and a writing course entitled College Prep II.
Levin, P (2004) 1st edition Write Great Essays: Reading and essaywriting for Undergraduates and Taught Postgraduates, Milton Keynes Open university press. Pp 25-36
1. From Inquiry To Academic Writing. 1 vols.