Volar

889 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Social class / poverty

Volar
One of the most prevalent issues in today’s society is the notion of social and economic status. As a whole we tend to focus on how much money we make and our place on the social ladder. The way that we perceive social and economic status is displayed in the story “Volar”. The short story “Volar” written by Judith Ortiz Cofer displays a strong theme of how social and economic status are viewed in today’s society.
First off the author puts a lot of little hints into the story clueing us into the fact that this family is from a lower economic and social status. This is to set up our views on what comprises social and economic status. Right off the bat we are told that this little girl has an “allowance of a quarter a day” (Ortiz Cofer 277). This is one of the only times that we are actually given an actual money amount in relation to this family. When added up over 7 days comes into a little under 2 dollars. When compared to modern allowances of wealthier family’s children they usually get much more than that. Another huge thing that clues us into the families economic and social status is the fact that the little girl is aware of her parents fear of the land lord “once I saw our landlord, whom I knew my parents feared,”(par 1). Most people don’t fear their landlords unless they are on the verge of being kicked out due to the inability to pay them. The fact that the parents are showing great enough fear of their landlord that the daughter is picking up on it shows that they are either behind on rent or unable to pay the rent regularly. Judith also write a conversation into the story between the father and the mother of this little girl talking about how the mom wants to go visit home in Puerto Rico the father says”(par 1)...

... middle of paper ...

...ore to the mom who has a better grasp of what’s going on with their financial situation that the daughter would. The idea of possessions stating our status in society is very real today. We are classified based on the type of phone we have or the clothes we wear down to the car we drive. People think the guy who drives the Mustang must been super rich but that doesn’t mean he actually is it is all just superficial and we view what others financial situations are based on what they own. Our possessions are another way we tend to view social and economic status and these things are shown in the story “Volar”.
The last thing that Judith uses to further the theme of how we view people’s social and economic status is the idea of space. The well off landlord has this huge space with this treasure room and all this money which makes us view him as a higher status symbol

Show More
Related

  • Bois Caïman Ceremony Research Paper

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    The entire story is an allusion, or a reference to the Hatian Revolution, and its themes of hope and escape, along with the poverty that follows it. The poverty is the first thing the readers are introduced to in this story. It was found that in 1985, 90 percent of the Haitian population was earning less than 150 USD per year. (Coupeau 103) Danticat is able to portray this well in her story, using little details throughout to signify that the family the story is about is living in poverty. This is best described on page 369, where she

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Documentary Waging A Living

    494 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Mary’s household, her two sons and daughter are dependent on her. Mary is head of the household and is currently going through a divorce. Mary is close to losing her house, car, and internet services. She hires babysitters for the days/nights that she has to work. Her children know that times are tough, and continuously encourage their mother. However, her son Quinn is dealing with the divorce and poor living in

    Read More

  • Struggles of a Dominican American Family

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Culture is our way of experiencing our daily lives. Dominican Republic’s culture is very complementary to mine, we respect our family dearly. Although it is peculiar for the housewife to be the bread winner of the family, the father is usually the one that will provide for the family. A Large family is infrequent nowadays, most families could have up to six children. A big family also plays a big role in financial problem. Junnot and his family leaves in a very poor neighborhood since it was just his mother that is basically feeding everyone in the house. The amount of income parents makes will determine the type of neighborhood they might live in, or the type of school the children might go to. “It is not as if the robbery came as a huge surprise. In our neighborhood, cars and apartment were always getting jacked.”(385) Majority of the immigrant lives in a poor neighborhood full of delinquency and crime due to poverty. Poverty level is based on the family circumstances. There is a higher chance of poverty with the newly immigrant, and they live in this condition because they are still new to the county. Education also plays a big role in this, because the more educated a person is the more they are likely to make it and become successful quicker. This might be a little different with the children, and there is a high

    Read More

  • Review of Ordinary Resurrections by Jonathan Kozol

    2123 Words  | 5 Pages

    The children in this book at times seem wise beyond their years. They are exposed to difficult issues that force them to grow up very quickly. Almost all of the struggles that the children face stem from the root problem of intense poverty. In Mott Haven, the typical family yearly income is about $10,000, "trying to sustain" is how the mothers generally express their situation. Kozol reports "All are very poor; statistics tell us that they are the poorest children in New York." (Kozol 4). The symptoms of the kind of poverty described are apparent in elevated crime rates, the absence of health care and the lack of funding for education.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Junot Diaz's 'The Money'

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Junot Diaz’s essay “The Money” he explains where his family stands economically. Stating that his father was regularly being fired from his forklifting jobs and his mother 's only job was to care for him and his four siblings. With the money brought home by his father, his mom would save some. Her reason was to raise enough to send to her parents back in the Dominican Republic. When his family went on a vacation, they came back to an unpleasant surprise; their house had been broke into. Eventually Diaz was able to get back their money and belongings. Diaz returned the money to his mother although she didn’t thank him for it, this disappointed him. Like Diaz I have also encountered a similar situation where I was disappointed. When I was in second grade, my life life took a completely different turn. My dad took an unexpected trip to Guatemala, on his return, the outcome was not what I expected.

    Read More

  • The Boat, by Alistair Macleod

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    The mother gave birth to six daughters. The daughters all got jobs at a seafood restaurant ran by a man from Boston. All of the sisters “made good money on tips” (MacLeod 268) but even though they made a respectable income the mother “was angry [her daughters] should even conceive of working in such a place” (MacLeod 267). The mother does not judge the restaurant on their food or the service but simply that he is an outsider. She didn’t accept their daughter’s gifts because they get their money from that restaurant. If the mother were to accept financial help from the daughters they would have a better lifestyle. The six daughters of the mother later became wives to six young men in big cities such as New York or Montreal. There they are wealthy and “drove expensive cars” (MacLeod271), yet the mother “never accepted the young men” (MacLeod 271) because “They were not of her sea” (MacLeod271). The daughters becoming so wealthy could have been a blessing for the family. They could have had help from the d...

    Read More

  • There Is No Hierarchy Of Oppression Summary

    471 Words  | 1 Pages

    This article relates to the institutions, privilege, and the bootstrap myth that was talked about in Chapter 2. It relates to how society is

    Read More

  • Intersectionality Theory In Gwendolyn Brook's In The Waiting Room

    922 Words  | 2 Pages

    Take Gwendolyn Brook’s “Kitchenette Building”, for example. Brook describes life within the lowest of socioeconomic classes

    Read More

  • House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton and Call it Sleep, by Henry Roth

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    The time and way people are brought up in society makes a huge difference on how they will climb up the social scale in life. In the classic novel House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton and Call it Sleep, by Henry Roth the main characters experience totally different upbringings into society. While Lily Bart is brought up into a high class society, David is born into an immigrant family in a part of the city, which has similar people as his own country. The two characters in the novels both have different and some similar views on how to climb up on the social scale. Although they would give different advice to each other on how to climb the social scale, and have different views on life, one thing that would be common would be to have money.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Child Of The Dark

    1884 Words  | 4 Pages

    Carolina told about two boys wandering the streets of the favela who were from shelters in the city. At the shelters, there were innocent children abandoned or orphaned, but also there were young criminals sentenced to stay there. Both groups were thrown together and treated as though they all had prison sentences. Carolina wrote, “I felt that in the State Shelter the children’s morals were lowered. […] What’s lacking? Concern for the unfortunate or money from the State?” (81). Whether it was babies dying in the favela, or children growing into poverty, the families of favelados were destined for misfortune. Carolina’s older children were still in school, but they contributed to the family income, as was common at the time, by going out to beg or to collect paper and scrap with her. Favelas of Brazil bred the destruction of innocence and children grew up quickly, such as when “the son of Joaquim went to school drunk” (130). Intersectionality of race and class was also pertinent. Racism and classism prevented poor, impoverished children from receiving any opportunities to improve their

    Read More

  • The House of Mirth: Breaking free from the Reins of Luxury

    1665 Words  | 4 Pages

    The world in which Lily grows up in is one where money is the standard by which everyone is judged. In a setting like this, “money stands for all kinds of things- its purchasing quality isn’t limited to diamonds and motor cars” (Wharton 66). Therefore, even small things such as the way a person dresses or the places someone frequents become of high importance as they are representative of how much money a person possesses. This materialistic tendency ...

    Read More

  • Contemporary American Class Structure

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lower-upper class believes that money and power are very important in life. The lower-upper class members, also called 'new money,' work harder for what they have as compared to the upper-upper class because most have earned their position in the class, as opposed to being 'old money' (Norton...

    Read More

  • Poverty and Classism

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Schwartz-Nobel, America will lose as much as 130 billion in future productive capacity for every year that 14.5 American children continue to live in poverty (Koppelman and Goodhart, 2007). Sadly the seriousness of poverty is still often clouded by myths and misunderstandings by society at large. This essay studies the issue of poverty and classism in today's society.

    Read More

  • Boyhood Movie Analysis

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    At first he lived with his mom or with his dad both which were struggling to provide Mason Jr. and his sister Samantha the best they can for their children and themselves. As years progressed, Mason Jr. lived with his mother’s boyfriend Jim; a well-off educated college professor that taught his mother’s class at college. After his mother broke-up with Jim due to his drinking and abusiveness she moved into her friend’s house for a small period of time to recuperate and recover. Her friend was an average family, not living lavishly compared to Jim but not at all living like Mason Jr.’s mother struggling to just be able to provide their needs. From watching a child transfer into different economical classes changes the way I view social inequality in society. As you can see how it can affect a child, and youth’s behaviour

    Read More

  • The Help Movie Review Essay

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    A person’s status can be used “to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions in a large group or society.” (Schaefer) If a man was not of a high enough status, the parents and friends of the woman would have been as supportive of the relationship. The importance of statuses in The Help is also shown by how the homeowners treat their maids. Because of their differences in status, many of the homeowners believe it was okay to treat the maids the way they did. The way some of the maids are treated would be viewed as unacceptable by most people

    Read More

More about Volar

Open Document