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More handpicked essays just for you.
Papers on poverty in america
Papers on poverty in america
Papers on poverty in america
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Ron Rash is a phenomenal writer, who in a few conscientious strokes, is able to depict the harsh, impecunious life of the South and make it universally relatable. From a bar guitarist who “...lost (his) teaching job, lost(his) wife, and lost (his) child…” to a farmer whose land “ was all rock and slant. You couldn’t grow a toenail…” Rash uses his observational, rich knowledge of the south to address both the good and bad of the world without a mere suggestion to the reader to empathize the protagonists as neither do they for themselves. The protagonist in “Waiting For The End Of The World” has faced many hardships in his life as he suggests, “Let God or evolution or whatever put us here in the first place start again from scratch because this isn’t working.” Yet, Rash doesn’t ask the reader to feel sorry for the protagonist who is just a man trying to survive in a world …show more content…
Hartley got down on one knee, closed his left hand on the scruff of the dog’s neck as he settled the blade against its throat...The dog didn’t cry out or snarl. It merely sagged in Hartley’s grip. Blood darkened the road. Rash adds that it was not the first time Hartley bite his teeth in the heart because he had once turned down “meat (that) had a deep wood-smoke odor” from his neighbor which left his wife and child salivating because he couldn’t afford it. During an interview with Daily Yonder, Rash said, My characters tend to be in pretty precarious situations, but I hope the reader recognizes that these concerns, these motivations, are human. These are people in a different landscape, but we understand them as human beings, and like so many people, they’re doing the best they can with what life has given them. Rash portrays his characters with decency through their hardship to enable the reader to identify with these people who are thought to be so different, but in reality are just trying to survive through hardships like the rest of the
Oftentimes, life is a treacherous and unforgiving place; coincidentally the underlying message of both “The Glass Castle” and “The Grapes of Wrath.” These texts include a series of challenges to the lives of two very different families in unique time periods. In order to survive, these families must overcome the challenges of addiction, poverty, and disparity in their own ways. Steinbeck’s, “The Grapes of Wrath,” details the lives of the Joads, Oklahoma farmers in the Great Depression of the 1930s; who travel west in search of a better life. A sense of community unifies the families and keeps the Joads together as a whole. Walls’s memoir “The Glass Castle,” tells of the highly unstable and nomadic life of protagonist Jeannette through the early stages of her life. The Walls children manage to prosper in their own individual ways, stemming from decades of suffering and adversity. The Joads and Walls’s alike share characteristics that help them get
In “A Place for all That is Lost” Ron Rash’s One Foot in Eden is a story of desperation, longing, murder, and a disappearing way of life. It took place in South Carolina in the 1950s. The story is told from five character’s points of view. It begins with Sheriff Alexander trying to solve a murder, while at the same time coming to grips with his own feelings about the mountain community and people he has left behind. He also has to contend with the exploitation of the community by the Carolina Power Company, who is eager to flood the area.
... 65). I enjoyed Craven’s use of sarcasm on page seventy seven where Louisiana is referred to as a “Fertile Mud Paradise”. I find this somewhat funny because in the very beginning of the book the author mentions a list of diseases common to the state of Louisiana and how the native insects carry these deadly germs (8). I also enjoyed that Avery did not write a formal biography of Rachel O’Connor because I think if he had done so, I believe that the reader would not have been able to see Rachel’s beautiful, sympathetic, and kind personality that is expressed through her letters. The only negative aspect of the book I did not care for was the overlapping of the years in the chapters because some of the topics would be discussed in two different chapters.
This book left me with the impression that life in the south in 1906 maybe wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Even without all the modern technology there is today, people had fun in other ways. In a lot of ways life was better back then. But there was still some of the crime and injustice we still see today. Religion seems to be a big part of their everyday lives. I believe other’s should read this book if they want to relive life in the south, and watch how a young southern boy finally grows up.
The stories that the author told were very insightful to what life was like for an African American living in the south during this time period. First the author pointed out how differently blacks and whites lived. She stated “They owned the whole damn town. The majority of whites had it made in the shade. Living on easy street, they inhabited grand houses ranging from turn-of-the-century clapboards to historics”(pg 35). The blacks in the town didn’t live in these grand homes, they worked in them. Even in today’s time I can drive around, and look at the differences between the living conditions in the areas that are dominated by whites, and the areas that are dominated by blacks. Racial inequalities are still very prevalent In today’s society.
Travis is forced into the home of Leonard, a man convicted on drug charges and fired from his teaching job, yet despite the man's shady past Travis say "He's a better man than you...he's treated me better than my blood kin have," (Rash, pg 231) to his father during a dispute. The civil war's affect on the American people North Carolina is a heavy topic for the characters, Travis' father expresses the weight of the past upon the region by tell his son within the same argument, saying "That's kindly ironic, ain't it...His momma's great-granddaddy helped kill off near ever member of your family." (Rash, pg 232) This toxicity to holding to the past is a constant throughout the book, yet Travis moved forward, something that is fundamentally important the the United States. so that her individuals can progress to make a city upon the hill far better than the one Winthrop
Charles Chesnutt’s “The Passing of Grandison” is a satirical short story about southern plantation life in the early 1850s. Dick Owens, the spoiled first-born son of a rich Kentucky slaveholder named Colonel Owens wants to impress a young woman named Charity Lomax enough to get her to marry him. To do so, Dick decides to secretly free one of his father’s slaves. With his father’s permission, Dick travels North with one of the slaves named Grandison. He does not tell anyone that he intends to leave Grandison behind in a free state. Although Grandison has no intention of escaping, claiming to love his life as a slave, Dick manages to leave him in Canada. Dick returns home and marries Charity Lomax, having mildly impressed her with his act. A few weeks later, Grandison returns to the plantation, telling the story of his perilous journey home. Colonel Owens fawns over his lost slave and rewards him with tobacco and whiskey. A few weeks later, however, Grandison and all his family escape to freedom. In this story, Chesnutt changes the reader’s initial perception of Grandison and pokes fun at the concept of plantation life and the attitudes of slaveholders, all while commenting on relevant topics to the time period.
As the sweltering, hot sun signified the start of a scorching afternoon, a young boy lay in the fields harvesting vegetables for another family. He had been enslaved to perform chores around the house for the family, and was only given very few privileges. While his stomach throbbed with pangs of hunger, he continued cooking meals for them. After the family indulged in the cozy heat from the fireplace, he was the one to clean the ashes. Despite his whole body feeling sore from all the rigorous work he completed, the young boy had been left alone to suffer. As months passed by, he desired independence. He wanted to cook his own food, make his own fire, harvest his own plants and earn money. The lad soon discovered that he needed faith and courage to break away from his restricted environment. When put in a suppressive situation, every person has the aspiration to escape the injustice. This is what Harrison Bergeron and Sanger Rainsford do to liberate themselves from the external forces that govern their lives. Harrison, the main character of “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut, is a strong, fourteen year old boy whose talents have been concealed by the government. Growing up in an environment where equality has restricted people’s thinking, Harrison endeavors to change society’s views. Rainsford, the main character of “The Most Dangerous Game” written by Richard Connell, is a skilled hunter who believes that animals were made to be hunted; he has no sympathy for them. Stranded on island with a killer chasing him, he learns to make rational choices. While both Harrison and Ranisford are courageous characters, Rainsford’s prudence enables him to overpower his enemy, whereas Harrison’s impulsive nature results in him being ...
Growing up as the young child of sharecroppers in Mississippi, Essie Mae Moody experienced and observed the social and economic deprivation of Southern Blacks. As a young girl Essie Mae and her family struggled to survive, often by the table scraps of the white families her mother worked for. Knowing little other than the squalor of their living conditions, she realizes this disparity while living in a two-room house off the Johnson’s property, whom her mother worked for, watching the white children play, “Here they were playing in a house that was nicer than any house I could have dreamed of”(p. 33). Additionally, the segregated school she attends was a “one room rotten wood building.” (p. 14), but Essie Mae manages to get straight A’s while caring for her younger sibli...
Imagine that it was the late nineteenth to early twentieth century in the American South. Imagine a work environment where the only reward for hard labor and back-breaking tasks is not being beaten that day. Imagine barely getting enough to meet even one’s most basic needs, and that the only way out of this cruel cycle is by death or an almost impossible escape. This is the world in which Marriah Hines lives. Luckily for her, she only witnesses such atrocities; she never has to endure them as most slaves did during her lifetime and for hundreds of years before her.
Faulkner uses the view point of an unnamed town member while he uses a third person perspective to show the general corrosion of the southern town’s people.
Since Northup wrote this book himself, it was able to provide readers with the truth and the experiences of living as a slave in the South. The good experiences written about by Northup seemed to be few and far between in the story, but the moments were big. In the beginning of the story, he talked about being with his family and the experience of being a free black man in the North. Once his freedom and family were taken from him, the next good experience he spoke of was when he met friends, either on the boat rides or on the plantations. These friends, although he was once free and most of them were not, had many things in common with Northup, and they all had similar views on slavery. A third positive experience that Solomon wrote about was when the officials came to Ebbs’ plantation to take him back North to freedom, which Ebbs could not believe. Although Ebbs wasn’t happy about it, Solomon was excited to go back to the North and his family. Being reunited with his family after ...
Nothing translates the modern depiction of southern literature quite like the novel, Forrest Gump. Set in the deep south of the fictional town of Greenbow, Alabama, Winston Groom’s Forrest Gump gives the audience an adequate insight into how the southern way of life was in the late fifties through the seventies. The majority of the movie shows important events during American history at the time. Although this is an essential part of the storyline, the novel itself gives readers a much more in-depth look into southern life. Forrest Gump notes the racial references related to that time period, the portrayal of classic southern culture, and allows southern stereotypes to be apparent throughout.
The near absence of white men in this novel diminishes the influence, impact, and existence of white male power and domination during the 1960’s. Hilly Holbrook, the hateful antagonist in The Help mentions Ross Barnett, then governor of Mississippi, as someone worth listening to because he’s “the Governor but I believe he is mentioned especially by Hilly to help show her character as being similar to his in that ...
What lengths should one go to in order to survive? This is a question which has challenged the human race for generations and to which no satisfactory answer exists. In the modern world, this issue is examined theoretically, but rarely confronts individuals, with the exception of the most destitute. However, in harsh environments and forbidding territories, this matter becomes very real and pressing. Nature pays no attention to the arbitrary emotions of man, demanding only the forfeiture of the sorrowfully short life granted to him. Many would argue that in order to delay the inevitable conclusion awaiting every man, humans must act upon their primal intuition rather than their emotions. Jack London’s “The Law of Life” includes this naturalistic viewpoint that human survival instinct drives individuals more than feelings or compassion. London shows this through his protagonist Old Koshkoosh’s past experiences and tribal upbringing, his view on life, and the actions of his family members.