- Jo Goodwin Parker
Summary
Jo Goodwin Parker has described
her life living in poverty and her daily struggles for the sake of her family.
According to her poverty has many faces. For her poverty is living with dirt,
living without hope, better foodstuff, medical care, proper sanitation, and
proper education. It is like an acid that destroys one’s pride, honor, health,
and future. She describes herself as dirty, smelly, and living life without
proper clothes. She also describes that due to the high cost of essential things
she does not have luxuries in her life.
She could not even afford the
necessary items because of her poverty. She could not even get any help and
support from the government agencies because it never exists in her area. She
wants to get help through various agencies but she has no means to travel to
reach them. Her job even does not support her to get out of her situation
because it does not pay enough for the expense of child care. So Parker writes
that poverty is looking into a black future because running life on a daily
basis itself is a great challenge. In this situation, no one can expect a good
future.
Parker does not want sympathy but
she wants an understanding of her readers about poverty. Because of poverty,
she left school at a very early age, got married, became pregnant many times
because birth control was expensive for her. Even her husband left her because
of poverty. her economic status was too poor so health does not come as a
priority and could not do her operation in time. She used to give cornbread
without oil as a breakfast to her kids. She did not buy soap in order to buy
her baby diapers. She visited various government and private agencies to ask
for help but could not find the right person to help her. She felt shame and
humiliation for the sake of her three children. She had to spread her hands in
different places.
Exercise
Understanding the text
Answer the following
questions.
a.
What is poverty according to Parker?
Answer:
According to Parker, poverty is about lack of having enough money for
necessities, better foodstuffs, very little education and little or no access
to health care. It is like an acid that destroys pride, honor, health and
future. Overall poverty means living without hope, better foods, medical care
and proper education.
b.
How is poverty difficult for Parker’s
children? List some specific examples.
Answer:
Parker’s three children suffer a lot due to poverty. They live their miserable
lives due to the lack of proper foodstuffs, education, clothing and care.
Parker has presented the very bad condition of her children along with her.
According to her, they eat oil less cornbread as a breakfast. They wear dirty
clothes. They aren’t sent to a school. Parker has informed us about a day’s
event when she left her children under the care of her mother during her job.
When she returned, she found her youngest covered with flyspecks whose diaper
hadn’t been changed since morning. Her next son was playing with the broken
glasses. Her eldest son was playing on the edge of the lake. Her children would
play in dirt. In this way poverty is difficult for Parker’s children.
c.
How does Parker try to obtain help, and
what problems does she encounter?
Answer:
Parker tires to obtain help from different people but she was rejected. She
asks her relative for a loan, but her relative wanted something in return. She
also tried in different offices for job and asked for loan too. She had to
describe her pathetic condition to many people to get help. Finally, someone
comes out and asks her if she needs help. That isn’t the person she needs to
see. She goes to see another person. After telling him the whole story about
her poverty she finds that this is the wrong office. Then, she must repeat the
whole process. In this way, Parker has to encounter a lot of problems.
d.
Why are people’s opinions and prejudices
her greatest obstacles?
Answer:
People’s opinions and prejudices are her greatest obstacles because these
aspects prevent her from getting supportive hands for the sake of her family.
She was dominated by other people due to her poor condition. Most of the people
don’t realize the bitter experience of poverty. For them, the pain of poor
people is nothing. They keep on giving their free advices as if being poor is a
curse and it is easy to come out of poverty. When she asks for help, some want
to take advantage of her helplessness. Such prejudices make her unable to get
help.
e.
How does Parker defend her inability to
get help? How does she discount the usual solutions society has for poverty
(e.g., welfare, education, and health clinics)?
Answer:
Parker defends her inability to get help through her opinions and by expressing
her experiences of poverty. She discounts the usual solutions society has for
poverty by drawing the attention of people towards the pathetic state of poor
people. She says that living without hope, medical care, and proper education
is like an acid that destroys pride, honour, heath and future. She has to move
and spread her hands in many agencies in the name of welfare where she has to
be ashamed and humiliated. She has to prove her poverty time and again and face
rejection. In the name of education, school-launched programs are there but
they are of no use. She has experienced her two children’s condition after
sending them to school. Parker’s life is quite away from health clinics’
facilities. To get medical help, she has to walk miles. If she asks for
someone’s help, the helper expects negative things from her. Thus, Parker shows
how shameful, humiliating and disgusting it is to be poor.
Reference to the context
a.
Explain the following: Poverty is looking
into a black future.
Answer:
This line “Poverty is looking into a black future” has been stated by the
writer Jo Goodwin Parker in her essay. She has put forward this line for her
readers to present her experience of poverty. She thinks that poor can’t
provide proper food and education to their children. Nor they can maintain
cleanliness and sound health because they don’t have money. Such condition
ultimately invites disease, helplessness, hunger, unemployment, crimes etc. So,
poverty leads people towards the black future. Poor people have to live a
miserable life on their daily basis. They have no hope of any betterment. They
keep on spending their lives in disparity looking into a black future. Poverty
breaks expectations and dreams of future.
b.
What does Parker mean by “The poor are
always silent”?
Answer:
“The poor are always silent” means the helplessness of poor people who cannot
spend money for healthcare and medicine. When the question of money arises,
they are silent, because they can’t even dream of having expensive medical
operations, eating in restaurant, wearing fashionable dresses, going to quality
schools etc. They have no words in response because they are completely
helpless. Where money speaks, they are voiceless. They have very pathetic
situation.
c.
What writing strategy does the author use
at the beginning of most of the paragraphs? Do you notice a recurring pattern?
What is it?
Answer: In this essay, the
author uses her repetition strategy at the beginning of most of the paragraphs.
She repeats the phrase “Poverty is”. The essay is well organized where she
repeats the word – poverty many times. That means her main concern is poverty
and she is showing her bitter feelings and frustrations about her miserable
conditions. The whole essay sounds like a casual conversation. She is talking
to an imaginary reader who does not understand what poverty is. She uses satire
and humour in the middle.
d.
How does Parker develop each paragraph?
What details make each paragraph memorable?
Answer: Parker develops
each paragraph starting with her repetition strategy. She begins most of her
paragraphs with a repetition statement as “Poverty is”. She then provides her
personal experiences about her topic sentences. The images of poverty that she
mentioned in each paragraph is memorable. She says poverty is a chisel that
chips on honour is worn away. The really poor people have inferiority complex
due to the economic factor. Their honour is really scattered. Even if the man
is wise and intellectual, he can do nothing Infront of the wealth. The details
related to her personal painful experiences and the bitter reality of poverty
make each paragraph memorable.
e.
In the final paragraph, how does the
author use questions to involve the reader in the issue of poverty?
Answer: In the final
paragraph, the author uses questions in her informal style of direct
conversation to involve the readers in the issue of poverty. In the final
paragraph she uses question “can you be silent too?” where she wants to
describe her silence due to poverty that she faced in her life. She asked us
that if poor are silence and should we be silenced too. Parker is capable of
causing the reader to feel many emotions and forces the reader to question her
own stereotypes of poor Parker is capable of making the reader feel guilty for
the possessions that she has. She wanted to make attention to the reader to
solve the problems of poor people. They must not think about themselves only
she said not to be silence and help others for their better future. She asked
reader if his/her in that situation, can they be silence too. Poor people are
always active to raise their voices. So, Parker wanted from the reader to give
their attention towards poor too.
Reference beyond the text
a.
Define a social problem (homelessness,
unemployment, racism) imitating Parker’s style.
Answer:
A Social
Problem: Unemployment
Unemployment the word itself if
stays longer would affect the cost of the economy. The entire individual who is
not working in the referenced period falls under the category of unemployment.
They might be anyone who is highly skilled or having no skills. When
unemployment reaches above the expected rates it subtle the growth and leads to
social issues. With no money, there is no education, food resources and basic
elements for the survivor. Whether someone is homeless or has no job, this all-head
place to social issues.
In conclusion, unemployment is
the major problem that creates disturbance, stress and lowers down a growing
economy. The personal and social concern has been associated with poverty,
population, lack of technologies, health risks, and slow expansion of the
business. All these issues arise when unemployment exponentially grow within
countries. This certainly remarks about the serious problems of housing and
hopeless life. Unemployment causes harm for the economy not in the sense of
waste of resources but also by building pressure on the community.
b.
Using adjectives to highlight the
futility of the situation, write a short definition essay on Growing up in
Poverty.
Answer:
Essay on
Growing Up in Poverty
Poverty is a state or condition
in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for
a minimum standard of living. Poverty means that the income level from
employment is so low that basic human needs can’t be met. Poverty-stricken
people and families might go without proper housing, clean water, healthy food,
and medical attention. Each nation may have its own threshold that determines
how many of its people are living in poverty
Growing up in poverty is annoying and frustrating that never allows you to be happy. When one cannot manage the minimum requirements of life like food, education and health, that life is a punishment. One’s creativity and natural talent can never come out. Rather such situation humiliates him and he can never live a dignified human life. Disparity and inequality never let him be free and do something good in his lives. Growing up in poverty is a frightening experience where one has to face various hardships and struggles. It provides him with tiring and worrying experience where pains are always ready to welcome him.