Analysis Of 'Just Kids' By Patti Smith

This section of Just Kids by Patti Smith is about how she and her husband were trying to get settled in New York without a steady job. They both were very poor but somehow found ways around it and made themselves somewhat of a living. This is the beginning of the extreme poverty that would be felt by them later on in the book.

This passage shows that even though they were extremely poor, they made the best out of their situation and decided to do what makes them happy. Patti had her family back home who were willing to take her back and maybe she could have lived a better life financially, but she chose to stay because she found happiness there. She found her husband there and a life where she could create and be the artist she was always destined to be. She was so poor that she that the small price difference between chocolate milk and regular milk that she would have the debate what they would have to sacrifice in order to have a treat every once in a while. Patti also discusses how her dinner would be cookies from a bakery because they couldn’t afford anything else. Later throughout the book, they can only afford one sandwich to share among her and her husband. I also picked this passage because I felt that this passage was important and relevant to the unit of poverty that we have been focusing on recently, which also made me think that even if you had all the money in the world, you wouldn’t guarantee the happiness that Patti felt, and that something that comes from finding peace within yourself.

She quickly realizes that she first needs to discover herself and question what does she actually want to do or become. She feels that she is happy just living and creating art with her husband, who she believes is her soulmate, and even if she never becomes a famous artist, she would be