Examples Of Generational Poverty In Sonny's Blues, By James Baldwin

Generational Poverty Poverty has been around for numerous years. Poverty can be a generational problem if people let it. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” and David Joy’s “Digging in the trash” both show that families in poverty do not have it easy, the children will live in poverty unless something is done, and people either find a way of escape or stand up against it. In the short story, “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin shows how the lack of monetary resources affects many generations. The narrator explains how his father tried to give him more. He goes to say, “As a matter of fact, he was always on the lookout for “Something better”, but he died before he found it” (Baldwin). Earlier in the story the narrator’s parents were discussing moving to a new neighborhood. The dad felt that no neighborhood was safe in Harlem. The dad wanted something more for his wife, and children, but did not have the money to give his family anything better. The two brothers watch as their dad struggled to provide for them. It left both of them with something to think about as they grew older. As Sonny and the narrator become adults they begin to realize how much poverty still affects the citizens of Harlem. The narrator says, “but houses exactly like the houses of our past yet dominated the landscape, boys exactly like the boys we once had been found themselves smothering in the houses, came down for light and air and found themselves encircled by disaster” (Baldwin). As the narrator and his brother