The Working Poor Invisible In America Analysis

In Anna Quindlen’s essay “School’s Out for Summer” she expresses the importance in why we need to end child hunger and the struggles that parents go though to make sure that their child get a good meal that day, even if they don't eat, the child will still get a meal. Child hunger is a problem for everybody in the world we live in today. It's not just in rural african countries, but its also in the “best country” in the world, some people may say, which is United States.

Incorporating such commentary is effective in this study because it elucidates the struggles of the working class that are often unnoticed or avoided by the mainstream middle-class society. Her intentional use of satire and sarcasm challenges her middle-class and educated audience to alter their perspective towards low paying jobs and their workers. By enveloping herself into the marginalized society of the working class, she exposes the audience to the elements of low paying jobs that would not be witnessed by anyone besides employees. Ehrenreich expresses a voice of judgement towards her new coworkers to reflect the common misconception of failure that the middle-class holds towards low paid workers. This strategy enables the reader to reassess poverty and which aspects of it must be focused on in the frequent discourse of impoverished

In the memoir “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, she, and her siblings live in extreme poverty because of their unfit parents, Rose Mary and Rex, who struggle or lack interest in getting a job. Rose Mary and Rex are unfit to raise four kids because they are both immature and lazy with regard to their parenting. An act of immaturity Rose Mary and Rex shows is when they refuse to receive any forms of federal aid or grants, “Although we were the poorest family on Little Hobart Street, Mom and Dad never applied for welfare or food stamps, and they always refused charity. When teachers gave us bags of clothes from church drives, Mom made us take them back. ‘We can take care of our own,’ Mom and Dad liked to say. ‘We don't accept handouts from anyone" (Walls 100). Mr. and Mrs. Walls are immature because they do not want and help no matter the form, but the help would make it possible for them to eat and not starve. They also think they are high class by saying we do not accept handouts but they are the farthest away from being first class.

Throughout the history of America we have had times disturbing to think about. The time of racial injustice is definitely one of those times. The book, Black Boy by Richard Wright is an autobiography that takes readers back in time to the life of a young, ordinary, colored boy from the south just living a normal colored life.

Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich goes in depth of workers that have minimum wage jobs and are trying to survive in the U.S economy. Ehrenreich’s goes incognito trying to work in low-end jobs. Experiencing the hardships that many Americans face, Ehrenreich learns that money is not equal to the work and grief put in. Everywhere in the novel, Ehrenreich expresses that owners of corporations keep the workers down. As quoted, “…everyone knows they have crossed over to the other side, which is, crudely put, corporate as opposed to human" (Ehrenreich, 22). She defines that once a worker is moved up a position, they become the enemy. They misunderstand the difficulty of moving up the ranks so the system remains untouched.

Such as, Caroline who “was both black and Indian, a migrant farmworker, and had been raped by someone and also abused by her boyfriend” (133). By introducing an extensive array of real low-wage workers, like Caroline, the audience makes note to the multiplicity of the workers personalities and background. Ehrenreich discredits those who claim low-wage workers are all lazy, unambitious and “homogenous in personality or ability” by clearly identifying many people who do not fit that mold (8). Ehrenreich wants to stress that “the only thing holding back welfare recipients was” was not “their reluctance” to get a job” (196); but the entire system for low-wage workers. It can be nearly impossible to escape poverty for even the most tenacious person depending on the

The novel, The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives by Sasha Abramsky is about how he traveled the United States meeting the poor. The stories he introduces in novel are articles among data-driven studies and critical investigations of government programs. Abramsky has composed an impressive book that both defines and advocates. He reaches across a varied range of concerns, involving education, housing and criminal justice, in a wide-ranging view of poverty 's sections. In considering results, it 's essential to understand how the different problems of poor families intermingle in mutual reinforcement. Sasha Abramsky brings the results of economic disparity out of the shadows and recommends ways for moving toward a

In the article, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Bell Hooks, Gloria Watkins penname, conveys three important things about the lower class: The ways people of lower class are treated in our society, how the mass media portrays them, and how people of lower-class see themselves.

“Someday, the capitalist system will disappear in the United States, because no social class system has even eternal. One day, class societies will disappear” - Fidel Castro. Peter Singers’ “A Solution To World Poverty” is viewed as a drastic way to end world poverty. Barbara Lazear Aschers “On Compassion” makes the reader understand that it is okay to help the lower class. Singer and Ascher have contrasting viewpoints on social class, particularly on donating money and the willingness to save a lower class citizen. However Singer and Ascher do agree on helping the lower class in anyway possible.

Few have college degrees” (Johnston, K. 2014). Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickle and Dimed, left her life as a journalist and became one of the so called working poor (Ehrenreich, B. 2001). In this paper I will discuss the main issues in the first half of her book, I will explain what theoretical perspective her work fits into, how she did her research, the strengths and limitations to her approach, and describe how the American economy may look to a low wage worker.

The title of “Emerging Scholars” was given to a group of ethnic individuals with varying backgrounds that made them struggle, but ultimately, the students were strong enough to achieve what they had always wanted, a promising future. A required reading for these students enrolled in the University of Massachusetts’ 190R class was titled The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler, a book reminiscing numerous sociological books that are composed of a series of interviews for the sake of proving/disproving a theory. The theory this time was how the poor are not always unemployed and are still struggling in America in numerous different ways, in home life, health, education and more. There were many daunting tales told in Shipler’s

The idea of being poor in America was not in the minds of everyone. In the suburbs Americans thought that America was an affluent society. The poor were left in the city and lived on poor conditions. The poor are locked in a cycle where they do not have many opportunities to thrive rather they are more likely to be set back by illness. It was important to expose how poor the people living in cities could be, now that the middle class could help support the poor. Poverty can be fixed with the help of everyone, but why should the rest of the population be forced to help the poor. President Johnson wants America to fight the war on poverty. With one of every fifth person in America in poverty real change needed to take place. There needed to be

Anna Quindlen, author of “School’s Out For Summer”, noticed there was a problem of child hunger in America. “If there was, we would know about it. We would read about it in the paper, we would see it on the news. And of course we would stop it. In America.” (Paragraph 1 of “School’s Out For Summer”) But does that seem to be the case? Anna Quindlen discusses the problem of child hunger in America and her argument, while using her own evidence to persuade readers that this problem actually exists.

In Ehrenreich’s classic “Nickel and Dimed: On (not) getting by in America,” the protagonist opens up the dialogue with admitting that she picked out her job out of laziness (Ehrenreich, 1). With the setting in Key West, Florida, the main character being Ehrenreich herself, decides to experiment with the possibilities of existing as a person on the lower terminal of the socioeconomic ladder. For her experiment, she lives in the lower rung of the ladder, becoming a waitress (Ehrenreich, 10). Based in 1996, the novel is investigating the benefits and effects of the 1996 welfare reform bill, which was considered a jugular stab to the spirit of social reform and government assistance to the hapless. What Ehrenreich realizes from the investigations is consistency in prejudice and favoritism against the poor, and a nation that is

How do you define the harshness of society? Social Justice and Poverty is a hard concept to analyze when one does not have a clear understanding of the social justice structure and why most people living in poverty remain poor. Looking beyond the aspects of what causes everyday circumstances and situations, society must become more well-rounded to people living in poverty are lacking their everyday hierarchical needs. In a world with people who are very rich and people who are very poor, society tends to put their focus on making the rich richer. Poverty has swept over many cities, states and countries with low unemployment rates, child hunger, economic violence, homelessness, and major social class issues. With unemployment being