Reading

What is Poverty?

Understanding the Text

Answer the following question.

a. What is poverty according to Parker?
Ans: Poverty, according to Parker, is a lack of hope, better foods, medical care, proper sanitation, and proper education. It’s like an acid that eats away at one’s pride, honor, health and future.

b. How is poverty difficult for Parker’s children? List some specific examples.
Ans: Poverty has been a curse for Parker and her children. She was not able to provide an average level of education and stationery items like pencils, paper, books, average food, clothes and shelter for her children even though she worked and struggled very much. She had to save 2 months earnings to buy a vaseline to cure the diaper rashes on her kids.

c. How does Parker try to obtain help, and what problems does she encounter?
Ans: She tries to obtain a loan by going to a close family member but in vain. For help, sh goes to different offices, makes four or five rounds to the building. She enters the room, wanders here and there. Someone finally appears and inquires as to if she needs assistance. But she realises this is the incorrect office after giving him the entire story about her poverty. After that, it’s back to step one. It is like a loop of trouble.

d. Why are people’s opinions and prejudices her greatest obstacles?
Ans: Parker tries to get help for her children by spreading her hands in front of various people and institutions. Due to a lack of funds, she makes every effort to find supportive hands most of the time. Most of the time, she has difficulty locating the appropriate organization and person to assist her. She must transfer to new organizations. She has to wait and tell her dreadful story over and over.

e. How does Parker defend her inability to get help? How does she discount the usual solutions society has for poverty?
Ans: Parker’s condition worsens as she is unable to get any help. She has been unable to get the help she needs from social services, schooling, or health care. Unemployed people like her are taken care of by their insurance. Parker and her children. On the other hand, will not sustain with that.

There are schools but she is unable to purchase more textbooks, pens or anything else she may need. For the school lunch program, two of her children are too young. There are health clinics but that distance is too far for her children to walk, and she doesn’t have the money to cover the costs of the trip.

Reference to the Context

a. Explain the following: Poverty is looking into a black future
Ans: The writer Jo Goodwin Parker stated in her essay “Poverty is looking into a black future”. She has presented this line to her readers in order to present her experience with poverty. The writer is advising all of the readers in this line about an ugly and cruel aspect of poverty. Poverty, according to her, leads people to a dark future. On a daily basis, poor people must endure a miserable existence. It is extremely difficult to provide them with adequate daily foods. There is no future hope for them. They continuse to live in disparity, looking forward to a black future. Poverty shatters future hopes and dreams.

b. What does Parker mean by “The poor are always silent”?
Ans: What it indicates is that the poor are helpless and weak. They have no option but to speak gently because of their circumstances. Those who are poor are the ones who are bystanders. It is important that they pay attention to what others are saying. As a result of their lack of resources, they keep silent.

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?
Ans: The author employs her repetition strategy at the beginninig of the majority of the paragraphs in this essay. Yes, I’ve noticed a recurring pattern, and it’s the structure “Poverty is.” The essay is well-organized, with the phrase “Poverty is” repeated at the beginning of each paragraph. She attempts to establish a relationship between the woman and the readers here by using her repetition strategy. Because of the author’s casual style, the writing appears to be part of a casual conversation between the narrator and the readers. Goodwin Parker’s writing is extremely effective and accomplishes its goal.

d. How does Parker develop each paragraph? What details make each paragraph memorable?
Ans: Parker begins each paragraph with her repetition strategy. She begins the majority of her paragraphs with a repetition statement such as “Poverty is”. She then shares her personal experiences with her topic sentences. The author first makes it clear to her readers that her goal is to help them understand what poverty is. Her second goal is to persuade all of her readers to help those in need. Each paragraph is memorable because of the details related to her personal painful experiences and the harsh reality of poverty.

e. In the final paragraph, how does the author use questions to involve the readers in the issue of poverty?
Ans: The author uses questionsin her informal style of direct conversation. In the final paragraph to engage the readers in the issue of poverty. Parker has done an excellent jon of engrossing her readers with per persuasive style. She instructs them to look at the poor with an angry heart rather than a pitiful heart. This style of question has piqued the readers’ emotions as well as their attention. In the final paragraph, she has succeeded in drawing her readers’ attention to her plight and the struggles of others in her situation.

Reference beyond the text

a. Define a social problem imitating Parker’s style.
Ans: Sleeping on the streets is a form of homelessness. Homelessness forces you to sleep on the sidewalks. Living life on footpaths weakens you in a variety of ways. It is the end of your pride and prestige. Umemployment is a life of embrassment. Umemployment reduces you social value. You are constatly ashamed and humiliated because you do not have a job. People make fun of you because you are umemployed.

Racism is a humiliating way of life, racists make you feel socially inferior. They continue to degrade you because of your skin color. You will be humilaited in your society because of your skin color. It is a curse to live your life under the guise of racism.

b. Using adjectives to highlight the futility of the situation, write a short definition essay on Growing up in Poverty.
Ans: Poverty is defined as a pitiful situation in which people lack a variety of essentials in their lives. Aside from other people’s perspectives, I believe that growing up in poverty is vexing. You can never be happy if you are poor. The majority of the time, poverty irritates you. Growing up in poverty is a tedious experience. You never try to do anything interesting because you are poor. Growing up in poverty is both perplexing and discouraging. You are constantly perplexed by your life. Disparity and in equality never allow you to be free and do good in your life. Growing up in poverty is a terrifying experience that exposes you to a variety of hardships and struggles. It gives you a tiring and worrying experience where pains are always waiting to greet you.