What Poverty is…
Have you ever felt like you’ve been punished for a crime you’ve never committed? Well in our society poverty in that unspeakable crime. In the essay “What is Poverty”, Jo Goodwin Parker gives a complete and graphic first-hand account of what being poor is really like. Parker is very descriptive in the essay about her daily life and the struggles she has raising her young family. Through her use of strong imagery, repetition structure, and metaphor, Parker brings a voice to silent people and wants to motivate the reader to do something about it.
In the essay, Parker goes into further detail about herself. We learn from the essay that Parker dropped out of Junior high therefore she does have a little bit of an education. We also know that she was married, she says that after her last child her marriage dissolved. Parker mentions the implications poverty has caused resulted in poor health and that of her and her children.
Later in the essay, Parker talks about how things can be fixed but everything has a cost. A cost that she cannot afford. Parker further explains how poverty is asking for help. She describes how the mere fact of asking for help is the hardest thing to do. Parker says asking for help takes away her pride and she gets the courage from thinking about her children. She has this great fear of being judged and suffering from humiliation in having to ask for help.
Parker uses very strong imagery throughout the entire essay in order to make the readers understand what she’s going through. She describes her living situation as something completely unbearable and unsanitary.“This is a smell of urine, sour milk, and spoiling food sometimes joined with the strong smell of long-coo...
