Abandonment Issues Everything happens for a reason. That is a saying that I personally stick by and have stuck with my entire life. During the reading, Enrique had no control over stopping his mother from leaving him and sisters; it just happened. Some motherly instinct took over and she acted on it as soon as possible, not realizing the consequences. The same thing happened with my father when he went to prison. At first the only thing you see are the advantages that come out a certain situation, but then you soon are able to see the disadvantages whenever it’s too late. So, is leaving your child behind worth what they will go through mentally and physically just to understand why left them in the first place. Needless to say the struggle parent and child will booth face financially. Throughout the book we see a …show more content…
My mother didn’t work, because my father insisted on providing for his family so as a result, there wasn’t much income coming in to the household. I didn’t have much, but after reading this book I soon realized that what little I had was way more than what Enrique grew up with. And not only about the living circumstances, but the salary my dad made was more than what Enrique and his family earned. “The stone hut becomes his home.” (page 32) Having to live in a place with no electricity and sometimes no restroom, I can only imagine is terrible. And not only would living circumstances be terrible, but the scarce food and job opportunity was just as worse. “It may only be beans, but you always have food her.” (page 17) This is what Lourdes’s mother tells her in hopes that she will return despite the poverty they faced. However Lourdes insists she is doing better and stays in America making little money. At one point she isn’t making any money and has to work as a fichera, or another word for it is some type of prostitute. (page 15) Only due time does she actually get back on her feet with help from
Enrique and many other Central American kids have a hard life. They come to America where they think their mothers will magically solve their problems because their mothers are supposed to be perfect. Enrique and others realize this isn’t true and goes on to accept it. Migrants resent their mothers a little bit, but come to start loving them as the migrants did before their mothers left. Migrants also learn about life lessons on the trains. Migrants learn that people should not be trusted, but not all people are bad. The migrants just have to learn which people are bad and which aren’t. Migrants also learned that you shouldn’t have high expectations of everything and also that you shouldn’t put your problems on one person and expect them to go away. You have to figure life out on your own.
The entire story is an allusion, or a reference to the Hatian Revolution, and its themes of hope and escape, along with the poverty that follows it. The poverty is the first thing the readers are introduced to in this story. It was found that in 1985, 90 percent of the Haitian population was earning less than 150 USD per year. (Coupeau 103) Danticat is able to portray this well in her story, using little details throughout to signify that the family the story is about is living in poverty. This is best described on page 369, where she
She sets out to explore the world that welfare mothers are entered. The point was not so much to become poor as to get a sense of the spectrum of low-wage work that existed-from waitressing to housekeeping. She felt mistreated when it was announced that there has been a report on “drug activity”, as a result, the new employees will be required to be tested, as will the current employees on a random basis. She explained feeling mistreated, “I haven 't been treated this way-lined up in the corridor, threatened with locker searches, peppered with carelessly aimed accusations-since junior high school” (Ehrenreich,286). The other problem is that this job shows no sign of being financially viable. Ehrenreich states that there is no secret economies that nourish the poor, “If you can 't put up the two months’ rent you need to secure an apartment, you end up paying through the nose for a room by the week” (286). On the first day of housekeeping, she is yelled and given nineteen rooms to clean. For four hours without a break she striped and remake the beds. At the end of the experience she explained that she couldn 't hold two jobs and couldn 't make enough money to live on with one as where single mothers with children. She has clarified that she has advantages compare to the long-term
“He tells Lourdes she didn’t care enough about her children to stay with them in Honduras. He berates Lourdes for leaving him with a father she knew was irresponsible “(Nazario 197). Even when Enrique travels all this way to be with his mom, he is still not able to forgive her for leaving him and thinking money could replace her presence. Enrique travels to the United States because he believes, by being with her this will automatically undo all the damage. The sad reality, is Enrique and Lourdes have become strangers to each other. Lourdes hardly called and when she did there were never answers that would satisfy Enrique. This is why when they finally meet each other, they have conflicts because they don’t understand each other. This is because Lourdes has missed out on Enrique’s entire childhood. Enrique and Lourdes are both upset; Enrique because it didn’t meet the perfect family expectations that he had fantasized in his head for all these years, and Lourdes would see her children as not being appreciative of all that she did. These wounds will be lifelong, meanwhile money is only temporary and can come and go as time
Like many other migrants, Enrique had many troubles with his mother too. When Enrique first arrived to the U.S., Enrique and his mother’s relationship was going well. Lourdes was proud of Enrique for finding a job as a painter and sander. Lourdes would always brag to her friends that Enrique is her son and that he’s big and a miracle. However, Enrique starts going to a pool hall without asking Lourdes’s permission which makes her upset. Enrique often yells obscenities and mother tells him not to, but Enrique tells Lourdes that nobody can change who he is.
La Inca is a very unselfish woman, she took care of Beli after the death and imprisonment of her parents. La inca believes that Beli deserves the best education the island can offer. She offers a safe place and support to her grandchildren Lola and Oscar. In chapter three on page 80, La Inca was not able to support herself and Beli but did what she can to support herself and Beli. Diaz states in the book, ¨Sharing a bed with her mother, the inability to buy the dresses she wanted.¨ This quote shows that La inca is in isolation from being a wealthy mother not being able to give her children what other parents can. Diaz uses the history of La Inca to show that she is in isolation from having a normal childhood as a kid. In chapter three on page 80, La inca did not have a home as a kid, she passed through rough times when she was young and she'll never forget those horrible days. Diaz states in the book, ¨Those first years of her life when she´d been an orphan, the horrible scars from that time.¨ This shows that La inca had a hard life since she was young she was not able to have a childhood because of what she went through showing she is in isolation from people who didn't have a hard life when she was
The cycle of poverty is a term well undefined but considerably understandable when talking is excess about individuals who formulate only enough income to provide basic clothing, food, and shelter. The cycle itself targets those of the same background such as a family or a particular community. In addition, the poverty aspect comes from those individuals who happen to be uneducated by means of further education and or unskilled in a particular trade leaving them in a position of working jobs that pay inadequately but require demanding hours and stress of labor. In order to exemplify, chapter one in the book dealt with the fact that Barbara's severely low pay...
Most of the chapters in the book are just her telling about her life. She was born a very poor and sickly child, growing up with her mother and grandmother, after her mother had left her abusive husband. This was only the beginning of a very rough and trying life that she would face. She went on to describe her childhood, how other Salvadorian women were treated and the Salvadorian way of viewing women. Raised as a strict Catholic, she was taught by her grandmother at a young age to “act like a proper young women.”
Women’s Escape into Misery Women’s need for male support and their husband’s constant degradation of them was a recurring theme in the book House on Mango Street. Many of Esperanza’s stories were about women’s dreams of marrying, the perfect husband and having the perfect family and home. Sally, Rafaela, and Minerva are women who gave me the impression of [damsel’s in distress].CLICHÉ, it’s ok though. It’s relevant They wished for a man to sweep them of their feet and rescue them from their present misery. These characters are inspiring and strong but they are unable to escape the repression of the surrounding environment. *Cisneros presents a rigid world in which they lived in, and left them no other hope but to get married. Esperanza, however, is a very tough girl who knows what she wants. She will keep dreaming and striving until she gets it. She says, "I am too strong for her [Mango Street] to keep me here" (110). Esperanza learned from all of these women that she was not going to be tied down. She said, "I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain" (88). **Especially after seeing that Sally was suffering so much. Sally’s father is making her want to leave home by beating her. Sally "said her mother rubs lard on the places were it hurts" (93). There is not enough lard in the world to be able to cure the pain within Sally’s heart. Sally, "met a marshmallow salesman at a school bazaar" (101). Pretty soon " sally got married, she has her house now, her pillowcases and her plates" (101). Her marriage seems to free her from her father, but in reality she has now stepped into a world of misery. This was supposed to help her heal; " she says she is in love, but I think she did it to escape." (101). Unlike the other women Sally has no escape, no poetry, not even papaya coconut juice, not to mention, " he does not let her look out the window" (102). That is why "she sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission."(102). Rafaela’s situation also involves imprisonment in her own home. Cisneros introduced us to Rafaela, a young beautiful girl whose expectations from marriage were to obtain a sweet home to live in. Instead...
Throughout Ehrenreich 's journey, she becomes increasingly aware of the reality of her situation as a member of the working poor. She realizes that “the 'working poor, '... are in fact the major philanthropists of our society”(Ehrenreich 221). Despite having far less wealth than the average American, low income workers sacrifice their time and health to accept wages that are often fiscally unviable. The working poor must slave away at “jobs that… [are] physically demanding, some of them evan damaging (pg.195)” to benefit the financially adept, who give nothing in return. This process of giving and not receiving is exhibited when Ehrenreich attempts to find aid from welfare programs, but is disappointed when she can only qualify to receive less than a week 's worth of groceries. “There are no secret economies that nourish the poor”(Ehrenreich 27) and as a result individuals within this group are left on their own to support themselves and their families with mediocre wages. In addition to having little to no assistance when it comes to nourishment, the poor must also pay for additional costs that financially capable people do not have. An example of these additional costs can be seen when Ehrenreich must constantly pay for fast food because she has no source of refrigeration and also, when she must buy expensive medicine
When they first arrived to the United States their only hopes were that they would have a better life and that there were better special education programs for Maribel to attend at Evers. Alma imagined that the buildings would look a lot nicer than they really were. The family was surprised that they could take things from the street that someone threw out of their house, but were in working condition. When they arrived they didn’t think that you would actually have to learn English to be able to communicate, but after going to stores and interacting with people they learned that they need to learn English if they want to live in America. They hoped that you could be able to afford anything in America by working, but based off of the money Arturo was making they learned that you can’t buy everyth...
... would not be in Tatiana’s best interest to return to Honduras. She would be in a country where there is no one willing to provide her with adequate support and care. Tatiana’s father is deceased and refused to acknowledge his paternity of Tatiana while he was living. See Affidavit A, B. Also, in Honduras, Tatiana’s extended family has proved inadequate and abusive in their care of Tatiana. See Affidavit A, B. In contrast to what awaits Tatiana back in Honduras, Tatiana’s mother and Mr. Mendoza are willing and able to provide Tatiana with the support and care she needs to flourish as an adolescent and into adulthood.
In the opening pages of the text, Mary, nineteen, is living alone in Albuquerque. Vulnerable to love, depressed and adrift, she longs for something meaningful to take her over. Just as she is “asking the universe whether or not there was more to life than just holding down boring jobs”, she takes on the job of helping an illegal (political) refugee, José Luis who had been smuggled from El Salvador to the United States, to adjust to his new life in Albuquerque. She instantly falls in love with him and hopes to start her life over with the new aim of “taking the war out of him.”(p. 4) Providing a refuge for him, Mary, as Fellner suggests, “imagines herself to be whole and complete in the experience of love”. (2001: 72) She willingly puts José Luis as the “center” of her life (p.5) with the hope that “love would free her from her dormant condition” (Fellner 2001: ...
There is a special bond between parents and children, but there is always uncertainty, whether it’s with the parents having to let go or the children, now adults, reminiscing on the times they had with their parents. The poem “To a Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan is a very emotional poem about what you can assume: a daughter leaving home. Then the poem “Alzheimer 's" by Kelly Cherry is about the poet’s father, a former professional musician who develops the disease. These are only two examples that show the ambivalence between the parents and the children.
Urban industrial workers were bombarded with many problems, a major one being long working hours. They not only had to endure endless hours of labor and turmoil, but received scarcely any pay at all. To make things worse, they were struggling to exist in the late 19th century where industrialization was flustering and depressions were part of the norm. An average American worker earned a measly $500 per year and a woman only half as much as the men. People were not making enough money to purchase the necessities of life and thus, lived a hard, struggling life. A woman stated she didn’t "live" , but merely "existed".. she didn’t live that you could call living."