Ignorance Depicted In David Shiplers The Working Poor

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In David Shiplers’ The Working Poor, he explores the life of the forgotten people of America. He listened to the voices of those who are a victim of either circumstance, or their own created misfortune. The books shows the stories behind the working poor’s tired eyes, and wrinkled faces. It brings a whole new light to the underbelly of America. It takes off the blindfold of ignorance that society wears. In David Shiplers’ The Working Poor he shows the barriers that hindered the working poor from escaping the maze of poverty. The popular tooth paste brand Colgate is, “#64 World’s Most Valuable Brands” (Forbes). The company that specializes in tooth health is in the A-List category of brands. By this fact, teeth must be extremely important part of American society. To most people that is common sense, but there are some who can’t afford common sense; for example Caroline Payne. In the book Shipler gives a brief outline of Caroline’s work life, and talks about how she never got a promotion. “… Wal-Mart manager, Mark brown called her a ‘nice lady’…. ‘She can definitely move up.’ But she did not move up. She had never moved up” (Shipler 51). He sets up the reader to believe that Caroline maybe a bad worker, and others are saying nice things to avoid looking bad in …show more content…

In the case of Marquita it stopped her from getting her GED and essentially bettering her life. “‘So there’s really nothing stopping me from doing it except me being afraid to just go in and do it… More than four years later, she still not dared to try the test again.” Shipler shows that fear has no limits on the control it has on someone’s life. That at the core, the working poor is still humans that are capable of such things. Also in the case of Camellia, a woman who was a one step short of getting a job at Macys. Due to her low self esteem, mixed with fear, she decided to not go to the orientation, and in short giving up before she was even up to

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