America is one of the most developed countries in the world but some areas do not reflect that prosperity, they are the graveyard of the American Dream. They are neglected and ridiculed by the media, politicians and even ordinary citizens because they remind people of the negative aftermath of the Bootstrap ideology and policies which permeates our culture. Julia Keller novel A Killing in the hill considers one of those forgotten towns named Acker Gap: which is facing a drug crisis fueled by addicts who require opioid based on their life of pain (caused by economic hardships). The book main protagonist is Bell a prosecutor trying to find and fix the troubles of the town murder and drug infestation while battling her own inner demons from childhood. …show more content…
As the reader glances at the novel the more they discover that things are not what they sound and how people socioeconomic status affects the murder case and the town. Fundamentally, Julia Keller uses the novel as an engine to explore how poverty causes social ills which destroy the social fabric in Appalachian complicates existing problems. Acker Gap is a town situates in the Appalachian region which is predominantly a mountainous and rural area that is culturally and economically isolates from the city life. Which means that the infrastructure and the economy of the town are neglected and dilapidated and lead to impoverishes inhabitants. This lack of resources is displayed in the setting by Julia Keller ” Small communities such as Acker’s Gap had no facilities, no personnel and at the root of it all, no budget to perform the kind of sophisticated, high-tech analysis that is standard procedure in modern forensics. They had to rely on the state” (Julia Keller 15). While prominent towns and city acquire better facilities like transportation and more equipped rehab centers with more medical personnel. Small towns officials like Acker Gap expects to perform that same task miraculously on a shoestring budget. People (Chills and Shirley) who are at risk are not identified or stop from withdrawing from a part of destruction for themselves or the county. Drug wars are not aliens to big cities where gangs fight and maim others for territory for dominance and profitability. They can be a menace to the city because of the troubles, but they are more deadly in the rural area because of lack of funds to combat the epidemic. Bell reiterates that point when the judge indicates a drug user who dabbles in opioids and marijuana a slap on the wrist because of insufficient evidence to tie him into more momentous events. She resents the fact that he is set free because she doesn't have adequate manpower to tackle the case like the bigger counties. (Julia Keller 183). The effect is that problems cannot be curtailed at their root when they are benign but become enlarges with far-reaching effects Also, the lack of resources impairs the quality of lives of the young people in Acker Gap either through lack of economic opportunity or a wounded social service care. Albie is a mentally challenged man who is born to an impoverished family who is has a home birth because they couldn't afford the cost of a doctor.
They couldn't afford therapy or any mental services that would have helped him cope with his conditions (Julia Keller 79). Furthermore, the effect of poverty isolates Albie from normal interactions because his mom did not have any resources to find a suitable playmate for him. Albie is also illiterate because he couldn't go to school because there is no facility or school of special needs kids in Acker Gap. Therefore, his needs couldn't be met, and he integrates better with the society. If Albie is born in the city, he will have lived a more desirable quality of life and would be had been less of a burden to his sister and mother. Furthermore, Albie disability is less likely to happen if his parent could afford to pay of a doctor and did not have complications during his birth His family members will less likely live in abject poverty because of the lack of opportunities to earn an income because they have to take of …show more content…
Albie. Albie is not the only one whose life is doomed from the beginning because of the accident of birth.
We see that in the kids who are living in hostile conditions to their well being in the sense of severe unemployment and abusive parents. Julia Keller's shows that the villains don't make their decisions in a vacuum but are hardened by the harsh conditions which they are raised. The example of that is Chill who is kidnapper of Carla and also the HIRED ASSASSIN of the murdered people in the first chapter, Chill is a nineteen-year-old lad who is bruised physically and emotionally by his father. There is a time he even threw a boot on him because he woke him up on a Sunday Afternoon. (Julia Keller 107). His teachers did not believe the tales he told about the incident in school the next morning they had too much on their hands to be worried. That event is a turning point in Chill life in the sense that he believes he is worthless, and his life trajectory didn’t matter. Which is shown in the sense that when a new teacher starts to take an interest in him he becomes uneasy with the love and care that he retails instead by being lewd. Chills father should have been reported to Child Protective Services by his teachers and made to require a parenting class. Chills will not have fallen through the systems if the school could afford a competent social worker or his father isn't either stretches from the arduous manual labor. This abuse is replicated in the way he is maltreated by the
boss and the way he abuses Lorene the prostitute, Lorene. Keller shows by the end of the novel how frail and unstable this teenager is and how he needed love in his life. The people of Acker Gap are people that mostly do menial jobs to provide for their families. Which meant they are very tired people who experience many pains and because they are not college educated them are susceptible to the opioid crisis. They had low skilled jobs, so they couldn't call out or relax which means their life is devoid of colors. Additionally, their youth couldn't work because there is a severe unemployment which meant the kids had nothing to accomplish and there is no arcade or money to spend entertainingly themselves. This bleak condition made it that workers who ask doctors for prescription become hooked because of boredom and a harsh life. Which increases demands of the illicit version of the drugs and therefore teenagers experiment because they want to be cool or want to escape their bleak reality. There is suddenly a market for drugs because of people discontent bases on their strenuous life which leads to more chaos in the community. The most crippling aspect of poverty is that robs people of agency and makes them believe they are not in the driver seat of their lives. That is reinforced by the notion that their voices don't matter even in issues that disproportionately affect them and their community. Julia Keller shows that in the aftermath of the murder where the residents of the town jostle to appear on a television screen on a Sunday morning ;Because they feared that is their fifteen minutes of fame. Bell aptly said “A lot of the people in Raythune County felt invisible. They felt marginalizes forgotten. The world paid them no mind. This might be the one time in their lives-just one meager time, a few seconds tops- that the spotlight would swing their way, and they would feel its welcome heat on their weather, uses-up faces.” (Julia Keller 73). This notion cripples the lives of people who think their decision doesn't matter and predestined to a life of sorrows or vagabond. The people with ambition moves out of the state as Bell quotes an old joke “Top two exports out of West Virginia? Coal and young people.” Keller critical point in the novel is to demonstrate the damaging effects of poverty and how it corrodes the lifestyles of people who have to endure it daily. In the sense that they become more likely to become addicts to strong substances to escapes their life which makes everybody jobs in their social circle harder. From siblings like Deanna who is trapped by Albie condition and had to take care of her brother. Another example is Shirley who isn't allowed to grow to be a normal teenager because of her abusive father. It also makes them invisible and powerless to the world outside because they have not obtained enough power and instead they are ridiculed by society. Keller shows throughout the book how hard it is for people to heal from the scars of poverty and what it entails. Even the people that look well-adjusted are still nursing the wounds of where they form and obstacles they faced. Therefore, the idea of a more robot social care in the rural town would help alleviate and correct the stress faced by parents and family members. Finally, we should reflect this person lives better in the media to portray their more nuanced selves.
The Novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski uses two characters of his own creation to construct the book in its entirety. The first contributor, Zampano, who is the author, who may or may not be trustworthy of the interpretation of The Navidson Record, because he is blind. Early on in his efforts to finish the book he dies under suspicious circumstances. At this point, Danielewski employees another to contribute, Johnny Truant, who composes the introduction and notes for the book. Zampano documents the Navidson Record which is about Will Navidson and his family. Navidson calls his brother Tom and a family friend, Billy Reston, to investigate a hallway that appears out of nowhere between two rooms. Once a labyrinth appears in the house,
Mariah Snow wrote, “We lose our names as we lose our youth, our beauty and our lives” (163). This quote from Lee Smiths novel On Agate Hill says a lot about Mariah and her own life. She had always been treated like a ‘second citizen’, as most women were in that time period, being that men held the power of most relationships, as well as in society in general, Mariah felt as though she had been pushed around a lot but could not even speak up. When women get married, they give up their last name, almost symbolizing that their individuality is completely gone. In Mariah’s case, once she got married to Dr. Snow, she lost her name; once she had babies she lost her youth; and she did not feel beautiful anymore because life’s stresses were taking toll, and she really did not love herself much at all.
This film chose to focus on very young people struggling to survive in poverty. All three of the boys are younger than 18 years old and thus are in an important developmental stage. The film gives us a view into the effects of a disadvantaged upbringing on a child’s development. These three boys grew up in situations defined by poverty and familial dysfunction and for two of them, the after effects are clear. Harley has severe anger issues and is unable to function at school. Appachey lashes out uncontrollably and has multiple diagnosed behavioral disorders. Both boys have had run-ins with the law and dealings with the juvenile court system. This solidifies the argument espoused in Marmot’s The Health Gap that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds face significant developmental challenges. The evidence suggests that children who grow up in poverty have cognitive and developmental delays and suffer from greater risk of mental and behavioral disorders. As shown in the film, Harley and Appachey both suffer from extreme behavioral and cognitive deficits and exhibit the corresponding poor scholastic and societal performance which will serve to further negatively affect their
This story makes the reader wonder, why must parents do this to their children, what kinds of motifs do they have for essentially ruining their child’s life. I believe
...nd personal story that shows the pitiful characters of Arpi and Connie that are victims of bullying at school. Then she concludes the story with a “perhasping” image of Connie and her mother at 7-Eleven transporting the readers from a classroom setting of kids bullied in front of an absentminded teacher to a sad picture in front of a store window. Considering the future, Murphy encourages the reader to evaluate their stand on cruelty and to make that difference not treat one another different. Murphy through rhetorical and tonal elements of pathos, logos, and diction expresses that cruelty in any form is wrong no matter how one tries to justify it. Doing bad for good is never right.
Blackhawk Down takes place in the 1990’s during a famine and massive civil war. A United Nations peacekeeping group was sent in to help, but the main portion of these withdrew. The Somali Militia declared war on these remaining forces and the Army rangers, Delta Force and the 160th SOAR were sent to Somalia to try capture the self-appointed president Mohammed Farrah Adid. Adid was taking Red Cross food shipments, the UN forces cannot engage them head on, to gain even more control over the population because of the famine. The Rangers and Delta force capture a warlord selling weapons to the militia outside of Mogadishu. After the warlords, capture a plan is created to capture two of Adid’s top advisors, Omar Salad Elmi and Abdi Hassan Awale
Connecting Sociology to situations that arise in everyday life has become easier and easier as i have progressed through Intro to Sociology this semester. When choosing what book I was going to analyze for my report, I chose Methland by Nick Reding. It details the quote “death and life of an american small town” through the perspective of those involved in the epidemic of the production of methamphetamine’s in the rural town of Oelwein Iowa. Despite the odds of a poor, small, and rural town in Middle America, Oelwein climbed to the top of the economic ladder with a multi million dollar drug franchise spread throughout the 1990’s. The midwest suffered greatly in the 1980’s with the downfall of the agricultural business in the United States. Soon drug dealers started flocking to these seemingly desolate towns in rural America to safely distribute their product. With the loss of jobs due to the farming downfall, many residents of Oelwein were seeking work and pay in anyway they could find. This is what started the official meth epidemic. Reding spent 4 years in his hometown of Oelwein Iowa to gain insight on the production and consumption of methamphetamine’s in this small town and also shines a spotlight on the problems of meth in this country today. But ironically, the comparison in this story of how the production and consumption of meth seemed to be driving this small town further into extinction, it also brought it back to life. Despite the destruction methamphetamines caused in Oelwein Iowa, the epidemic also brought the town back to life in a way that is irreversible. The highlight of the division of social class and who is able to climb up the social ladder is themed throughout the entire novel.
Ironbark Hill tells the story of sixteen-year-old Natalie Chapman as she begins to navigate the world during her transition to adulthood. Natalie lives with her family of six in Australia during the Elizabethan era, which includes her mother, mentally handicapped brother, alcoholic stepfather, and two younger sisters. As she begins to come into her own in regards to her dreams and passions, she becomes increasingly at odds with her abusive stepfather, Alex Townsend. Natalie begins to discover more of her talents and desires while uncovering a family secret that threatens to consume her. As her story continues, she realizes how much strength she has and how to reach all the goals she sets for herself.
... growth where a child is forced to start looking for solutions for everything that is wrong instead of simply being a child. This analysis prove that children have their own way of seeing things and interpreting them. Their defense mechanisms allow them to live through hard and difficult times by creating jokes and games out of the real situation. This enables then to escape the difficulties of the real world.
The book Fallen Angels explains how you fight to survive and also the book is by Walter Dean Myers. On a jungle battle front where one misplaced step could be any soldier's last, every move can mean the difference between death and also survival. The way the book starts off is a 19 year old boy who lives in chicago, he recently joins the army and been assigned to do domestic work as he hoped for due to his bad leg and unreliable strength on it. He was eventually sent to Nam and put onto field. He also agreed to wait for his injury profile to catch up with him and then he could return home.His mother at home is quite worried for him and also for the future.
I think the author believes that the biggest mistake that children make as they attempt to mature in the world around them is that they do so many actions without thinking about what could happen as a result of what they do. I know this by how Lily Owens acts during the story. A time that this happens during the story is when Lily decides to leave his father and learn more about her mother, who was accidentally killed by Lily when she was a toddler. Her reasoning for this is that she hates how she is treated by her father, T-Ray, and how horrid his punishments could be to her. For example, she gets scrapes on her knee caps from kneeling on top of bread grits as a constant punishment put on by T-Ray for doing things like going outside of the
All too often, parents receive the blame when their children commit horrible crimes, from theft to murder and all amoral acts in-between. In The Veldt, the blame is on the technologically advanced house. Thus, the blame for spoiled rotten, homicidal children, falls not solely on the parents, but more so on society’s lust for advancement. The house, in doing everything for the occupants has, in a way, stolen their humanity. The parents, being no longer responsible for themselves, have also failed to nurture and discipline the children, the ones who need it the most. The nursery becomes their surrogate parents, but technology cannot think or feel on it’s own by relying on objectionable past experiences, if it has learned any emotions or thoughts, it has done so only be replicating what the children feel. The children who feel alienated from their mother and father, who have no real boundaries or rules, and therefore, the technology they have influenced knows no different.
An American poet once said, “Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age. The child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies” (Millay 13 Sept. 2014). Childhood is surely a mystery and it is meant to be that way. Parents and guardian always face the conflict of teaching adolescents to ‘grow up’ or become more ‘mature’, but confrontation may not be always be the best choice as we will find out soon. The re-occurring theme, confrontation changes perception, is often misinterpreted or overlooked because society believes confronting is always a good thing. This theme is portrayed in the short story, The Fall of the City, by Alden Nowlan through the character Teddy. Firstly, ridicules
The children couldn’t accept what they thought was so horrible. There was a lot of ignorance and carelessness portrayed throughout this short story. The theme of ungratefulness was revealed in this story; The author depicted how disrespecting someone can inturn feed you with information you may wish you never knew and how someone can do one wrong thing and it immediately erases all the good things a person did throughout their
Children are like sponges; they absorb massive amounts of information from sources all around. However, they could not tell what is good or evil. After growing up, some children act badly or out of control. For instance, the Disney Pixar’s “Inside Out” is a film that shows us how an ordinary event in life can take us on a remarkable emotional journey and constant characteristic changes in a child’s life within ourselves. the protagonist Riley was a happy girl until she moved to a new city where everything is unfamiliar and unpleasant.Riley’s not quick to adjust to her new life and begins to make some harsh judgments about her situation, she soon becomes desperate and turns into a reckless kid. Riley clearly can not distinguish right from wrong which causes her to change her characteristics so rapidly that drives her to do horrible things. This is a reason why many parents need to pay more attention to the childhood development of their children. Furthermore, In the most of the life, people usually imitate the others around them, this is also the reason that can cause a child to change their characteristics, because, in this age, they are not old enough to realize many things. Thus; this is the easy time for the parents who want to teach their children the good things or create a good characteristic for them. All children will learn to follow parents and do not feel any angry or confuse. For example, parents always teach their children how to behave with the older people when their children were a baby. Moreover, if people do not help to indicate them the right way to go, it is very difficult to correct them when they adult. Because, when they grow old enough, they feel familiar with their behaviour and do not want to obey or to hear the others. Jean Louise “Scout” Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a suitable example in this case because she was taught to behave like a