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Poverty in society essay
The effects of poverty on society and individuals
The effects of poverty on society and individuals
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Within the next few pages here I intend to address two issues. First I will try to give a personal review of what I saw this book to hold, and second I will try explain the revelence which this book has to the field of Public Administration. First try to picture children in a slum where the squalor in their homes is just as bad as that which is in the streets. Where prostitution is rampant, thievery a common place and murder and death a daily occurrence. Crack-cocaine and heroin are sold in corner markets, and the dead eyes of men and women wandering about aimlessly in the streets of Mott Haven are all to common., Their bodies riddled with disease, disease which seems to control the neighborhood. This is Mott Haven, in New York City's South Bronx, the outback of this
American nation's poorest congressional district, also the setting of Jonathan Kozol's disturbing representation of poverty in this country. The stories, which are captured
Amazing Grace, are told in the simplest terms. They are told by children who have seen their parents die of AIDS and other disease, by mothers who complain about teenagers bagging dope and loading guns on fire escapes, by clergy who teach the poor to fight injustice and by police who are afraid to answer 911 calls. Kozol seems to be disparage about the situation of the poor in American today, especially when more and more the poor are blamed for being poor. Kozol’s portrait of life in Mott Haven is gentle and passionate. Even though rats may chew through apartment walls in the homes of Mott
Haven, the children still say their prayers at night. What seems to bother Kozol is that many people do not even want to look at this picture of America, but in Amazing Grace he dares us to recognize it does exist.
Kozol spent a year wandering through Mott Haven and its neighboring communities; visiting churches, schools, hospitals, parks, and homes. Talking with parents and kids, social workers, religious leaders, and principals and teachers; struggling to try to understand how these children and parents cope with poverty and violence. Kozol trys to determine how their fellow citizens can tolerate, even demand policies that guarantee misery and death for those living a few subway stops north of glitzy midtown Manhattan.
Perhaps nothing can halt the tides of social policy where citizens of this nation are allowed to live in such conditions. If on the other hand anything can, it may be Kozol's forecasting visions and the openness and humanity of the remarkable people whose
Thirty-five percent of the people who live there are children. The neighborhood's focal point is St. Ann's Church. Considering that these people are the poorest of the poor, they have an amazing abundance of faith.... ... middle of paper ...
Jonathan Kozol's book, Amazing Grace, analyzes the lives of the people living in the dilapidated district of South Bronx, New York. Kozol spends time touring the streets with children, talking to parents, and discussing the appalling living conditions and safety concerns that plague the residents in the inner cities of New York. In great detail, he describes the harsh lifestyles that the poverty stricken families are forced into; day in and day out. Disease, hunger, crime, and drugs are of the few everyday problems that the people in Kozol's book face; however, many of these people continue to maintain a very religious and positive outlook on life. Jonathan Kozol's investigation on the lifestyle of these people, shows the side to poverty that most of the privileged class in America does not get to see. Kozol wishes to persuade the readers to sympathize with his book and consider the condition in which these people live. The inequality issues mentioned are major factors in affecting the main concerns of Kozol: educational problems, healthcare obstacles, and the everyday struggles of a South Bronx child.
Anthem is a story of man’s struggle to be free and to fight the masses of conformity. It tells of human nature and the want to gain all the knowledge that one could possibly attain. Man loses his safe haven and his security when he lets this lust for knowledge overpower him and lets it be seen by others. He becomes vulnerable Like Johann Faust, Prometheus sells his life for wisdom. Unlike Faust, however, Prometheus is expelled from his society but gains his freedom of individuality and his freedom of knowledge and the ability to understand. In Anthem, Prometheus and Gaea sin against society to become singular and understanding much like Adam and Eve’s sin against God when they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge to gain wisdom; as a result, they can be compared to each other by there desire for learning and by their damnation.
Stories about life 's struggle to survive in everyday America can make one think twice of the American dream. In David Shipler’s book The Working Poor, David tells many different tales of people living in poverty and also analyzes what 's wrong and why. The book’s portrayal of the poor is not for the meek however, as one reviewer exclaims, “Through a series of sensitive, sometimes heart-rending portraits”, (Lenkowsky). In the book a lot of American ideologies are turned on its head as The Red Phoenix explains how our poor are viewed as, “Wealth and decadence are the tell-tale signs of hard work and brilliance paying off, while poverty is a sign of laziness, irresponsibility and a disposition or work-ethic undeserving of the
There are some who claim that the real reason why poverty exists in the U.S. is not because there is a problem with the labor market that makes it difficult to earn adequate wages, but, instead, that the poor are simply unwilling to work. One such proponent of such a view is Lawrence Mead. Mead claims that “the hallmark of today’s poor adults is that “they seldom work consistently,” and “are notably less self-reliant” (211). Furthermore, that, while “much of poverty could be blamed on the fact that unskilled wages were too low for many people to escape poverty” in the past, nowadays it is a “simple fact that rising wages has pulled most of the working poor out of pover...
As we read further, we find that there are multitudes of problems inherent within the South Bronx. One of the only ways of determining where these problems stem from is by looking at the possible reasons as to why they exist. Drugs, violence, AIDS infections, are not new, ...
Using the themes we have examined in this course discuss the situation of the children in Jonathan Kozol's Amazing Grace. Who defines them as 'other'? How? What makes them feel like 'nobodies'? What makes them feel like 'somebodies'? What is the role of religion in this daily struggle for human dignity?
This book was a good read for me, but I also read book reviews to help me keep track on what I am reading. These book reviews just made a better understanding of what I was reading.
In Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace, he examines the lives and experiences of many children living in the Bronx. In all cases, they lived in run-down apartments surrounded by violence, drugs, and hopelessness. His main argument was that the poor people of this area were not treated well by the city, and the society tried to hide and forget about them. The second chapter of his book have several examples of this practice.
Several citizens in America may not empathize with many social conflicts which transpire in America. Unfortunately, when poverty is mentioned people of diverse gender, race/ethnic, and age can relate to poverty in America. Although several societies have not experienced the undesirable measures of relative or absolute poverty; several people know poverty exist through many channels, such as the media, social networking, history and charities.
In the 1960s, the government drew a poverty line which determined how the lower class may benefit from government aid. Since t “2008, th...
In his essay, “ Brooklyn Bridge,” the author explores the “appetite” of a particular New Yorker. This woman is described as staring,full of awe,at the New York Skyline from another borough. She is ambitious and sees New York as full of endless possibilities. Throughout the collection he portrays New York transplants or prospective residents as being driven by the longing to grab a piece of the city for themselves.This drive is a pattern that is repeated in these works of Whitehead. In his essay “Port Authority instead of focusing on the New York ideal of one individual Whitehead focuses on a body of people about to move to New York. Througout the collection Whitehead switches back and forth between focusing on an individual and focusing on a crowd. In this essay Whitehead also highlights the sameness within the people hustling and bustling in and out of Port Authority. He implies that the same quality of brokenness has led them all here, “They’re all broken somehow… Otherwise they would have come here differently,”(15). Even though they are all from different places and all have different destinations the essence of New York has drawn them all here. Colson’s account of the passengers shows that they are all feeling the same feelings of hope in regards to coming to New York. Although they all hope for different things the theme regarding the passengers is
home, the amount used can run up to 440 liters a day. This is almost
Today it is estimated that more than 35 million Americans which is approximately 14 percent of the population live in poverty. The numbers are high and only continue to get higher. Statistics have shown that poverty is increasing. Millions of people die annually because they lack the resources and food to live a daily life. There exist many programs that offer projects to help or at least to reduce the percentage of poverty, but they lack the financial support. Many people from the middle class are on the borderline of poverty and if the economy does not improve, they will reach poverty. This is very upsetting especially if most of us are middle class. Poverty can happen to anyone, it all depends on society and the economy. According to the definition of relative poverty, poor people are the ones who do not have what is needed the most. Without a foundation to live a decent life is has become difficult to...
At the present time, one of the inseparable parts of the economic growth is considered as tourism industry. Commonly, tourism is the movement of people to other places for business or leisure purposes as well as covers their activities. Holloway and Humphreys defines that the places where tourists come and spend their money are called as “tourist destinations” in other words “receiving areas”. Many countries have been improving tourism to overcome economic difficulties since it is growing fast. The industry activities have been demonstrated a general positive trend in the economy and it has already become the inherent part of economic development. In host countries, tourism has led to such positive consequences as the improved infrastructure,