Deconstruction of Poverty

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Through texts such as Bell Hook’s “Narrative of Struggle” and “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Natasha Trethewey’s “High Rollers” (An excerpt from her book “Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.”), and a Documentary Film “Trouble the Water” directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, these writers and directors express their concern with issues of class and agency. Hooks, Trethewey, Lessin and Deal argue that in our society the poor are treated and depicted negatively by the government and society whereas they are classified as careless people who lack morals and integrity or a specific position in our country; while Hooks, Lessin and Deal also express that it is possible to resist the idea of what society has set the stereotypical or false views of the poor that often come from the dominant media or the government through movies, commercials, news, etc. of poverty to be, by using different methods such as cherishing values gained through poverty, and remaining the humble people that they are.
The film “Trouble the Water” directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal was about a young couple by the names of Kimberly and Scott M. Roberts and their Friend Larry Sims who survived through Hurricane Katrina. Throughout the documentary there are clips consisting of the storm and the aftermath that was recorded by the couple. During the storm the Roberts and Smith did everything possible to survive from escaping their flooded home to an attic of a home owned by Mrs. Robert’s kin. Scott Roberts and Larry Sims gradually swam to and from all the flooded homes on their street to transport people to the attic until they were assured that everyone that was still living was safe. They saved people that they never met...

... middle of paper ...

...resenting the Poor. New York: Routledge, 1994.
193-201. Print.
Mariani, Philomena. "Critical fictions: the politics of imaginative writing." Trans. Array
Narratives of Struggle. New York, NY: (Dia Center for the Arts), 1991. 53-61. Print.
Natasha, Trethewey. "Benediction." Trans. Array Beyond Katrina. Athens, Georgia: The
University Of Georgia Press, 2010. 125. Print.
Natasha, Trethewey. "Cycle." Trans. Array Beyond Katrina. Athens, Georgia: The University Of
Georgia Press, 2010. 95-116. Print.
Natasha, Trethewey. "High Rollers." Trans. Array Beyond Katrina. Athens, Georgia: The
University Of Georgia Press, 2010. 83-94. Print.
Natasha, Trethewey. "Redux." Trans. Array Beyond Katrina. Athens, Georgia: The University
Of Georgia Press, 2010. 117-124. Print.

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