The Theme Of Poverty In Gordon Parks Flavio's Home

The first images that pop into your head when you think about poverty are the commercials on TV with the “In the arms of an Angel” song casting pictures and videos of kids in Africa, starving to death. It is all heartbreaking to imagine, but it does not mention that every year, developing countries are robbed of more than one trillion dollars that could fight poverty. disease and hunger. Gordon Parks’ distinguished way of capturing poverty in Rio de Janeiro, as mentioned in the Journal Entry “Flavio's Home,” is a great way to demonstrate the struggles of families in poverty . Photos taken by Parks made it on Life magazine which were originally based on his autobiography Voices in the Mirror in the 1990s to inform the inconsiderate rich about

He has a remarkable way of using distinct details to let the reader imagine exactly what the writer wants them to visualize, by describing “grimy walls” that had “large gaps” and “floors, rotting under layers of grease and dirt” (Parks 2). Parks elaborates a positive ethos by demonstrating how little education kids, like Flavio, are offered when his siblings start shouting curse words left and right. In this part of his argument, Parks demonstrated his shock on how these living conditions were far worse than what he expected. Parks’ development of the character Flavio makes the reader become fond of the boy, effectively stating his point across on the reality of families facing

In the final part of the essay, he takes about three pages to illustrate the struggle of taking Flavio to the doctor for medical attention. Parks doesn’t put enough emphasis on why it is that many adults and children like Flavio have no chance of living, instead, he focuses on the main character to gain sympathy. If Parks had put more emphasis on the low funds that clinics were receiving from the cities close to Catacumba who choose not to help, these points would have strengthened Parks’ thesis; although Parks does add an example, stating how “Last year ten thousand died from dysentery alone...a few wealthy people who care to help keep us going” (Parks 5). This topic would have been addressed more effectively by Parks if it was expanded with reasoning as to why funds were