What is Poverty?

Summary of the Essay: What is Poverty?

The essay What is Poverty? is written by Jo Goodwin Parker. In this essay, the writer gives a true and painful picture of poverty based on her own life. She explains that poverty is much worse than how it is shown in newspapers. According to her, poverty is cruel, humiliating, and destructive.

Parker explains that poverty means living without hope, good food, proper health care, sanitation, and education. It destroys self respect, health, and the future of children. Poor people live with constant worry and fear about tomorrow. Poverty also breaks family relationships and creates emotional pain.

The writer shares her personal struggles as a single mother of three children. Because of poverty, she had to quit her job as she could not afford child care. She describes shocking situations where her children were left in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. She also explains how poverty makes a person feel dirty, ashamed, and helpless. Even basic things like soap, hot water, medicine, and clothes become luxuries.

Parker points out that although government support programs exist, they are often unreachable for the poor. She clearly shows that poverty traps people and gives no chance to improve life. Through this essay, she does not ask for sympathy but wants readers to truly understand the harsh reality of poverty.

Understanding the Text

a. What is poverty according to Parker?
According to Jo Goodwin Parker, poverty means living with lack. It is the absence of enough money for basic needs like good food, proper education, medical care, and sanitation. She says poverty destroys pride, honour, health, and future. Overall, poverty is living without hope and security.

b. How is poverty difficult for Parker’s children? List some specific examples.
Poverty makes life very hard for Parker’s children. They suffer from lack of proper food, clean clothes, education, and care. They often eat oil less cornbread and wear dirty clothes. They are not sent to school because she cannot afford it. Once, when Parker left her children with their grandmother, she returned to find her youngest child covered with fly specks and his diaper unchanged. Another child was playing with broken glass, and the eldest was playing near a lake. These examples show how poverty puts her children’s lives in danger.

c. How does Parker try to obtain help, and what problems does she encounter?
Parker tries to get help by asking relatives for loans and visiting offices for jobs and support. However, her relatives want something in return. In offices, she has to explain her painful situation again and again. Often, she is sent to the wrong office and asked to repeat the process. She faces rejection, confusion, and humiliation while trying to get help.

d. Why are people’s opinions and prejudices her greatest obstacles?
People’s opinions and prejudices are her greatest obstacles because they prevent her from receiving real help. Many people do not understand the pain of poverty. They think poverty is a result of laziness and offer useless advice. Some people try to take advantage of her helpless situation. Such attitudes make her life more difficult and block her chances of getting support.

e. How does Parker defend her inability to get help? How does she discount the usual solutions society has for poverty?
Parker defends her inability to get help by sharing her real experiences of poverty. She explains that welfare programs, education, and health clinics are not easily available to poor people like her. She has to feel ashamed and humiliated to prove her poverty again and again. Schools and health services are far away and costly. Through her experiences, she shows that society’s solutions do not truly help the poor and that poverty is degrading and painful.

Reference to the Context

a. Explain the following: “Poverty is looking into a black future.”
This line is taken from the essay What is Poverty? written by Jo Goodwin Parker. By this line, the writer means that poverty destroys hope and dreams. Poor people cannot provide proper food, education, health care, and cleanliness to their children because they lack money. As a result, they suffer from disease, hunger, unemployment, and helplessness. Poverty forces people to live a miserable life with no hope for improvement. Therefore, poverty makes people face a dark and hopeless future.

b. What does Parker mean by “The poor are always silent”?
By this line, Parker means that poor people are helpless and voiceless. They cannot afford medical treatment, good food, education, or proper clothing. When money becomes necessary, they have nothing to say because they cannot meet the cost. In a society where money has power, the poor are ignored and cannot express their needs. Their silence shows their painful and helpless condition.

c. What writing strategy does the author use at the beginning of most of the paragraphs? Do you notice a recurring pattern? What is it?
The author uses repetition as her main writing strategy. She begins most of her paragraphs with the phrase “Poverty is.” This repeated pattern shows that the main focus of the essay is poverty. Through repetition, she clearly expresses her pain, frustration, and bitter experiences. The essay sounds like a direct conversation with the reader, helping them understand the reality of poverty.

d. How does Parker develop each paragraph? What details make each paragraph memorable?
Parker develops each paragraph by starting with a repeated statement about poverty and then supporting it with her personal experiences. She uses strong images and examples to describe how poverty affects dignity, health, and family life. Her comparison of poverty to an acid that destroys honour and future is very powerful. The real life experiences and emotional details make each paragraph memorable.

e. In the final paragraph, how does the author use questions to involve the reader in the issue of poverty?
In the final paragraph, Parker uses questions to directly involve the reader. By asking questions like whether the reader can also remain silent, she makes them think about their attitude toward poor people. These questions make readers feel responsible and aware of the suffering of the poor. She wants readers to question their own views and understand the reality of poverty instead of ignoring it.

Reference Beyond the Text

a. Define a social problem imitating Parker’s style.

A Social Problem: Unemployment

Unemployment is waking up every day with fear and uncertainty. It is counting the remaining money and knowing it will not last long. It is the pain of being able to work but having no work to do. Unemployment is standing in long queues, filling out forms, and facing rejection again and again. It is watching others move forward while your own life remains stuck.

Unemployment is the loss of confidence and self respect. It is the shame of depending on others for basic needs. It is not being able to provide food, education, and health care to the family. It turns skilled and hardworking people into helpless individuals. Unemployment slowly pushes people toward poverty, stress, and depression. It damages families, weakens society, and slows down the growth of the nation.

b. Using adjectives to highlight the futility of the situation, write a long definition essay on Growing Up in Poverty.

Essay on Growing Up in Poverty

Growing up in poverty is a painful, tiring, and hopeless experience. It is living a life filled with struggle, fear, and insecurity. It is waking up every day worrying about food, clothes, and school expenses. Poverty makes childhood unhappy and difficult. Instead of dreams and joy, it offers stress and disappointment.

A child growing up in poverty often lives in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Proper food, clean clothes, medical care, and education remain distant dreams. Such a life is frustrating and humiliating. Poverty blocks creativity and natural talent. Even intelligent and hardworking children cannot achieve success because opportunities are denied to them.

Growing up in poverty also affects mental and emotional health. Constant worry, inequality, and social rejection make life miserable. It takes away confidence and self respect. Poverty creates a cycle of suffering where children are forced to accept hardship as their fate. It is a harsh and unfair condition that steals hope and weakens the future of individuals and society.