EN 106 The Cultural Norms of Poverty

Essay Outline

1) Introduction

1. a) Author names and titles regarding the readings
2. b) Background information and summary
3. c) Thesis statement

2) Body Paragraphs

1. a) Topic sentence
2. b) Proof of thesis with examples
3. c) Direct quotes from readings
4. d) Indirect quotes from readings

3) Conclusion

1. a) Thesis analysis
2. b) Summary of the essay
3. c) Conclusion of the entire analysis

The Cultural Norms of Poverty

Introduction

The topics “How I Discovered the Truth about Poverty” by Barbara Ehrenreich, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor” by bell hooks and “The Rise of the Working Poor” by Richard Reich, all are discussing about the poverty in our culture and the reasons of people who are poor. Why are they poor?

What made them think they are poor and also who exactly are the ones working this society? The truth about the poor people is that they do their best to earn and work for this society, in which the people with status eat on their hard work and efforts.

Body

Poor people are not mostly welcomed by the rich people in their rich standards and stylish lives. They aren’t even allowed to sit with them or have the same dish. Because of these norms, kids in schools are also doing the same deeds with other kids which is a never-ending chain.

When these kids grow up from schools, there are institutes that are further categorised in the domain of expensive institutes that are specifically for rich people and government institutes where all the poor people re supposed to go. According to these standards, the poor students aren’t even assigned higher ranking jobs.

Barbara is discussing her life in her readings on how she came to know who is poor and why is she thinking herself as poor too. She is an author who worked hard for herself to accomplish the standards in a difficult way by not giving up. She made her way through education even though she was told that she’s not meant to be where she wanted to be (Ehrenreich).

“To be impoverished is to be an internal alien, to grow up in a culture that is radically different from the one that dominates the society.” (p.16)

In this quote, she is trying to inform how a poor person feels. It is obvious he grew up in a poor family, now he is criticising and thinking what if he had been born in a rich one? A poor person’s dreams and fantasies are never coming true. They dream of knowing that fact.

They don’t try too hard because they know that if they have to try hard, then it means they have to do more than their abilities just to fulfil one of their wishes. This is why the majority doesn’t do anything about it. They know they don’t belong in the rich people’s lives. To them, they are street rats or aliens. Children have to grow up in such circumstances doing labour daily.

Bell hooks are supporting Barbara’s truth and talking about society with their pre developed culture and school of thoughts. He is discussing why a poor person remains poor even in the end and those of them who are trying hard; they get nothing but miserable and demotivating remarks from the society (Hooks).

Even the new generation thinks about the poor in a bad way. They don’t consider them people who are worth talking about, which is utterly wrong (p.486-488). These factors are just mere thoughts that are being passed onto people. Hook states that “Value was connected to integrity, to being honest and hardworking.” (p.488)

Indeed, those who work hard are the ones who are truly valuable. The rich people are simply the bread eaters of this society who do nothing and who nothing about how things are actually done. They have hands with soft palms. They have no experience of hardships or sweating to earn. Instead, wealth is simply handed over to them.

Richard is not showing the poor as the poor people, though. He is stating the facts of our lives. People who are rich are not exactly rich. He is claiming that the poor people are the ones who are the breadwinners and the workers of the society we live in. They are the ones who are earning in reality (Reich).

Robert is of the view that the Americans are more into this cultural norm. He states that Americans had their ancestors gather all the wealth which has been distributed among their children and grandchildren. After that, it is simply being used by them, and they don’t even have to work.

He says that the non-working rich of the society were paying taxations up to 30 per cent in the late 1908’s but now that has further reduced to 20 per cent. This means that 80 per cent of the taxes are paid by the people who are working hard day and night for themselves (p.740-749).

Conclusion

The society we live in has a predefined and pre-outlined step of procedures already. We are simply following or being led by the higher ups. They are controlling us from the schools of thoughts that are engraved in our minds. Because of this, our culture is mainly based on two categories. The rich rule and the poor work. The rich aren’t rich because they made efforts; rather, they are rich because they are living on the efforts made by the poor.

The poor consider themselves low lives or aliens. They think they live in a society where they have no worth. Because of this, most of them don’t make efforts to change their lifestyles. The bitter truth of being poor is that wherever they go, they won’t be accepted by the rich. However, they are the ones running the society. If they stop working, the rich will be devastated because they have no idea of how something is done.

References Ehrenreich, Barbara. How I Discovered the Truth About Poverty. n.d. https://herculodge.typepad.com/critical_thinker/2015/11/how-i-discovered-the-truth-about-poverty-by-barbara-ehrenreich.html. 11 march 2015. Hooks, Bell. “Seeing and Making Culture:

Representing the Poor.” Pichpanharath, 2018. https://prath37420052.wordpress.com/2018/04/30/seeing-and-making-culture-representing-the-poor-by-bell-hooks-486-492/. Reich, Robert. The Rise of the Working Poor and the Non-Working Rich. 30 march 2015. https://robertreich.org/post/115067624170.

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