In her essay, Jo Goodwin Parker describes the situation of an unnamed poor woman, the single mother of three children, using first person narration. The woman’s extreme poverty and her desperate situation are described in great detail in order for the audience to be able to understand it. The essay was written for the American public, and specifically, for middle and high class citizens, who have no idea what poverty is, and who despise poor people believing that they are unwilling to change their situation. In addition, they ignore people who ask for help, and they care little about the poor, blaming the parents for poor children’s situation, but doing nothing to help them. Generally, Americans value people who can help themselves and despise those who are helpless, or incapable of overcoming difficulties by themselves. This attitude is reinforced in the society with the help of media, through education and official policies and laws. However, Goodwin Parker’s essay tries to show that it is only impossible to escape the poverty circle without any help.
The essay begins as a response to a question asked by an unnamed interlocutor who does not know what poverty is. The narrator calls upon the readers to pay attention and try to understand. This is clear from the repeated persuasive urging in the first paragraph: “listen to me”, “listen with understanding” “hear me” (Goodwin Parker 1). The narrator first clearly explains to the audience that her purpose is to help them understand what poverty is. However, a more important purpose is only revealed by the end of the essay, when the poor woman states, “remember I did not come from another place or another time. Others like me are all around you. Look at us with an angry heart, anger that will help you help me” (3). Therefore, the real purpose, after making people understand by providing information on poverty, is to convince them to help people in need by showing them that poor people do not choose to be poor, but it is merely a never ending cycle of life, that poor children will become poor adults, in lack of the society’s support.
Goodwin Parker is using personal experience as the main strategy to argue that poor people do not choose to be poor, dirty or uneducated. She uses examples from the narrator’s personal life in order to show how hard life is for the poor people. Whereas usually, the authors give details on their background and their achievements as a persuasive strategy, Goodwin Parker requested that no information about her be distributed for the same purpose. Thus, if readers knew that she was educated and lived a middle-class life, the strength of the argument would have been diminished. The anonymous female narrator is merely a poor mother of three, and from this position, she is much more credible. Examples from personal experience are sufficient arguments to convince the authors, given the purpose and the audience of the writing.
Imagery is used in order to enhance the readers’ understanding by appealing to their senses. The author uses visual and olfactory imagery and even gustatory imagery to transport readers into the world of the poor and gain their empathy. For example the author shows that “this is a smell of urine, sour milk, and spoiling food sometimes joined with the strong smell of long-cooked onions” (1), which represents a very detailed and graphic description of the smell that often disgusts people when meeting poor persons. The author implies that the poor woman hates the smell as well, but cannot do anything to improve the situation.
As part of her rhetorical strategy, the author tries to create a relationship between the woman and the readers. First, the author tries to show that there is not much difference between the poor woman and the readers themselves. The narrator explains that “for a time, we had all the things you have. There was a little house in another town, with hot water and everything. Then my husband lost his job” (2). Therefore, the narrator suggests that, while poor people are likely to remain poor, middle class people can also become poor unexpectedly. The author also employs allusions and irony to consolidate the relationship with the readers, because these are cultural elements that the readers and the narrator share. For example, she says, “my neighbor will take me when he goes; but he expects to get paid, one way or another” (3), which is a sexual allusion. Also, when discussing her inability to feed her children properly, she states “oh yes, I do remember what I was taught about health in school. It doesn't do much good” (3), which is an ironic statement concerning the effects of malnutrition.
Overall however, Goodwin Parker’s writing is extremely effective and reaches its purpose. The strongest strategy used to convince readers, is the abundance of details from personal experience, and the graphic description of the horrible conditions in which the poor have to live. Most component parts work together to create an effective piece of writing. However, the beautiful writing style diminishes the credibility of the writing, because t an uneducated woman who quit school and got married early would most likely use slang words and would commit many grammatical errors. Apart from this discrepancy, Goodwin Parker’s essay meets its purpose and makes people think about the poor people next to them, as it was intended to.
Works Cited
Goodwin Parker, Jo. “What Is Poverty?” America’s Other Children: Public Schools Outside Suburbs. Ed. G. Henderson. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.
In her essay, Jo Goodwin Parker describes the situation of an unnamed poor woman, the single mother of three children.
The essay was written for middle and high class citizens, who have no idea what poverty is.
Americans value people who can help themselves and despise those who are helpless, or incapable of overcoming difficulties by themselves.
However, Goodwin Parker’s essay tries to show that it is only impossible to escape the poverty circle without any help.
The writer has two connected purposes.
The narrator first clearly explains to the audience that her purpose is to help people understand what poverty is.
Her second purpose is is to convince them to help people in need by showing them that poor people do not choose to be poor.
The essay is well organized, and the structure “poverty is” is repeated at the beginning of each paragraph.
Imagery is used in order to enhance the readers’ understanding by appealing to their senses
As part of her rhetorical strategy, the author tries to create a relationship between the woman and the readers.
First, the author tries to show that there is not much difference between the poor woman and the readers themselves
The informal style makes the writing appear as part of a casual conversation between the narrator and the reader
The writing style fits with the purpose of the author, to help readers understand what it means to be poor but also to convince them that poor people must be helped because they cannot climb up from poverty by themselves
Overall, Goodwin Parker’s writing is extremely effective and reaches its purpose.
The strongest strategy used to convince readers, is the abundance of details from personal experience, and the graphic description of the horrible conditions in which the poor have to live.
The educated writing style diminishes the credibility of the writing, because an uneducated woman who quit school and got married early would most likely use slang words and would commit many grammatical errors.
