Class 11 English Lesson 16: What is Poverty? by Jo Goodwin Park

 

 Essay: What is Poverty? By Jo Goodwin Park (page 274)

About the Essayist

Jo Goodwin Parker was an anonymous person from West Virginia, the Southern United States. The essay is a personal account, addressed directly to the reader, about living in poverty.

Gist of the Essay

In "What is Poverty?", Jo Goodwin Parker offers a powerful, first-hand account of what it truly means to live in poverty. She goes beyond statistics and vividly describes the daily struggles—dirty clothes, lack of healthcare, hunger, and emotional pain. Parker emphasizes that poverty is not just the absence of money, but a constant state of fear, shame, and helplessness. It affects every part of life—body, mind, and dignity. Parker wants society to recognize the poor as real people with real pain, not just numbers or stereotypes.

Summary of the Essay

In this essay, she has described her life, living in poverty, and her daily struggles for the sake of her family. She has personally experienced rural poverty and also explains her story from childhood to adulthood using examples drawn from her personal experience. She explains the meaning of poverty in this essay. According to her, Poverty has many faces. Poverty is living with dirt, living without hope, better food, medical care, proper sanitation, and proper education. It is like the acid that destroys pride, honour, health, and the future.

She described herself as dirty and smelly and did not wear proper clothes. She also says that due to the high cost of essential things, there are no luxuries in her life. Parker could not even get any help or support from the government agencies because it is not around in her area. Due to the lack of transportation facilities in her area, she does not get help and support from any agencies. Even her job doesn’t pay enough as required for her childcare. So, Parker says that living in poverty is just like looking into a black future because running life daily is a great challenge. Under such circumstances, no one can expect a bright future. 

Parker does not want sympathy, but she wants an understanding of her readers about poverty. Because of poverty, she left school at a very early age and got married. She became pregnant many times because birth control was expensive for her. Even her husband left her because of poverty. Her financial status was too poor, so health was not come as a priority, and she could not undergo her operation in time. He gave his children breakfast cornbread without butter and oil. She did not even buy soap to buy her baby's diapers. When she doesn’t get help to overcome such a problem, then she feels shame and humiliation for the sake of her three children. She said that the present world is the world of selfishness because she had spread her hands in different places, but did not get help from anyone.

In conclusion, the writer hopelessly defines poverty in many ways, i.e., poverty is a lack of the basic requirements of life, poverty is living in dirt, being tired, looking for help, and humiliation. Poverty is not being able to provide education and other opportunities. Therefore, at last, she says that poverty is like an acid that drips on our pride until pride is worn away.

 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Jx4a3ktjc

Understanding the text

Answer the following questions.

a.      What is poverty according to Parker?

According to Parker, poverty is about a lack of enough money for necessities, better foodstuffs, very little education, and little or no access to health care. It is like an acid that destroys pride, honor, health, and future. Overall, poverty means living without hope, better food, medical care, and proper education.

b.     How is poverty difficult for Parker’s children? List some specific examples.

Parker’s three children suffer a lot due to poverty. They live their miserable lives due to the lack of proper foodstuffs, education, clothing, and care. Parker has presented the very bad condition of her children along with her. According to her, they eat oil-less cornbread for breakfast. They wear dirty clothes. They aren’t sent to a school. Parker has informed us about a day’s event when she left her children under the care of her mother while her job. When she returned, she found her youngest covered with flyspecks whose diaper hadn’t been changed since morning. Her next son was playing with the broken glasses. Her eldest son was playing on the edge of the lake. Her children would play in the dirt. In this way, poverty is difficult for Parker’s children.

c.      How does Parker try to obtain help, and what problems does she encounter?

Parker tries to obtain help from different people, but she is rejected. She asks her relative for a loan, but her relative wants something in return. She also tried in different offices for a job and asked for a loan, too. She had to describe her pathetic condition to many people to get help. Finally, someone comes out and asks her if she needs help. That isn’t the person she needs to see. She goes to see another person. After telling him the whole story about her poverty, she finds that this is the wrong office. Then, she must repeat the whole process. In this way, Parker has to encounter a lot of problems.

d.     Why are people’s opinions and prejudices her greatest obstacles?

People’s opinions and prejudices are her greatest obstacles because these aspects prevent her from getting supportive hands for the sake of her family. She was dominated by other people due to her poor condition. Most people don’t realize the bitter experience of poverty. For them, the pain of poor people is nothing. They keep on giving their free advice as if being poor is a curse, and it is easy to come out of poverty. When she asks for help, some want to take advantage of her helplessness. Such prejudices make her unable to get help.

e.      How does Parker defend her inability to get help? How does she discount the usual solutions society has for poverty (e.g., welfare, education, and health clinics)?

Parker defends her inability to get help through her opinions and by expressing her experiences of poverty. She discounts the usual solutions society has for poverty by drawing the attention of people towards the pathetic state of poor people. She says that living without hope, medical care, and proper education is like an acid that destroys pride, honour, health, and future. She has to move and spread her hands in many agencies in the name of welfare, where she has to be ashamed. She has to prove her poverty time and again and face rejection. In the name of education, school-launched programs are there, but they are of no use. She has experienced her two children’s condition after sending them to school. Parker’s life is quite far from the health clinics’ facilities. To get medical help, she has to walk miles. If she asks for someone’s help, the helper expects negative things from her. Thus, Parker shows how shameful, humiliating, and disgusting it is to be poor.

 

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