Considering that there was not enough money in the bank and trying hard to feed a family was very difficult. Traditional roles within the family changed during the 1930s. Men found themselves out of work. Now had to rely on their wives and children to help work and, make ends meet. Many stopped looking for work, paralyzed by their bleak chances.
He portrays the difficulties of migrant workers and their families with the Joad family. “The water grew scarce, water was to be bought, five cents, ten cents, fifteen cents a gallon.” (pg. 274). The okies usually had little to no money in their name making it hard for them to feed their families and even themselves. This conflict usually led to dehydration or starvation which led to the depression of losing a loved one.
Because of the malnourishment and poverty they lived in, Richard was not able to have a happy, bright, normal life as that of a child born during the 21st century. Not only did Richard not have a normal life, his life revolved around getting a job to help maintain his family at a very young age. When Richard was less than five years old, his father left him and his brother in his sick mother’s care. Although Richard’s mother looked after them, she needed her husband’s help financially. “You ought to be ashamed…Giving your son a nickel when he is hungry.
Even with getting $400 a month, approximately $130 in food stamps, and Melissa’s paycheck it was difficult to get by. She worked and went to school which left very little time to spend with her son. This affected her in a way because Issaiah didn’t have time with his mommy. It was very important to her to dedicate as much time as possible to Issaiah. Melissa was right in wanting to dedicate as much time as she could to her son according to the Juvenile & Family Court Journal.
His mother suffers in a couple ways. She is in and out of jobs frequently and depends on her bosses to help her through life. Erick recalls that “she almost always [gives] the man her number if he [is] wearing a suit (Gilb 546). The mother is obviously in need of assistance and accepting help where she can find it. Based on research from About Families, single mothers of ethnic minority are least likely to gain financial assistance, and don’t receive much social support (About 15).
Poverty in Athens, Ohio Because of poor economies and lack of education people in Athens Ohio are suffering and need help to provide, shelter, pay bills, and feed their families. Over 40 million people live in poverty in the U.S.A, and 5% out of 31% are kids in poverty. People in poverty loose many jobs like coal mining and other contractual jobs because they moved overseas or they got closed down. People in poverty need houses. When they get one, they would need money for food and utilities.
In an interview Thomas O’Donnell explains “…at Fall River if a man has not got a boy to act as “back-boy” it is very hard for him to get along…in many cases discharging men in that work and put in men who have boys…and that has brought my circumstances down very much…our children are very often sickly of not having sufficient clothes, shoes, food or something” (64, 65). Any immigrant that didn’t have a child did not stand a chance to work in that factory. Although, some immigrants without children were lucky and did have work for a few months at a time, but were later let go for unnecessary
Many of these women are not only forced to support themselves, but they are also now forced to be the sole caretakers of the children from the marriage. As divorce rates continue to rise, combined with today’s economy, many of these women are forced to take care of these children on their own as their ex-husbands are not able to, or do not want to pay child support. “The United States has one of the highest percentages of children living in poverty among, because the majority of them are living in mother-headed households” (DiNitto and McNeece). Although the children are both the mother’s and father’s responsibility, many times the mothers are left alone as the fathers figure out ways to avoid their financial responsibilities. As such, many of these formerly unskilled women are now forced to learn a trade and join the workforce.
I. Both the mother in “I Stand Here Ironing” and the older brother who narrates “Sonny’s Blues” experience conflicting feelings of regret and guilt for not fulfilling what they see as their roles in life: to nurture and to protect a young person, despite the hardships thrown their way by poverty. A. The mother in Olsen’s story emphasizes in her narrative that as a young, divorced, working mother when her oldest daughter was growing up, she felt guilty because she was forced to leave Emily each morning to a neighbor’s care and because she couldn’t meet all her emotional needs in later life. {support from the
Either they’re not poor enough, they’re not poor in the right way ‘ or they need the money for the wrong reasons. The reading in the book Keeping Woman and Children Last, showed time and time again the shocking stories of how people fall into poverty after living a middle class life for decades. Reasons pertaining to illness, death, unemployment, divorce and accidents left these people with nothing and the government would refuse to help them. These people are called the “New Poor”(Sidel, 1998, p.60). Their social security and pensions are not enough for them to live on so they must rely on these funds