Native Son- Cycle of Poverty Essays

Native Son- Cycle of Poverty Essays Native Son- Cycle of Poverty Essay Native Son- Cycle of Poverty Essay Essay Topic: Fight Club Novel Native Son Cycle of Poverty Do poor children become poor adults? Does your financial status predetermine you and your family’s success rate? The cycle of poverty is a cold hearted phenomenon. Throughout the world families struggle to break the cycle of poverty- but does it work? In Native Son by Richard Wright, the cycle of poverty rules the Thomas family. They are born into poverty and find it extremely difficult to lift themselves out of their tragic situation. Although several individuals in the novel work to end the cycle, many of their solutions are insufficient and do not take on the problem as a whole. Bigger Thomas and his family clearly portray a typical family stuck in the cycle of poverty. Although many attempts are made to break the cycle, we learn that it takes more than a few individuals to end poverty. The Thomas family fits almost perfectly into the cycle of poverty. Bigger, the main character, lives with his two siblings and his mother. His father died during a riot, leaving his uneducated mother alone with three children, and his children without a role model. This describes the first steps of the cycle of poverty. An uneducated single parent has little opportunities to move forward in life. Biggers mother struggles to pay their high rent of $8 while trying to properly raise, feed, clothe, and take care of three children. With a single parent trying to make ends meet, the kids are often unsupervised. Supervision is important in early life because it enforces rules and teaches right from wrong. If children are unsupervised, they miss out on learning the basics of life and how things work. Unsupervised kids often get caught up in mischief and mayhem. Bigger constantly finds himself hanging around with a group of guys whose thoughts revolve around crime. They conspire to rob a liquor store, they masturbate in a public theater, they get into fights, and more. Furthermore, with so much crime committed by those in poverty- many of whom are African American- discrimination comes easily to others. A newspaper during Bigger’s murder trial explains that, â€Å"Thomas comes of a poor darky family of shiftless and immoral variety. He was raised here and is known to local residents as an irreformable sneak theif and liar. . . Crimes such as Bigger Thomas murders could be lessened by segregating all Negroes in parks, playgrounds, cafes, theatres, and street cars. Residential segregation is imperative† (p. 280-281). This discrimination keeps the doors shut to many opportunities. Whites viewed blacks as inadequate, incapable, dangerous, untrustworthy people. For this reason, blacks were not allowed to do many of the things that whites were able to. In Biggers case, he wanted to fly: â€Å"If you wasn’t black and you had some money and if they’d let you go to that aviation school, you could fly a plane† (p. 17). The disappointment of having nothing to aspire to or look forward to causes people to lose hope. Once hope is lost, it is hard to rise up. Being so restrained also makes people feel trapped and isolated, â€Å"‘. . . I just can’t get used to it,’ Bigger said, ‘I swear to God I can’t. . . Every time I think about it I feel like somebody’s poking a red hot iron down my throat. Goddamn it, look! We live here and they live there. We black and they white. They got things and we ain’t. They do things and we can’t. It’s just like living in jail. Half the time I feel like I’m on the outside of the world peeping in through a knothole in the fence†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ã¢â‚¬  (p. 21). Since the chances of achieving the â€Å"normal† is so low for those in poverty, their standards and goals are compromised. Instead of striving to be the best, they strive to just live comfortably. These are all parts of the cycle of poverty that keep people from thriving or â€Å"living†. Mr. Dalton, a white millionaire in Native Son, takes several approaches to help end the cycle of poverty for African Americans. His solutions include sending ping-pong tables to the South Side Boys Club, offer some African Americans jobs, and send money to African American education programs. Although these are good attempts, they do not efficiently help the poor people as a whole. His action of sending ping-pong tables does not educate, offer opportunity, give self-esteem or confidence, and does not create equality in any way. These would be good steps to improving the poor’s lifestyle. Max tries to relay this to Mr. Dalton in Biggers jail cell: â€Å"Will ping-pong tables keep men from murdering? Cant you see? Even after losing your daughter, youre going to keep going in the same direction? Dont you grant as much life-feeling to other men as you have? Could ping-pong have kept you from making your millions? This boy and millions like him want a meaningful life, not ping-pong (p. 295). Although it does not offer any opportunities, it does help keep young African Americans busy and off the streets, therefore reducing crime. When kids are actively busy and productive, they are less likely to participate in mischievous activities. By Dalton offering jobs to African Americans he is definitely helping their society. The only problem with this idea is that h e is only helping one out of millions of people. He cannot end the cycle of poverty through one person. Dalton offers Bigger a job working as his family’s chauffeur, trying to give Bigger a chance at the world. While his intentions are good, he is subliminally enforcing the concept of blacks being inferior to whites. He works in the house serving their family. He is somewhat in the same situation as slaves- which the time period had just gotten over- except he was treated well and paid. With this job, Bigger realized that there is no room for improvement or a higher status. The most beneficial thing that Dalton did to support the black community was send money to educational programs. Education is the first step to success, and by allowing more African Americans to obtain an education he is helping the black community take a step forward. If more African Americans were educated, then less of them would be in poverty which would cause less discrimination and so on. Overall, his attempts do slowly help progress the African American race, but they were still not sufficient to end the cycle as a whole. Just as Mr. Dalton, Max has good intentions in helping the poor and his solutions as well are not sufficient. Max, who is Biggers lawyer at his murder trial, tries helping the poor black community by defending African Americans in court. He is one of the few people who realizes racism and discrimination, and he wants to change it. He tells in court the reasons why Bigger commits the awful crimes that he does. His explanation blames the whites for oppressing him and never giving him a chance to â€Å"live†. Max sees the big picture in which no one else can seem to grasp: â€Å"Multiply Bigger Thomas twelve million times, allowing for environmental and temperamental variations, and for those Negroes who are completely under the influence of the church, and you have the psychology of the Negro people. But once you have them as a whole, once your eyes leave the individual and encompass the mass, a new quality comes into the picture. Taken collectively, they are not simply twelve million people; in reality they constitute a separate nation, stunted, stripped, and held captive within this nation, devoid of political, social, economic, and property rights† (p. 397). Max explains how this reason led to Bigger Thomas murdering, standing up for the African American race at the same time. The only problems with Maxs solution to defend blacks is that he is connected to the communist party. A local preacher tries to convince Max that he is jeopardizing Biggers case, â€Å". . . there ain no usa draggin no Communism in this thing, Mistah. Ah respecks yo feelins powerfully, suh; but whut yuhs astin jus stirs up mo hate† (p. 289). Many people are against communism and even afraid of it. Bringing communism into a non-communistic case only brings trouble. People will have no trouble connecting the two, even if they are completely unrelated. Another problem with Maxs solution is that he is trying to help those who have already lost the battle. There is no hope for those who have their fate decided for them already- death. He should try to catch these people early, before they make the wrong decisions. Even though Max sees the whole picture, he is wasting his time at the wrong end of the cycle of poverty. Breaking the cycle of poverty will take more than helping a few individuals and saving a couple people from death row. In order to create an escape from the cycle, actions will need to be taken at the very first steps of poverty. Education is the most important factor of success and unfortunately, not many of the poor are offered the chance to a good education. Systems could be set up that provide cheap, convenient, and accessible education. These systems could be in personal environments, at a local church, over the computer, on video, etc. Getting the poor educated will then lead to them making better decisions and having more opportunities. As for unsupervised children who often end up in trouble with the law, community centers could be built. These places could offer fun activities, food, tutors, and overall just a place to â€Å"hangout†. Giving children somewhere to go keeps them off the streets and out of trouble. Community center supervisors could also play as role models for those who are in lack of. Another way to help prevent some people from falling into the cycle of poverty is to offer free contraception and medical care. Planned Parenthood and other facilities currently provide these types of services, but making them more accessible and more convenient would help save many teens from unwanted pregnancies. In all, one person can not end the cycle of poverty; there must be a change in society as a whole. The cycle of poverty is shown clearly throughout Native Son, with Bigger Thomas and his family being stuck right in it. With the restrictions that are put on them, they struggle greatly to improve their lives. It seems impossible for them to be anything but poor. Although both Mr. Dalton and Max try to help the Thomas family, we learn that the problem is much larger than what they can handle. It takes a want for change from society, not from a selected few. Problems need to be nipped in the bud to ensure that everyone gets the same chance at life. Although this ideal may not be attainable, we are certainly able to try to improve the current conditions.