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Ammad Ayub
Petra Heinz
ENGL 1210-01
23
rd
March 2011
A Step Away
Poverty is the dark side oI liIe where nothing meant Ior you. Poverty is deIined as the
lack oI basic necessities which includes clothes, Iood and shelter. It is similar to living in a stone-
age era with the exception that you have stinky and worn out clothes to cover your body. As Jo
Godwin Parker in What Is Poverty says, 'Here I am, dirty, smelly, and with no proper`
underwear on (524).
Moreover, you may say that in my country Pakistan or my city Lahore no one is poor
because every person has a house to live. You may also say that everyone is alive which means
they also eat. But I say people can be poor and living in a house that only has one room which is
Iull oI smells oI rotten eggs and urine. Parker explains, 'Poverty is living in a smell that never
leaves (524). This is a single room with no or torn windows and the walls are covered by
newspaper instead oI paint.
Poverty is when you eat everything, no matter where it comes Irom and no matter iI it`s
healthy or not? People in poverty will eat as long as it`s enough to keep their heart Iunctioning.
In addition, Poverty is when a person doesn`t have selI-respect. Parker states that, 'Poverty is an
acid that drips on pride until pride is worn away (526).
Poverty is suIIering Irom childhood to death. When you are a child you suIIer in
searching Ior proper and nutritious Iood which is necessary Ior the healthy growth oI a child.
And liIe is about surviving not about going to school. II your parents somehow manage to send
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you to school, you still suIIer because oI not having neat and clean clothes, books, pencils and
crayons. Parker describes that you grow up with dark shadows and bags under your eyes in poor
health and you look older than you actually are. And when you become adult, you might become
lucky and marry a person who is not poor. Parker states that aIter getting marriage to wealthy
person your liIe becomes Iull oI prosperity and happiness, and you have all the luxuries you have
been dreaming about. But who knows, bad things happen and you could return to poverty and a
liIe oI suIIering. II that happens, you suIIer raising your children and to providing them with all
the basic necessities.
Poverty is similar to being in a prison Ior a mistake which you never committed. As EII
KIumurov sLuLes PoverLy Is IIke punIsImenL Ior u crIme you dIdn'L commIL. Poverty is when
you strive hard to keep your children alive and aIter hard work you still Iail to provide your
children with basic necessities so you end up asking Ior help. Parker expresses that asking Ior
help is similar to telling everyone about your poverty. A poor is a person who always listen to
others. They also obey others commands because there is no choicePoverty is all about working
so hard and Iailing so oIten that a person becomes disappointed with liIe. It is about saving
money to buy a small thing and still not being able to because oI inIlation. As Parker describes,
'Once I saved Ior two months to buy a jar oI Vaseline Ior my hands and the baby`s diaper rash.
When I had saved enough, I went to buy it and the price had gone up two cents (525).
Poverty is when there is no Iuture Ior you. Parker believes that you can predict the Iuture
oI your children, because there is nothing more than a black Iuture Ior them. There are always
extremes Ior the Iuture oI a poor person. A person might become a revolutionist or can become a
robber or might end up Iinding Ireedom Irom the slavery oI poverty in drugs. As Aristotle
expresses 'The mother oI revolution and crime is poverty.
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LiIe oI a person suIIering Irom poverty is a step away: a step away Irom death and a step
away Irom good liIe. In daily liIe, we come across with a lot such people who really are poor.
But we ignore them because we engaged ourselves in other matters oI liIe and do not have
enough time to think about them. Poverty is living in bad conditions with no Iood, shelter and
clothes. And Ior these reasons, one might think oI combatting against poverty. One oI many
Iorms oI helping poor is to give them some amount oI money. This could be the short term
solution Ior helping them. But the long term solution to poverty is giving poor people good jobs
so that they can improve their living standards.















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Works Cited

Aristotle. 'Aristotle quotes on Think exist.

N.p. n.d. Web. 1 March 2011.

http://thinkexist.com/quotations/Poverty


Eli Khamarov. 'Lives oI the Cognoscenti on Quote Garden.

N.p. n.d. Web. 1 March 2011.

http://www.quotegarden.com/poverty.html


Parker, Jo Godwin. 'What Is Poverty? Patterns Ior a Purpose: A Rhetorical Reader, Ed.

Barbara Fine Clouse. 5
th
ed. New York: McGraw, 2009, 524-527. Print.