Professor Sochacki
GHUM200
The Impact of Poverty on Children in America The U.S. is among the richest countries in the world today, yet millions of people still live below the poverty level. The number of American children living in poverty is increasing day by day. “Poverty in America has become a great menace to children’s wellbeing as it affects them emotionally, socially, and even in their school performance (Wood 720)”. Poverty in America is mainly caused by lack of jobs and minimum wage. Moreover, the rise in the cost of living can be said to also cause poverty in the US. Indigence exists in America despite the fact that it is among the richest nations in the world and The Glass Castle illustrates a family that lived in poverty in the US.
The Glass Castle is written by Jeannette Walls who writes …show more content…
When Jeannette’s father left his job, they faced a lot of hardship since there was no income. They lacked food until they could argue and fight about who ate the last edible thing in their house. Jeannette says “We kids usually kept our hunger to ourselves, but we were always thinking of food and how to get our hands on it (Walls 69).” Jeannette and her siblings lived in misery, until Rose Mary and Rex moved out to go live in Arizona with Rose Mary’s mother. Even though life changed for sometime, they still went back to a poor life after their father lost his job again. Jeannette’s family is an example of a poverty stricken family in America. The children were forced to move from one city to another, one home to the other, and from one school to the other because of insufficiency. “Poverty in America affects the children’s development because of lack of basic needs, especially food (Wood 736).” The children in The Glass Castle lived a life full of indigence, but they were forced to overcome the challenges in their on