Poverty In Richard Wright's Black Boy

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Lack of father figures in poor neighborhoods contributes to cyclical poverty. In the memoir Black Boy, Richard Wright and his family nearly starved due to an absence of financial income from Richard’s father who abandoned his family. Several weeks after Richard’s father leaves, Richard describes how poverty has affected him, professing, “My mother could not earn enough to feed us and my stomach kept so consistently empty that my head ached most of the day” (68). According to a survey conducted by Publishers Weekly, men predominantly make significantly more money than women (Milliot 2), making it essential for families to consist of both a mother and a father. In the article Life without a father, Davidson explains how much of a negative effect …show more content…
Against all odds, Richard escapes poverty and leaves the Jim Crow South to move to Chicago and start a new life; this example is an extreme rarity, as almost every single other person in Richard’s situation would have inevitably been caught in the cycle of poverty. Excluding Richard, lack of education in father absent children contributes to the cycle of poverty, because if those in poverty are not given the educational resources required to succeed in college and adult life, poverty is inescapable. An article written by members of the United States Congress describe the brutal cycle of poverty, explaining that “parents’ income can shape the next generation’s education & income, by determining who can afford to buy or rent in neighborhoods with good schools, or pay for private schools. School quality affects children’s ultimate educational attainment, and education determines the kind of job people can get, which in turn drives income” (Is Poverty a Death

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