Merriam-Webster defines poverty as, "the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions." Both A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich are written to educate people who would not otherwise understand what people in poverty go through on a daily basis. They went through a lot of effort to make their readers better informed on what's going on just out of the sight of the public. Both A Modest Proposal and Nickel and Dimed do an excellent job of educating their audience, while simultaneously shedding light on a side of humanity that many people would rather remain hidden.
A Modest Proposal makes the most effective portrayal, albeit a satirical one. Jonathan …show more content…
While the potato famine might be over, and Ireland an independent nation, global poverty is still very much a real issue. People still starve to death because there isn't enough food to go around. They still die of thirst, or of salmonella, because of lack of access to fresh water. They still die of malaria and other treatable diseases because of a lack of access to medical care. Every day children are orphaned. Slavery is still a reality in parts of the world- even in countries who have outlawed it. Some of the things he talked about, like spousal abuse, are the daily reality for countless people globally even today. Nickel and Dimed is effective because it gives uses facts and actual events to open the eyes of its readers to the world outside of their homes: to the struggles of people barely managing to get by on minimum wage, to the people who live out of their car, and to those who struggle to put food on the table. Nickel and Dimed shows you the humanity of the people at the bottom of the pay scale, who – for those of us that are blessed to not have to choose between making rent and eating- go unnoticed much of the time. Ehrenreich tells her readers about what goes on behind the scenes, the situations most people never see and tells us of the friendships she formed while she was
A Modest Proposal makes the most effective portrayal, albeit a satirical one. Jonathan …show more content…
While the potato famine might be over, and Ireland an independent nation, global poverty is still very much a real issue. People still starve to death because there isn't enough food to go around. They still die of thirst, or of salmonella, because of lack of access to fresh water. They still die of malaria and other treatable diseases because of a lack of access to medical care. Every day children are orphaned. Slavery is still a reality in parts of the world- even in countries who have outlawed it. Some of the things he talked about, like spousal abuse, are the daily reality for countless people globally even today. Nickel and Dimed is effective because it gives uses facts and actual events to open the eyes of its readers to the world outside of their homes: to the struggles of people barely managing to get by on minimum wage, to the people who live out of their car, and to those who struggle to put food on the table. Nickel and Dimed shows you the humanity of the people at the bottom of the pay scale, who – for those of us that are blessed to not have to choose between making rent and eating- go unnoticed much of the time. Ehrenreich tells her readers about what goes on behind the scenes, the situations most people never see and tells us of the friendships she formed while she was