Notes

Poverty is the state of deficiency of certain requirements needed to maintain a comfortable life. It is a considerable factor to account for in the quality of life for an individual. The characters in House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee suffer from poverty; as a result, it impacts their character development throughout within their novels. Although both Cisneros and Lee have different writing styles, they incorporate the motif of poverty in their novels to introduce the consequence that poverty additionally brings, to propel their characters to reach a certain objective, and to depict the contrasting perspective amongst children and adults.

The characters in House on Mango Street and To Kill a Mockingbird experience repercussions of poverty that further deter the quality of life. For example, the lack of education certain characters receive negatively impact their optimistic view of the future. Esperanza, in the vignette titled “A Smart Cookie”, is instructed by her mother to “go to school” and to “study hard” (Cisneros 91). Esperanza’s mother reveals to her that she was profoundly talented; however, she had abandoned her education as a result of poverty: “You want to know why I quit school? Because I didn’t have nice clothes. No clothes, but I had brains” (91). The shame brought on by poverty is what caused Esperanza’s mother to quit her education. She hopes that Esperanza will not follow her path and will live an exceptional life unlike her. Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird is an example of a man who lacked education as a result of poverty. Scout states that Bob Ewell was the only man who was “fired from the WPA for laziness” (Lee 248). Consequently, he had to make weekly appearances to the welfare office to receive his check, which provided him the minimal amount of money needed to survive. As a result of Bob’s lack of education, he pertains an ignorant and contentious personality. Furthermore, he is forced to live a minimalistic life and accuses Atticus of supposedly “getting his job” (248). Evidently, Esperanza’s mother in House on Mango Street drops out of school as a result of poverty and aspires Esperanza to become more successful than her. Bob Ewell is a result of uneducation in Scout’s context. He is an example of how poverty creates a chain-reaction that further lowers essence of life. Both authors incorporate the motif of poverty within background characters to inform the protagonists about the repercussions that poverty holds.

Both Cisneros and Lee introduce the desires of their characters early on within their respective novels. In the vignette titled “The House on Mango Street”, a nun negligently points out how poor Esperanza’s house was, which made Esperanza ashamed of where she lived; “You live there? There. I had to look to where she pointed-the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn’t fall out” (Cisneros 5). Early on, Cisneros establishes an objective for Esperanza to achieve. Esperanza knew that she “had to have a house” and that “the house on Mango Street isn’t it”, which implied her aspiration to afford a new house that she wouldn’t get shamed upon (5). A similar example where poverty sets a goal is Atticus’ motivation to encourage an environment where racial prejudice is non-existent. As Atticus strongly opposes racial discrimination, he yearns to change the perspective of the people of Maycomb and that all races are equal. His willingness to defend Tom Robinson, who is thought of as inferior due to his skin colour, is his way of convincing the citizens of Maycomb that racism should be abolished. Atticus’ hopes to use his honor and integrity to educate the city of Maycomb, which was a city where many people suffered from the Depression, that racial segregation and racism as a whole should be abdicated. In House on Mango Street, the motif of poverty drives Esperanza to live in a better house, one where she won’t be embarrassed living in. Furthermore, Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird is influenced by the uneducated people init motivates Atticus his community. Considering the many unschooled people living in Maycomb, Atticus is motivated to transform his city to one where equality is encouraged. Both Cisneros and Lee utilize the motif of poverty to inspire certain characters to reach an objective.

Cisneros and Lee incorporate the motif of poverty in order to tell the reader how age affects the viewpoints one has on life, in general. In the House on Mango Street, the children and adults each view poverty differently. Esperanza treats poverty as the reason why she has no friends. In the vignette “Our Good Day”, Esperanza is told that “if [she] give[s] [her] five dollars, [she] will be [her] friend forever” (Cisneros 14). She dislikes how she is affected by her family’s poverty and how the community secludes her for it. She is also reminded of her poverty when the nun asks if “[she] lives there?” (5). The italics used by Cisneros emphasizes how the nun views Esperanza’s house. Similarly in the previous quotation, as a result of her family’s poverty, she feels ashamed and humiliated. Esperanza’s parents, however, are proud they could find an affordable place to call him. They are accepting of the fact that they have to live in poverty and are not afraid to hide it. Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird also exemplifies traits similar to those of Esperanza’s parents. When Atticus accepts a sack of hickory nuts and a load of stovewood as payment for his lawyering from the coloured community, it shows his acceptance to such small gifts, knowing that they worked hard for it. Scout, however, differs from Esperanza as he is accepting of how poverty was affecting everyone in Maycomb unlike Esperanza. When Scout states “A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with”, she shows her understanding of the predicament the citizens of Maycomb were currently suffering from. In both novels, the authors use poverty to show how different people saw themselves and others who were affected by it, which shows that poverty is subjective.

In conclusion, while both books take place in different times and contain unique plots, the authors each incorporate the motif of poverty to ultimately help their characters’ development. They both showed how poverty affected the characters’ life and their motivations due to the different perspectives people had on poverty. By doing so, they allowed room to show how the characters developed which ultimately added more depth to the story. Overall, Cisneros and Lee did an exceptional job of fusing in the motif of poverty in their novels and as a result, it provides a clear illustration to the events in their books.