“It seems to me poverty is a state of mind. If you think you're poor, you're poor. If you think you're rich, you're rich. No-one is ever going to come along to cure your poverty. The only solution is to do it yourself” (p 11, ll 320-325). This is a statement form Bernard Hare (b. 1958). Hare is a social worker-turned writer and the author of Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew. He himself grew up in Leeds and lived most of his life in poverty. But eventually grew up and try to set an example for other kids.
Analysis:
When an author uses contrast, they describe the differences there are. Writing a contrast could include things like: characters, settings, feelings, objects and situations. I have chosen to focus on the contrast there is between the narrator, from when he was a boy to a grown man. Then I am also going to write a little about the differences of material poverty vs poverty of the mind.
So, in the beginning he talks about his childhood. He says that his father is a coal miner (p 1, l 2), and his mother is a shop worker (p 1, l 3). He then goes on to talk about where he lives: “My first 10 years were spent among the cold, cobbled terraces of east Leeds. The cobbles were cold, but the crumbling, back-to-back houses were warm inside” (p 1, ll 7-10). Here is the contrast between Bernard Hare’s and his family’s actual poverty. We also get to see Bernard Hare’s point of view or opinion about his living situation when he was a child: “For the first 10 years of my life, I had little idea that we were poor” (p 8, ll 50-51). We can therefore sort of conclude that when he was a child, he first of didn’t know that they were poor, and second of he thought that, that was the way of life. But as a he got older, and got a very good education, that his mother told him to do: “If I passed, she said, I would get a good education and a good job. If I didn't, I would be off down the pit with my dad. Suitably fired up, I passed with flying colors and went to grammar school” (p 8, ll 108-112). He then experienced the world. He was poor for a while, having very little money. But then he would pull himself together and actually earn his living. And he actually started doing that when he saw a bunch of kids living in poverty, the same way he did: “I happily wasted my life away until 1995 when I came across a glaring example of child poverty, which I couldn't ignore. A dozen children, aged 10 to 14, were living in a garden shed in East End Park, where I grew up (p 10, ll 230-235). He then proceeds to say: “The kids soon started to look to me as the nearest thing they had to a responsible adult in their lives, while I became acutely aware that I wasn't setting them any sort of example. They left me with little choice but to get my old social work books out and start cleaning up my act” (p 10, ll 256-262). Form these statements, Bernard Hare shows a certain amount of maturity. And one big example of him showing the differences of a child and mans mind when living in poverty: “As a child, I went in to collect my pocket money. As an adult, I went in to spend it” (p 11, ll 298-300). Here we see how the life of people in poverty as a child would normally do vs when you’re an adult.
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