Shane Kuhry

Mr. Medina
Humanities
3/4/14
Struggle can be defined as strive to achieve or attain something in the face of
difficulty or resistance. Some may claim that struggle is acceptable. It can help you learn
life lessons. However others consider struggle to have a disadvantageous effect. Struggle
can have a negative effect because it can affect your childrens education living
conditions, your health, and treatment towards you and your family. Much testing has
been organized on this topic. This essay will argue that despite what some consider,
struggle has different sides although it does have its tolls that can affect us.
Struggles are multidimensional. We look at this in Breaking Through. For
example, one of the struggles Panchito experiences is being undocumented (see figure 1).
The outcomes of Panchitos struggles lead to fear and deportation. Some examples from
the text that provide evidence of this situation are when his parents tell him, "If anyone
asks where you were born tell them Colton California" (pg.2). And also, "If lamigra
catches you they'll send you back to Mexico" (pg.2). This is what makes him have to live
in fear. An example of deportation would be, "The officer asked me to climb into the
back of the truck" (pg.4). This shows how Panchito lived in fear and with the fear of
being deported.
Along the lines of struggle being multidimensional, we can also explore its
implications (see figure 2). Once again using Breaking Through Panchito struggles
with poverty. Poverty affects his education, living conditions, his health, and the way
people treat him. There are examples from the book that shows the implications of
poverty. One example is, "Every year Roberto and I missed months of school to help
Papa and Mama work in the fields" (pg. 2). This shows how poverty affected his
education because his grade would fall and not get the proper education for those days
Shane Kuhry
Mr. Medina
Humanities
3/4/14
due to his absence. Another example, "The hotel rooms were small, like the cabins at
the cotton labor camps" (pg. 10). This shows that poverty affected his living
conditions, because the rooms were really small and were all they could afford. In
addition, "Tuberculosis?" the doctor repeated impatiently. "No" "ringworm" he asked
turning my body around to check my back." (12). This shows how poverty affects his
health because since he is poor and more exposed to living conditions that increase the
spread of disease and bacteria. In conclusion, this is how poverty is shown throughout
the book Breaking Through.
In addition to Breaking Through the implications of poverty are also found in
various Internet sources. Poverty affects living conditions, On the Pine ridge
reservation, homelessness is at 30% and unemployment at 80%. 60% of its residents
live in substandard housing, and the reservation, which is half the size of the state of
Connecticut, doesnt have a single bank. (nativeamericanrights.wordpress). This
conveys how poverty can affect living conditions because when 80% of the people are
unemployed they will not have proper living conditions. Another example from the
same source is Next door there are 23 people in a three bedroom house.
(nativeamericanrights.wordpress). This conveys that people cannot afford to buy a
house for there family so they are cramped in this three-bedroom house. The final
example from a different source is, Middle and working class Hispanic families have
not left their barrio, or urban Spanish-speaking neighborhoods, in large numbers.
That is how poverty can affect peoples living conditions. (Causes and effects of
poverty)
Shane Kuhry
Mr. Medina
Humanities
3/4/14
However, poverty cannot only affect living conditions it can also affect education.
40 percent of children living in poverty arent prepared for primary schooling. This
tells us that some kids in poverty arent getting the proper education. Another example is,
The incidence, depth, duration, and timing of poverty all influence a childs educational
attainment, along with community characteristics and social networks. (The impact of
on educational outcomes for children). This informs us that children who do not get the
proper education are not good socializing with other people. The last piece of evidence is,
children living in poverty have a higher number of absenteeism or leave school all
together because they are likely to have to work or care for family members. To
conclude this is how education can be affected by poverty.
Another thing is how poverty can affect is how you are treated. Unemployment
rates for African Americans are typically double those of Caucasian Americans. African
American men working full time earn 72% of the average earnings of comparable
Caucasian men and 85% of the earnings of Caucasian women (Rodgers, 2008). This
explains how poverty can affect your treatment because people who were African
American got paid less while Caucasians were getting paid more. The next one comes
from www.commondreams.org in at least 30 states Legislatures across America,
predominately wealthy politicians are quite impressed with themselves for considering
bills that would limit the meager amount of state help given to needy families struggling
to make ends meet. This shows that people who are considered wealthy cannot always
be as good as you think. The final example is from Business Insider that argues,
Republicans proclaim that we are experiencing all of this economic chaos because of the
Democrats. Democrats proclaim that we are experiencing all of this economic chaos
Shane Kuhry
Mr. Medina
Humanities
3/4/14
because of the Republicans. This conveys that politicians, democrats and republicans
have different ideas about poverty.
All and all this essay has shown how struggle that can lead into poverty has many
implications. Some may argue that poverty can have a good side. For example some
people who are not in poverty will give small pay to people who do hard labor. So they
dont lose any money. However I believe that poverty can mess up peoples lives.
Povertys not the only struggle that has negative implications; racism is just as
harmful. Racism can be described as discrimination against a race. (Tell me in your own
words what does this mean?)
There are many examples of racism found throughout the book Breaking
Through. Panchito states in the book "I asked mama not to make taquitos for lunch,
because a few guys made fun of me when they saw me eat them. They called me "chile
stomper" or "tamale wrapper."" The implications are that he will lose his culture and stop
bringing taquitos. There are many different forms of racism in the book but one of the
examples comes from the parents of Robertos former girlfriend. During the
conversation her father asked me what my nationality was. "Why did he ask you?" I
said, recalling the time I met Peggy's parents. "He wanted to know where the name
Jimnez came from. I told him." "You didn't tell him. . ." "No, I didn't tell him I was born
in Mexico," he said, "anticipating my question. "But when I said I was Mexican there was
dead silence." The effects of this is that Roberto will not be dating for a while. The final
example of racism within Breaking Through has to do with politics. "Some people don't
like Mexicans and wouldn't vote for them either." The implication of this would be that
Shane Kuhry
Mr. Medina
Humanities
3/4/14
this couldve cost Panchito the election. In conclusion, these are just some of the
examples of racism found within the book breaking through.