PREMISE:
- The poor, sick and suffering
- People with no power
- People with power
- People who feel stuck
- Pain
AUTHOR'S ARGUMENT:
Jonathan Kozol bases his argument with the idea that there is not a person with power that can imagine a place like Mott Haven in New York City. Do these people live like this because they are lazy and choose to live like this or are they really sick and this is their only way to survive? In his article he really makes us wounder what its like for children to grow up there, and also what do these people think the world has done to them, and if they think they deserve to live in such fashion.
Evidence:
- (pg. 21) The politics say that if poor people behaved rationally they would seldom be poor for the long in the first place.
- (pg. 17) Mrs. Washington loves to read the New York Times but she can't find it in her neighborhood. She believes the reason is that they don't sell the paper near her is because most of the people can't affort it and it would be a waste to sell.
- Mrs. Anderson went to school, she was educated, and had a good job. Unfortunatly she became sick and could no longer work. Her husband abused her and left her with AIDs. She didn't choose this kind of live.
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/POINTS TO SHARE:
Jonathan Kozol's, "Amazing Grace", was a difficult piece to read. Not because I didn't understand it but because of its content. I really felt bad for these people's situations. These people living in such conditions do not choose to live where they do. They are poor and I believe that they feel as if they are stuck and have no place or no one else to turn to. Like Delpit, Kozol also speaks of those with power like the politics and the professors. Kozol also speak about how the rich are evil in a sense and do not want to take the blame or help the people in their situations. The politicle scientists are part of the rich people and they are well off and feel as they are not to blam, but states that the poor people of New York did it to themselves. Kozol's point of this article is that there is someone to blame and someone is at fault.
