Stereotypes of Poverty

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how throughout history, artists and photographers have found it difficult to capture the eye of the public, resulting in often exaggerated and staged work that places a misrepresented, stereotypical "image" on the term poverty. The paper describes how Jacob Riis and Walker Evans staged settings in order to provide strong, effective, visual evidence of poverty. The paper asserts that since poverty does not consist of only homeless people, these artists unknowingly contribute to a growing stereotypical and misrepresented image of poverty.

From the Paper:

"In the United States there are 37.3 million people considered to be in poverty (Poverty). That may not seem a lot according to the fact our country has a population over 300 million, but homeless individuals are not the only people in poverty. Someone in a rural home with barely enough food to put on their plate who lives in a one room shack is in poverty just as much as a person who lives underneath newspapers in New York City. There are many charity organizations that help people in these situations, whether it be Habitat for Humanity which is an extremely active charity organization that provide homes for people in need, or World Vision which is a charity organization that provides clothing and food for children in poverty. But how do these charity organizations gain sympathy from the public and gain their generous donations? They need to convince them through various advertisements; however these advertisements all have similar visual representations: helpless, homeless, sad but cute looking children either in the US or third world countries wearing nothing but rags or nothing at all. They assume these ads will be the most persuasive, ultimately leading to the desired donation."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Anderson, Maggie. "Among Elms and Maples, Morgantown, West Virginia, August, 1935." Critical Encounters With Texts. Ed. Margaret Himley and Anne Fitzsimmons. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2008. 19-20.
• George, Diana. "Changing the Face of Poverty." Critical Encounters With Texts. Ed. Margaret Himley and Anne Fitzsimmons. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2008. 149-168.
• Moleen, Kaitlin. "Jacob Riis: How relevant are his photos and writings today?" Newarkmetro. 9 September 2008 <http://www.newarkmetro.rutgers.edu/essays/display.php?id=235>.
• United Sates. U.S Census Bureau. "Poverty." 9 September 2008. <http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty07/pov07hi.html>.

More papers on Stereotypes of Poverty:

• Essay # 22922 : "Feminization of Poverty"
• Essay # 123670 : "'Crimes Against Humanity' and Stereotypes"
• Analytical Essay # 46546 : "Wealth and Poverty"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: