Blog 2 - Cross Culture Adolescence Coming of Age

From "The Sound of Poverty" from Without a Net a statement was made by the author is a good beginning for this blog.  The author states:  Growing up poor, growing up anything other than middle class situates you strangely in the culture.  She points out the being a girls in poverty and being a boy in poverty are different in that she felt the boys get special treatment in certain areas, but their basic living is still the same.

From "From Those Who Like to Dig" also from the text Without a Net, the author lends us a brief description of her neighborhood with the following statement:  Folks raising rabbits and chickens, dope dealers who get busted monthly, and little kids sitting on the stoop waiting for their folks to quit arguing.  If you can pass as a guy, you can walk independently through the world, especially at night.

Both of these essays, although written by women, reinforce the fact that poverty is easier if you are a male.  Much of society allows the male gender increased advantages (even in poverty) such as jobs, housing and invisability.  The book "Slumdog Millionaire" depicts the life a a boy, growing up parentless, homeless at various times, and in poverty until he wins a game show fortune.

Consider the penniless waiter, as the story opens, as he is arrested in his shack after winning the game show.  Ram, our penniless waiter, is taken away for interrogation and repeatedly ask if he speaks english.
The policeman that arrested him responds "he's just a dumb waiter".  Again the discourse of poverty breeding stupidity.

In the Indian culture, as depicted in the book, many youth are left to fend for themselves in the jungle of the slums.  In Ram's case, his first 8 years of life are spend with a priest, living in a residence attached to the church and being taught to read and write english.  Many children in this culture are not schooled at all.  During his time with the priest, Ram experiences many normal aspects of life, but also many unnatural life such as the homosexual acts he witnesses.  Without an adult to tell him what he is seeing, he only knows that something is wrong.  The act he witnesses turns out to be the son of the priest who took him in and another priest.  This act he witnesses leads to the murder/suicide of the priest and the perpetrator and again, homelessness for Ram.

Ram is again exposed to another unexplainable sexual situation by hearing his neighbors through the thin walls of his ghetto apartment.  This time, it is the father of the neighboring family approaching his daughter for sex.
When Ram consults the only older person he knows in the ghetto for advice on how to save the daughter, he tells him "Close your eyes, close your ears, close your mouth and you will be happy".  This statement is portrayed in many of the readings recently in which the parents didn't now what to say to their children in addressing situations and feelings they had concerning their child's sexual orientation, issues with depression resulting from changes in their lives.  The parents could feel something was wrong, but did not have the wherewithall to address their concerns to the child.  During this time in Ram's life and throughout the rest of the book, he seems react to the pain of other children and not just to listen, he physically tries to help them better their situations.  Much as the parent he never had would have done for him.In this case, he pushed the drunken father over a stair railing, hoping to stop him from abusing his daughter. Again Ram moves on to another city thinking he has killed this man and soon the red flashing lights will be coming for him.  The red flashing lights symbolize pain and suffering through the hands of the police.  In this society, even the police are corrupt.

He moves to Dehli to a juvenile home from where many of the children are sold.  He and his friend are sold to a man who has a house for beggars.  The person physically maims the children and then sends them out to beg.  If the children do not meet the monetary quota he has set for them, they are usually prohibited from eating.  Forced to stand in the lunchroom and watch the other children eat.  Again, poverty breeds many of the issues that arise and  become a major setbacks to overcome before he can even consider just living.

Ram's being a male provided him with constant jobs.  He didn't have anyone with the "net" so he fended as best he could, always seeming to land on his feet.  Of all the issues, age, sex, gender and race, by far the biggest setback was poverty.  All of the situations Ram dealt with, it seemed to involve boys that were the cast-offs in their society.  The only females mentioned in this story, seemed to be working postitutes.  Young girls did not seem to inhabit the ghettos where he lived unless they lived there with their families.  No one really seemed concerned that they lived alone in the ghetto, unattended, without schooling and working jobs that they received little or no pay for.  The Indian culture as portrayed in the book, seemed to consider these children as disposable.  Nothing worth bothering about unless what the child could do for you provided monetary gains for them.  Ram showed resolve and perserverance in sorting throught the many obstacles in his life.  After the age of eight, he survived without the support of a caring adult to lead the way.  Quite different from our way of life when in the 1800's child labor laws were being inacted and children would never be allowed to live alone at this young age.

    Swarup, Vikas. "Slumdog Millionaire." New York:  Scribner, 2005. Print.
    Miles, Eileen. "The Sound of Poverty." Without a Net. Ed. Michelle Tea. California: Seal Press, 2003.
       pg. 127-130. Print.
    Lee, Ricky. "For Those Who Like to Dig." Without a Net. Ed. Michelle tea. California: Seal Press, 2003.
       pg. 175-183. Pring.