While struggle can be described in many different ways, many simply see it as multidimensional and multifaceted. There are many ways in which we can experience struggle, whether in hard labor or emotional stress. In the book, Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez, Panchito faces a different and more severe difficulty: undocumentation. This unfortunately branches off into different problems and causes him to live in fear and eventually be deported (see figure 1). We can literally find evidence for this in the first sentence of the book in which he states “I lived in constant fear for ten long years” ( Jimenez, 7). His fear wasn’t solely attributed to the chance of his deportation; he was also worried about not being able to attend school. Jimenez also writes, "I did not want to return to Mexico because I liked going to school". Finally, as a last bit of evidence, we see struggle in his recollection of crossing the border. He quotes his father firmly saying, "If anyone asks you where you were born, tell them Colton, California. If la migra catches you, they'll send you back to Mexico"( Jimenez, 7). Hearing his father say this put even more stress on Panchito and gave him another reason to live in fear. As you can see, especially in Panchito’s case, major struggles, specifically poverty and racism, can divide into subcategories of different obstacles which may cause an individual to live in a constant state of anxiety.
It’s crucial, while examining struggle as being multidimensional, to also study its effects and consequences. In Breaking Through, Panchito not only struggles with poverty, but its affects too. His education, living conditions, labor rights, and health are all compromised just because he is poor (see figure 2). He speaks about these challenges throughout the book.
In this book, he describes how he was forced to work at a young age. The author writes "Roberto and I worked carrots and thinning lettuce after school and on weekends when it didn't rain"( Jimenez, 19). He repeatedly references the challenges of his hard labor, and though he accepts it as a necessary burden, children should never be forced to work that hard in the fields.
The constant physical exertion and living from paycheck to paycheck could or possibly already has damaged Panchito’s physical or mental wellbeing. This possibility is definitely plausible considering his father’s back problems at such a young age and a physician describing him as ”a bit small for his age”, possibly meaning underdeveloped. Poverty, as you might see on the streets, can take a huge toll on one’s health and wellbeing.
Poverty can also diminish the chance of receiving a formal education. Like in Panchito’s case, it’s hard for a lot of people to balance school and work. Jimenez writes, “Every year, Roberto and I missed months of school to help Papa and Mama work in the fields"( Jimenez, 7). This illustrates the sacrifices he made to help his family put food on the table. Just missing one week of class time can set you behind, let alone missing months of it. With an on-again, off again education like this, any chance of attending to college is absolutely thrown out the window. Luckily Panchito himself found an alternative for missing the months of school each year, but if he hadn’t, he might have dropped out of high school and not lived the prosperous life he is lucky to have now.
Last but not least, his living conditions suffer from poverty. This might seem more obvious and less severe than the other examples I’ve given, but it’s just as important. Living from paycheck to paycheck, or even without one at all, can make food, medical help, and just decent places to sleep rarities. Fortunately, Panchito’s hardships aren’t as critical as they can be, but they are still at the point where when he sees a normal house, he thinks it’s heaven on Earth.
As you can see, the real question we should be asking isn’t simply “how does poverty affect those who suffer from it”, but “how does poverty impact the other aspects of one’s life and can all minorities’ problems be traced back to one source?”
Of course, Breaking Through is not the only source in which you can find evidence of struggles, such as poverty, being multidimensional. Research conducted by the Census Bureau reveals many interesting things about education among minorities. Figure 5 shows that African Americans and Hispanics make up the majority of people in poverty. The other two statistics show how, though these minorities believe they can better their career by becoming more educated, their college rates fail to meet the Asians or Whites. This implies that there has to be something in the way of these racial groups receiving better educations. This goes back to how Blacks and Hispanics make up the greatest percentage of those in poverty; only this can be in the way of them reaching college. As you can see, though not a direct correlation, poverty does have a substantial connection to these minorities’ chances of going to college.
Many websites also debate the connection between poverty and health. Www.healthpovertyaction.org argues that there is actually a cycle that “inextricably links” health and poverty. It claims that poverty, even in the US, leads to lack of nutrition and clean water, infectious diseases, and a greater likelihood of putting your health at risk for money. Of course, having insufficient health makes it harder to get a job, hence creating a cycle. This idea is powerful because it implies that if we get rid of one of the problems, it greatly helps to resolve the other. Tom Colicchio explains how obesity, though not really seeming so at first, is also a symptom of poverty, saying that kids without much money often rely on fast food or school lunches for nutrition and describes those as “empty calories”. As you can see, struggle, particularly poverty, can have serious effects on your health and overall wellbeing.
As I said earlier, though often overlooked, a person’s living conditions can, and usually do, greatly suffer from poverty. The APA has emphasized how minorities, who greatly make up the percentage in poverty, typically have twice the amount of unemployment rates as whites, and in African Americans’ cases, make on average 72% of the income comparable Caucasians would. Not only does your class affect your living conditions, but your ethnicity also because, often on a subconscious level, many people automatically associate African Americans and Hispanics with the uneducated and impoverished. Minorities are often “set-up” to believe that they should be poor, that being poor makes you cool. It is a way of keeping them “in check”: forcing them into poverty and a lesser education. Their living conditions are sabotaged in a way.
Surprisingly though, society, or even just your neighbors or co-workers, will treat you differently based on your income. According to the American Psychological Association, or APA, your socioeconomic status, the combination of your education, income, and occupation, can substantially change the how people regard you. There are certain stereotypes of low SES that give “reason” to distrust, mistreat, and even kill people of low income. Trayvon Martin, unfortunately, was a victim of the classist and racist beliefs of David Zimmerman. After the killing of the young boy, Zimmerman went to court claiming that he shot him out of self-defense when there was proof that he got out of the car, initiated the fight on purpose, and then shot him. He was found not guilty and never went to jail for his crime. Many say that the jury was bigoted; many say that the defense didn’t have close to enough evidence, but the truth is, if Trayvon, an African American with low SES, killed Zimmerman, a Caucasian individual, Trayvon would’ve been convicted in a snap. Why Zimmerman walked away without a scratch is no mystery, the stereotypes of low SESs have caused many things similar to this to occur, and there is absolutely no justification.
As you might have gathered, poverty and racism have strong ties. Though the impact of poverty should not, in any way, be ignored, racism, defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed toward someone of a different race based on a belief, can have major effects of its own. Many argue that racism is a necessity, that out of racism great characters rise. True, some people have overcome the multiple struggles that these biases have arisen, but even more haven’t. Racism can damage your education, and, surprisingly, even your self-esteem.
Breaking through is one of many novels that describe characters dealing with the stereotypes and biases that come with being a minority.
For one, both Jimenez and his brother lost their “girlfriends” to their parents’ bigotry; they refused to let their daughters date children of Mexican origin. In Roberto’s case, the father even offered to buy her a car if she stopped seeing him. This stopped both brothers from dating for a long period of time.
Additionally, Panchito would often be teased during lunch. Kids would call him “chile stomper” or “tamale wrapper” when they saw the taquitos his mother prepared for him. Eventually, he just asked his mother to stop packing them in his lunch. This, in a small way, is society forcing him to abandon his culture. Though, luckily for Panchito, it stopped there, many individuals have even forgotten their language due to the misconception that English is superior.
Throughout the book, Panchito briefly faced racism and other bigotries, but he become enraged upon hearing that Kennedy, the elected president that he believed was going to help the poor, was rivaled because he was Catholic. Panchito found that as a huge insult, being Catholic himself, and Roberto went further to say, “Some people don’t like Mexicans and wouldn’t vote for them either.”
As you can see, the examples of racism shown in Breaking through are perfect representations of the bigotry many minorities face and the implications that come along with it.
42, the recent movie telling Jackie Robinson’s story, is also a great source in which to find racism and its effects, but is also a story in which the character “breaks through”, while in actuality most don’t. But Jackie Robinson did, in fact, face many racial challenges that almost broke him down.
The most blatant situations shown in the movie are those having to deal with bullying and harsh treatment. Throughout the story, he gets his life threatened, kicked off the field and even harassed by a coach, and he took these the hardest because he knew he couldn’t fight back. Experiencing all of this left Jackie stressed, frustrated, and almost defeated. Only his exceptional amount of drive (and his want for money) kept him going.
But Jackie, and all other African Americans at that time, also had to cope with segregation and peoples’ very wildly varying beliefs. The movie shows all the bathrooms, water-foutains, and baseball seats that discriminate between blacks and whites. These all send the message that one ethnicity is inferior and can (or could have) progressively hurt the self-esteem of everybody day after day. The beliefs of Jackie’s team members and coaches also had a big impact on the film. At one point, the Dodgers even created a petition to keep Jackie off the team. This made him feel isolated and depressed throughout the whole season until a team-member actually stood up for him when he was being harassed by a coach, but the fact that most of the people he had to live with hated his guts kept him upset.
Again, 42 was a story in which the character does break through despite the difficulties he faced. I just want to emphasize the fact that it is very rare for a character to succeed in situations like these; many get broken, which is why Jackie is so exceptional.
But some believe that any stress (including struggle) is your friend. In the TED Talk, “How to Make Stress Your Friend”, Kelly McGonial argues that through the stress reaction-the thumping of your heart and the release of oxytocin- we can become healthier and more social. To support her claim, she showed a study in which they found that many people who suffered from high levels of stress often died prematurely, but that wasn’t true of people who viewed stress positively; they were the healthiest group in the study despite how often they experienced anxiety. She also revealed a study that showed how individuals who spend a lot of time helping people don’t experience the harsh effects of stress on your body, due to the oxytocin healing their hearts. These are all valid arguments, but do you think she considered those who suffer from poverty or racism? Very few people find stress to be pleasant and extremely few people who suffer from poverty have the time to volunteer and help others. Kelly said herself that ones who don’t do any of these and experience a lot of stress and struggle have high fatality rates. In my opinion, though some types of stress may be beneficial, Kelly made a big generalization, and poverty and racism’s effects should not, in any way, be considered positive.
Concluding, I just want to restate the importance of acknowledging the struggle that those who suffer from poverty or racism go through and the effects that come with it. It is a never-ending cycle that consumes the lives of too many. Some people, like Francisco Jimenez and Jackie Robinson, do break through, but unfortunately, the majority don’t. So what is our job now? To break the cycle; to lift people in poverty up; to show individuals antagonized for their race that they are beautiful. That is the only way we can fix this.
It’s crucial, while examining struggle as being multidimensional, to also study its effects and consequences. In Breaking Through, Panchito not only struggles with poverty, but its affects too. His education, living conditions, labor rights, and health are all compromised just because he is poor (see figure 2). He speaks about these challenges throughout the book.
In this book, he describes how he was forced to work at a young age. The author writes "Roberto and I worked carrots and thinning lettuce after school and on weekends when it didn't rain"( Jimenez, 19). He repeatedly references the challenges of his hard labor, and though he accepts it as a necessary burden, children should never be forced to work that hard in the fields.
The constant physical exertion and living from paycheck to paycheck could or possibly already has damaged Panchito’s physical or mental wellbeing. This possibility is definitely plausible considering his father’s back problems at such a young age and a physician describing him as ”a bit small for his age”, possibly meaning underdeveloped. Poverty, as you might see on the streets, can take a huge toll on one’s health and wellbeing.
Poverty can also diminish the chance of receiving a formal education. Like in Panchito’s case, it’s hard for a lot of people to balance school and work. Jimenez writes, “Every year, Roberto and I missed months of school to help Papa and Mama work in the fields"( Jimenez, 7). This illustrates the sacrifices he made to help his family put food on the table. Just missing one week of class time can set you behind, let alone missing months of it. With an on-again, off again education like this, any chance of attending to college is absolutely thrown out the window. Luckily Panchito himself found an alternative for missing the months of school each year, but if he hadn’t, he might have dropped out of high school and not lived the prosperous life he is lucky to have now.
Last but not least, his living conditions suffer from poverty. This might seem more obvious and less severe than the other examples I’ve given, but it’s just as important. Living from paycheck to paycheck, or even without one at all, can make food, medical help, and just decent places to sleep rarities. Fortunately, Panchito’s hardships aren’t as critical as they can be, but they are still at the point where when he sees a normal house, he thinks it’s heaven on Earth.
As you can see, the real question we should be asking isn’t simply “how does poverty affect those who suffer from it”, but “how does poverty impact the other aspects of one’s life and can all minorities’ problems be traced back to one source?”
Of course, Breaking Through is not the only source in which you can find evidence of struggles, such as poverty, being multidimensional. Research conducted by the Census Bureau reveals many interesting things about education among minorities. Figure 5 shows that African Americans and Hispanics make up the majority of people in poverty. The other two statistics show how, though these minorities believe they can better their career by becoming more educated, their college rates fail to meet the Asians or Whites. This implies that there has to be something in the way of these racial groups receiving better educations. This goes back to how Blacks and Hispanics make up the greatest percentage of those in poverty; only this can be in the way of them reaching college. As you can see, though not a direct correlation, poverty does have a substantial connection to these minorities’ chances of going to college.
Many websites also debate the connection between poverty and health. Www.healthpovertyaction.org argues that there is actually a cycle that “inextricably links” health and poverty. It claims that poverty, even in the US, leads to lack of nutrition and clean water, infectious diseases, and a greater likelihood of putting your health at risk for money. Of course, having insufficient health makes it harder to get a job, hence creating a cycle. This idea is powerful because it implies that if we get rid of one of the problems, it greatly helps to resolve the other. Tom Colicchio explains how obesity, though not really seeming so at first, is also a symptom of poverty, saying that kids without much money often rely on fast food or school lunches for nutrition and describes those as “empty calories”. As you can see, struggle, particularly poverty, can have serious effects on your health and overall wellbeing.
As I said earlier, though often overlooked, a person’s living conditions can, and usually do, greatly suffer from poverty. The APA has emphasized how minorities, who greatly make up the percentage in poverty, typically have twice the amount of unemployment rates as whites, and in African Americans’ cases, make on average 72% of the income comparable Caucasians would. Not only does your class affect your living conditions, but your ethnicity also because, often on a subconscious level, many people automatically associate African Americans and Hispanics with the uneducated and impoverished. Minorities are often “set-up” to believe that they should be poor, that being poor makes you cool. It is a way of keeping them “in check”: forcing them into poverty and a lesser education. Their living conditions are sabotaged in a way.
Surprisingly though, society, or even just your neighbors or co-workers, will treat you differently based on your income. According to the American Psychological Association, or APA, your socioeconomic status, the combination of your education, income, and occupation, can substantially change the how people regard you. There are certain stereotypes of low SES that give “reason” to distrust, mistreat, and even kill people of low income. Trayvon Martin, unfortunately, was a victim of the classist and racist beliefs of David Zimmerman. After the killing of the young boy, Zimmerman went to court claiming that he shot him out of self-defense when there was proof that he got out of the car, initiated the fight on purpose, and then shot him. He was found not guilty and never went to jail for his crime. Many say that the jury was bigoted; many say that the defense didn’t have close to enough evidence, but the truth is, if Trayvon, an African American with low SES, killed Zimmerman, a Caucasian individual, Trayvon would’ve been convicted in a snap. Why Zimmerman walked away without a scratch is no mystery, the stereotypes of low SESs have caused many things similar to this to occur, and there is absolutely no justification.
As you might have gathered, poverty and racism have strong ties. Though the impact of poverty should not, in any way, be ignored, racism, defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed toward someone of a different race based on a belief, can have major effects of its own. Many argue that racism is a necessity, that out of racism great characters rise. True, some people have overcome the multiple struggles that these biases have arisen, but even more haven’t. Racism can damage your education, and, surprisingly, even your self-esteem.
Breaking through is one of many novels that describe characters dealing with the stereotypes and biases that come with being a minority.
For one, both Jimenez and his brother lost their “girlfriends” to their parents’ bigotry; they refused to let their daughters date children of Mexican origin. In Roberto’s case, the father even offered to buy her a car if she stopped seeing him. This stopped both brothers from dating for a long period of time.
Additionally, Panchito would often be teased during lunch. Kids would call him “chile stomper” or “tamale wrapper” when they saw the taquitos his mother prepared for him. Eventually, he just asked his mother to stop packing them in his lunch. This, in a small way, is society forcing him to abandon his culture. Though, luckily for Panchito, it stopped there, many individuals have even forgotten their language due to the misconception that English is superior.
Throughout the book, Panchito briefly faced racism and other bigotries, but he become enraged upon hearing that Kennedy, the elected president that he believed was going to help the poor, was rivaled because he was Catholic. Panchito found that as a huge insult, being Catholic himself, and Roberto went further to say, “Some people don’t like Mexicans and wouldn’t vote for them either.”
As you can see, the examples of racism shown in Breaking through are perfect representations of the bigotry many minorities face and the implications that come along with it.
42, the recent movie telling Jackie Robinson’s story, is also a great source in which to find racism and its effects, but is also a story in which the character “breaks through”, while in actuality most don’t. But Jackie Robinson did, in fact, face many racial challenges that almost broke him down.
The most blatant situations shown in the movie are those having to deal with bullying and harsh treatment. Throughout the story, he gets his life threatened, kicked off the field and even harassed by a coach, and he took these the hardest because he knew he couldn’t fight back. Experiencing all of this left Jackie stressed, frustrated, and almost defeated. Only his exceptional amount of drive (and his want for money) kept him going.
But Jackie, and all other African Americans at that time, also had to cope with segregation and peoples’ very wildly varying beliefs. The movie shows all the bathrooms, water-foutains, and baseball seats that discriminate between blacks and whites. These all send the message that one ethnicity is inferior and can (or could have) progressively hurt the self-esteem of everybody day after day. The beliefs of Jackie’s team members and coaches also had a big impact on the film. At one point, the Dodgers even created a petition to keep Jackie off the team. This made him feel isolated and depressed throughout the whole season until a team-member actually stood up for him when he was being harassed by a coach, but the fact that most of the people he had to live with hated his guts kept him upset.
Again, 42 was a story in which the character does break through despite the difficulties he faced. I just want to emphasize the fact that it is very rare for a character to succeed in situations like these; many get broken, which is why Jackie is so exceptional.
But some believe that any stress (including struggle) is your friend. In the TED Talk, “How to Make Stress Your Friend”, Kelly McGonial argues that through the stress reaction-the thumping of your heart and the release of oxytocin- we can become healthier and more social. To support her claim, she showed a study in which they found that many people who suffered from high levels of stress often died prematurely, but that wasn’t true of people who viewed stress positively; they were the healthiest group in the study despite how often they experienced anxiety. She also revealed a study that showed how individuals who spend a lot of time helping people don’t experience the harsh effects of stress on your body, due to the oxytocin healing their hearts. These are all valid arguments, but do you think she considered those who suffer from poverty or racism? Very few people find stress to be pleasant and extremely few people who suffer from poverty have the time to volunteer and help others. Kelly said herself that ones who don’t do any of these and experience a lot of stress and struggle have high fatality rates. In my opinion, though some types of stress may be beneficial, Kelly made a big generalization, and poverty and racism’s effects should not, in any way, be considered positive.
Concluding, I just want to restate the importance of acknowledging the struggle that those who suffer from poverty or racism go through and the effects that come with it. It is a never-ending cycle that consumes the lives of too many. Some people, like Francisco Jimenez and Jackie Robinson, do break through, but unfortunately, the majority don’t. So what is our job now? To break the cycle; to lift people in poverty up; to show individuals antagonized for their race that they are beautiful. That is the only way we can fix this.