Poverty and Interdependence
Pieces that take us beyond the economic lessons in "Where the Crawdads Sing"
Welcome to From the Teacher’s Desk, where we take turns further reflecting on our episodes and applications to the classroom.
The challenge in most English classrooms today is the desire to bring in literature that reflects our students’ own experiences while also challenging them to consider the very different experiences of others. The more we prepared to discuss Where the Crawdads Sing, the more we recognized the novel and movie’s ability to humanize the hidden experiences of many outside of the novel. We saw how the story highlights our social interdependence with people of different genders, races, and socio-economic groups.
We rightfully discuss how often the stories of Indigenous and Black and Brown citizens are left out of our country’s narrative. But as we move into a new era of literature study that de-centers middle and upper-class whiteness, it is important to remember that the stories of poor white Americans are inextricably linked to the stories of minority populations. Before the Civil War, wealthy plantation owners convinced poor whites that it was in their best interest to fight and die so that the plantation owners could maintain their way of life. Reconstruction failed when former plantation owners convinced poor whites that the progress made by freed slaves—progress that made life better for all poor Southerners—was hurting them. Today, the backlash against immigrants hides under the guise of “America First,” even though our economy has depended on immigrant labor since before the Revolutionary War.
For English teachers, decolonizing the literature also means occasionally telling the stories of poor white people caught up in the systems of oppression that are hurting them as well. In Where the Crawdads Sing, Kya leans on the kindness of Jumpin’ and Mabel, a Black American couple who own a shop and provide her with goods in exchange for fresh mussels. The three characters are stuck on the margins of society in Barkley Cove, Kya’s survival dependent on the goodness of a successful Black couple still perceived as “lesser” by local white citizens.
As English teachers, we can lean into this lesson of socio-economic interdependence and extend the lessons of Where the Crawdads Sing by tying in nonfiction memoirs with our interpretations of fictional worlds.
Educated by Tara Westover
Tara Westover’s memoir about growing up poor in Idaho shows the importance of education in erasing ignorance and lifting marginalized people out of poverty. Due to her isolated fundamentalist upbringing, Tara didn’t know anything about the Holocaust or the 20th-century Civil Rights movement until she was a student at Brigham Young University. Education is not the fix for all racism and ignorance, but Westover’s story shows the positive impact that access to honest and complete education can have on students.
Maid by Stephanie Land
Stephanie Land was preparing for college when she found out that she was pregnant with her daughter. Instead of immediately entering college, she found herself caught in an abusive relationship and worked as a house cleaner to protect herself and her daughter. Her memoir shows the struggles of those caught in minimum wage work and cycles of government assistance that are essential for the survival of many, but is often not enough to help lift people out of poverty. Land speaks for women (and men) of all races who desperately desire something better for themselves and their children and yet do not have the means or necessary support to do so. While Land does eventually write about her entrance into the University of Montana and successful completion of her degree, she still highlights the infinite struggles of the working poor.
Just Mercy by Bryan Stephenson
Bryan Stephenson’s book about the injustices in the justice system doesn’t just discuss minority populations in the United States. He makes it abundantly clear that the American “justice” system negatively impacts American citizens based on socio-economics and gender, as well as race. His work with the Equal Justice Initiative has also worked with poor white people who have found themselves caught up in a justice system that advantages those who can pay for their own legal representation. For those teachers who are also teaching To Kill a Mockingbird, Just Mercy serves as an important 21st-century chapter in the story of the American justice system that ties in Harper Lee’s hometown.
I’ve had multiple classes do memoir projects as an end-of-semester or end-of-course assessment. One of my favorite units is an argumentative narrative, which challenges students to tell a story from their past that changed how they view an issue. I love it because it combines two of my loves: storytelling and research. Check them out and let us know how you are using memoirs to create more empathetic citizens.
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