What is poverty according to Parker?
According to Parker, poverty is getting up every morning from a dirt and ill-stained mattress,being dirt and tired. Moreover, poverty is asking for help, remembering and looking into a black future.
How does Parker defend her inability to get help? How does she discount the usual solutions society has for poverty (e.g.,welfare, education, and health clinics)?
Parker declares that she is not able to obtain the aids that are on offer. Accordingly, the government's help package (seventy-eight dollars a month) is too slim. Schools provide free education, but they don't pay for stationery. They have got lunch programs too, but her infants are so fragile that they won't be able to make it to school at all. Likewise, health clinics are far off in the towns; she can't afford to take her children there.