Sunday, April 24, 2011

Small Town Poverty

To put my thoughts on The Beans of Egypt, Maine bluntly, I hated it.  After listening in class and thinking over why I felt so strongly about this book I came to the realization that I didn't hate the actual writing, or the story itself, I hated the fact that Carolyn Chute was addressing the real and somewhat scary fact that people like the Beans still exist in our society today.  I hated it because I realized that sadly, she is right.  Because we go to one of the best colleges in the country, and seem to live inside the nice bubble that is Colby, it's a hard fact to realize and accept that people like the Beans not only exist, but exist in close proximity to us.  The Beans don't live in "the boonies" far, far away-they live right next door.  As readers, I found that we are able to interpret the novel in whatever way we would like because it is mostly just description of the every day life on the Beans, and I interpreted the novel to be an exposure on some of the hidden realities of current, real, American Poverty. 

What startled me even more, however, was the realization that families like the Beans exist in my very own town.   I live right outside of Hanover, New Hampshire in a teeny town that is essential located in the middle of the White Mountains (aka, the middle of no where.)  Although I did not go to the public school that my little sister attends, I was shocked to realize that she goes to school with kids just like those in the novel.  For my entire family, I feel as though my little sisters school experience was a bit of an eye opener, but in the best way possible.  One of my little sister's best friends just turned sixteen and just had her SECOND child. When I first heard this I instantly passed judgment on this girl, her family and even asked my mom "you actually let Stefanie hang out with her?!"  But here's the thing, my little sisters friend lives in a trailer with her single mom in the middle of the woods and she has never known anything different.  Her mother was also a teenage parent, and my little sister's friend has never been raised to believe that she was a mistake or that her life "lacks."  I am not sure if she is ignorant, ill informed, or just lives a life that is different from what we would perceive as normal but this girl actually has a HEART OF GOLD.  She is one of 45 kids in my little sister's sophomore class (not the only teen mother, however) and I know that my sister acts as more of a support system for her than anything else, but in the midst of raising two babies while still trying to figure out what it means to be a teenager, she has also been there for my sister without fail whether or not she has one baby on her arm and the other in an infant carrier. 

The point of all of this is that, it may seem easy to hate and judge the Beans, but aren't they trying to achieve some of the same things that we are?  Don't we all want to eat, feel safe, and find people that love us?  I feel as though I would rekindle my initial statement about "hating the beans,"  but maybe at first I found them impossible to relate to until I thought about basic human necessities and the will to survive. 

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