The Movie Poor Kids - Essay Example

Frontline Paper Summary The movie poor kids depict the living conditions of various families in America. All the families in the show are poor and live in deplorable conditions where they cannot afford food, housing, clothing, and even paying off their bills. For instance, in Brittany’s family, she is nine years old and admits how life is tough since her father recently lost his job. She asserts that the poor nature of the parents makes her bath in the cold and freezing shower since the family cannot afford to pay the electricity bill in time (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). Moreover, Brittany asks the dad when the internet cable would be switched off. She asks, “When is the cable... shut-off?” her dad admits he owes almost $200 and does not have money to pay. Consequently, there are no jobs as her dad has applied for many jobs with Wal- Mart, the Anchor, and Minard’s store but never succeeded. She admits that many Americans are poor and homeless thus needs assistance (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). She converses with the Food Bank Worker informing her of how she is feeling hungry. Moreover, she goes to Nutrition Club every Friday and gets food lasting her through the whole weekend. She notices that her mother is pregnant and because of high level of poverty in their house, she argues that is not the right time to have a baby since the family is going to be strapped financially. They lack money to buy diapers for the baby. Moreover, her dad has been working yet he has only earned $64 (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). Later, her mother gives birth to a baby boy forcing her father to make a bigger room for the family in the garage. Moreover, Roger’s family was once rich but are currently poor. His mom admits she does not even have $20 to pay a plumber while father is stressed about the electricity bill, which he cannot afford to pay (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). Rogers’ dad worked in Picture Perfect but lost the job and the family got kicked out of the farmhouse. They currently live in a small room and lost some of their assets since they could not afford to pay the storage fee. Later, he hopes the dad will get a good job and, therefore, be able to pay rent thereby preventing being kicked out. Furthermore, the movie depicts more about the poor kids. Kaylie Hegwood lives in Stockton, Iowa and is 10 years old. She admits starving since the family does not eat three meals. Despite feeling starving, she engages in other activities to avoid feeling hungry. She asserts,” We cannot afford... bills ... our house bills ... stuff" (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). Kaylie fears being homelessness. Moreover, she claims that gas prices would be raised yet the mother cannot even afford the current price. Besides, the family keeps on shifting from one hotel to another since it cannot manage to pay rent after being kicked out of the duplex. Kaylie’s best friend is Jordan and they go canning together to make money. They walk around the town collecting squashed and non-squashed cans. She also kicks Tyler sleeping sleeps on the floor. The family uses the sink as a fridge by stocking ice into it every day. As the movie ends, she has big dreams of getting an education and good job and remains optimistic that people can never discourage someone from believing in their dreams (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). Kaylie’s mother, Barbara, tells her to wait when she says that she is hungry. Her mothers income is $1480 but pays bills amounting to $1326 this leaves her with no money for food or gas. She has never experienced such levels of poverty. Tyler also claims that they do have good days and bad days. For instance, when they have cereal, they lack milk and when they have milk, they lack cereal. On several occasions, he uses his income to meet household expenditures. He gets $10 uses $ 6 to pay the gas and gives the rest to mother to buy food (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). Further, Jasmine is 9 years old and lives with brothers Jaylan, Joshua, and Jonny. Her dad works in a factory and family drives him there every day. They cannot be left in the shelter since they are not old enough. She is embarrassed since she is poor and resides in a shelter (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). Jonny Davis is 13 years old lives in Salvation Army homeless shelter. However, in the past, they were not poor since the father earned $ 5000 a month, had fancy things, and lived in a three-bedroom house. Nevertheless, the recession left the family with no money for rent, thus lost everything. This forced them to move to a homeless shelter. Moreover, Jonny is ashamed of their home and admits that he does not want people to find out about his home since they will make fun of it (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). Jonny’s father, Tom, believes that once, life was better and earned a decent paying ranging between $4000- $7000. However, he lost everything due to the recession. Classy, Jonny’s mother asserts that she has been buying for Josh shoes but currently cannot make it and wears one costing $5. She considers giving Josh their old business card since she cannot afford to buy a birthday card (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). 2 The main point of the show is that many American kids who come from poor families suffer during their development period. They lack food, proper shelter, clothing, some kids engage in child labor to feed their families as others such as Brittany depends on the food from Nutrition Club to sustain her for the entire weekend (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). Therefore, poverty affects many families in America and thus, it is crucial for the government to act swiftly in order to save the kids from leading miserable lives. This can be attained when the government establishes more employment opportunities for its citizens thereby providing adequate sources of income. This later improves the living standards of various families since they can afford to pay their bills and meet other expenses. 3. I think the reporting of the program was fair. This is because it goes further and unearths the devastating conditions faced by various kids coming from poor families. This is the real situation among the dwellers of the shanties and thus, the reporting is accurate and helps us learn about the difficulties faced by many American families (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). I do not think that the producers of the program were biased in their job since the situations from the scenes are disturbing and regrettable to exist in America. 4. By watching the show, I gained much knowledge about the plight of poor kids in America. I never imagined there exists such families living in deplorable conditions and lacking the necessities of life. In fact, I was moved by the show and felt sorry for the many families in the show. I liked the setting and reporting of the show. It clearly achieves its intention and sends a message to most of the viewers (Neumann & Mucciolo, 2012). The setting is real since there are various families within America who are homeless and cannot manage to pay rent because of lack of stable income. Moreover, the reporting is very accurate and I really like it since it actually comes from the young kids in the show. I find it easy to trust a kid than an adult since I believe that kids are honest. Therefore, I like the use of the kids to convey the message to the government to act in order to save the situation. Consequently, I liked the inclusion of various aid agencies such as the Nutrition Club who attempts to assist the kids thereby reducing the misery of the kids. However, I find it strange to discover that there is no response from the government concerning the show. I thought there would be some assistance or response from the government in assisting the affected families. I would like to see the government responding to the situation and not only the nongovernmental organizations. It is a shame that the presence of American government is unnoticeable in the show. References Neumann, J., Mucciolo, L. (Producers), & Neumann, J. (Director). (2012). Poor kids. Frontline. Retrieved April 3, 2014 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/poor-kids/ Read More