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In ‘Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation’, Diana George uses ethos and pathos to describe how poverty is trying to be solved in the United States. In this article, she talks about how poverty is advertised to many Americans. She also talks about how different organizations try to come up with solutions, but they are only temporary solutions. One nonprofit she talks about is Habitat for Humanity, which is an organization that builds houses for people who cannot afford to buy or rent their own house.
George wrote this article to inform American citizens that indeed there are people in this country who are poor and that one does not have to go to another country to see this. Many Americans forget this is happening in their country as well; they always want to focus on helping other countries, but they need to realize that this is happening here as well. Many of the people who are reading this article are people who want to figure out a way to change poverty but want to look at the ways that people are doing so now and see if they are working. This could also be people who do not realize that there are people in the United States who are in poverty like those in other countries around the world. Many of the ways people try to get everyone’s attention on this topic is by “[representing] poverty as something that can be seen and easily recognized” (George, 676). These advertisements use pathos to make many people feel bad and want to help others in different countries, instead of looking around the United States and knowing that it is also going on here. George wants to be able to show that in order to end poverty there needs to be better ways and ideas to solve it. Habitat for Humanity may build houses for people internationally for low prices, but this is not going to solve the issue because not everyone can afford houses, especially those in some Third World countries.
In ‘Changing the Face of Poverty’, it states that “Diana George (b. 1948) is a professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University” (George, 675). She has also written many articles and books. ‘Changing the Face of Poverty’ is part of a bigger article where she goes into more detail about people living in poverty. The title of this article shows that George wants to improve upon how people impact poverty. It also sounds like she is going to talk about the misconceptions of poverty and advertisement of it. George seems to want to be able to change people’s minds, and she wants people to understand what poverty is and how to make poverty come to an end and not be temporary. In the article, George has two paragraphs formatted differently than the other paragraphs, and the first paragraph is the lines from a video shown to people about poverty, and the second paragraph is words from an impoverished woman. In the first paragraph, the video uses pathos to describe how people live in poverty and try to get people to change their minds to help these people out. It also talks about the difficulties these people go through like the different weather conditions and money situations. In the second paragraph, it is from a person who lives in poverty. She describes how her life is and what she thinks about the people trying to help them out.
George’s main claim is to explain that some of the ways these organizations are trying to grab people’s attention to this problem may not be the best way to do so. She does not believe that what these nonprofits are doing to help these should be stopped, but rather change their ways of going about it. Many of these organizations have ways to change these people’s lives temporarily but never have a permanent change. One of the organizations that George focuses mostly on is Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity is an organization that builds houses for people who cannot afford to build them and pay for them while interest grows. This organization receives donations and volunteers to be able to provide for these houses. The people also only have to pay the mortgage on their house. This sounds like a great idea, but many people who live in poverty can barely afford food, so many are not going to be able to pay for a house that is being built for them. Habitat for Humanity could help some of these people, but it would be just a small percentage of people, and it would be more of the people in the United States rather than Third World countries. Issues she talks about Habitat for Humanity has with its program is “who to choose for housing, how to support potential homeowners, and how to convince affiliates in the United States to tithe a portion of their funds to the real effort of Habitat” (George, 682). George uses ethos to explain why Habitat for Humanity is a great organization but is not going to be able to build houses for people who live in Third World countries and not be able to afford a mortgage for their house.
George believes in helping the impoverished but strongly advises them to change their ways. She also talks about how these bigger businesses and corporations draw attention to many of the people in poverty. These points she makes are valid, but one organization in this world is not going to be able to put an end to poverty. It is something that has to be helped out by everyone for this to permanently go away. One of her main claims in this paper is by showing how Habitat for Humanity is a great organization but has some flaws because not everyone can afford these houses. George is making a valid point because these people do have to work hard for the food they put on their tables, for their kids, and for their families. Not everyone has the money and support to be able to pay a monthly rent on a house an organization is building for them. In ‘Changing the Face of Poverty’, it states “more than 35 million Americans – one out of every seven of our fellow citizens – are officially poor. More than one in five American children are poor. And the poor are getting poorer” (George, 684). This is one example of how poverty is not just an issue in other countries, but also an issue in the United States.
Diana George gives many different examples of how poverty is in the United States and ways citizens need to help with it. One thing she focuses on is grabbing the reader’s attention by using emotion and senses to persuade them. She also uses words from people in these situations, facts, and her own knowledge to show how the impact of poverty can be changed. One thing from this article is people can still help out in the ways that they do, but other solutions and decisions need to be made in this country first in order to solve it here, before trying to solve it all around the world.
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