How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"But you know how the Welfare is," Dad said. "They want to know everything. A social worker comes over, acting like we're criminals. Then the whole neighborhood knows we're getting Welfare." […]
"Besides, I have never done anything in my whole life that would make me beg."
"Would you rather let the kids starve?" Mom asked, indignant and, as usual, making a ton of sense. (2.14, 16-17)
For the Hernandez family, poverty means making some tough decisions, and one of these decisions is whether or not to accept welfare—a.k.a. government assistance for low-income families to help them get food, clothes, and other basic necessities. It sounds to us like Dad's feeling a lot of pride here—he wants to keep his financial affairs private, and that's that.
Quote #2
Dad believed weasely guys already owned the world, and anything you could do to get over on them was useless. He believed people were like money. If you were a million-dollar person, you had a grip on things, a big house maybe, and a crowd of suckers you could push around. You could be a thousand-dollar person or a hundred-dollar person—even a ten-, five-, or one-dollar person. Below that, everybody was just nickels and dimes. To my dad, we were pennies. (2.19)
Dad sees the world in terms of money—or not having any money—and having different amounts goes along with having different types of power. So being a "million-dollar person" means having tons of power, and we're guessing that being "pennies" means having no power whatsoever.
Quote #3
Besides, Mom wanted to keep it hush about me attending a school across town. She thought schooling could graduate me into places that would make her eyes gleam. Dad thought I should cut school altogether and get a dishwashing job. Start on the bottom and work your way up, that's what he'd say. Only most of the people he knew started at the bottom and worked their way sideways. (3.3)
Poverty for Manny often means starting "on the bottom." Dad has a theory that if Manny can just get a job on the low-rung of a ladder, then he'll be able to climb up before he knows it. Sheesh, that's a positive outlook—more positive than seeing his family as "pennies," anyway. But Manny's not convinced; he's thinking that his poverty might be permanent, since no one he knows seems to move up in the world.
Which leaves us with one question: Are there examples in this book of folks who are able to work their way up?