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?
Quote #4
"Mmm," he said, looking down at my shoes. You have the grades. You're a pretty smart boy." He was thinking hard, but he kept staring at my shoes. They were my dad's old pair that had got chewed up by dogs when he left them outside. My feet slid around in two extra sizes of space. The tongue flopped out of the left, and a jagged crack split down the sole of the right from stomping on shovels. Neither shoe had enough lace to grip more than three rings. […]
I shifted the shoe with the floppy tongue behind the other, regretting I'd worn them. (3.10, 15)
Manny tells us outright that his family has money troubles, but we could also figure this factoid out from his shoes. Because his shoes are worn and too big for him, they're a dead giveaway that his family is trying to get creative with how they keep themselves clothed.
Quote #5
I leaned my chin on the dashboard and asked, "Rich people live out here, huh?"
"It's just another place to live," Mr. Hart said blandly, "middle-class, some upper."
I could tell by the quickness of his voice that he was disappointed that I was excited, except that I wasn't excited, but scared; scared of all the new kids I'd be meeting; different kids, the kind that lived in houses like these. (3.36-38)
When Mr. Hart is driving Manny home and they go through a fancier part of town, Manny gets some impressions of a life with more money. And the sign of more money in these parts is having a big house. Since Manny lives in the projects in a small house, he now has a comparison point for his own home.
Quote #6
The twenty-dollar bill Dad took from me went into his drinking bankroll. Once he started a binge, he wouldn't stop until every cent was drained from his pockets. (4.1)
The Hernandez family doesn't have much money, so it's a huge deal when Dad takes the twenty bucks that Mr. Hart gave Manny for school supplies and squanders it on drinks at the pool hall—it has the whole family feeling pretty mad. Manny's dad might think that his family is "pennies" compared to million-dollar folks, but he's certainly not helping to save some extra cents here and there. Heck, he's even treating Manny like he's worthless by taking his school money.
Quote #7
She had tried for months to get Dad to buy her a long beige coat with buttons big as fifty-cent pieces that she'd seen at Penney's. Dad mostly refused, raising his hand as if to visor his eyes against the sun. Sometimes he'd promise to buy her one at the end of the month, knowing that the bills would always manage to wedge in between her and the coat. One day she came home saying that she'd gone to the store and the coat wasn't there. The saleslady said they'd run out of stock. It didn't matter, Mom said. She'd gotten used to wearing her old linty coat and double sweaters. You could tell by the watery way her voice sounded, though, that she hated that coat. (8.12)
Manny's family has to give up some special things because of their financial situation, and for Mom, this means giving up on her dream coat, which she's seriously bummed out about it. She's been dreaming about that coat for forever, and it's a big deal when she finds out that she'll never own it. It's almost like the coat is a sign for Mom that she can own something awesome and new and when that possibility is taken away, well there's just no replacing it.
Quote #8
Looking around like there was no place for her to hide her eyes, Mom shrieked, "We don't have any money!" (8.55)
Magda has been in the hospital, no one is telling Dad that she prematurely delivered a baby, and now she has a raging fever—but when Manny wants his mom to take Magda back to the doctor, she knows that might not be possible because they just don't have the dough. It's not easy for Mom to admit that they're in a tough spot financially or that it could affect her kids, and she's looking pretty panicky to us.
Dealing with poverty might've meant giving up things like coats before, but now it's having a ridiculously huge impact on her family's health. Ugh.
Quote #9
She began slapping the mop wildly on the floor, shuffling around in my dad's old hightop boots, the ones with the buckles torn out and tongues wagging. Most of the time she mopped the floor barefoot, since her feet had enough calluses to step on my dad's cigarette butts without making her wince, but that day it was too cold. (9.4)
Mom's resourceful as all get-out, so when it's chilly outside and she needs to mop the floors, she has a pair of old boots that she can dig up. No need to buy separate mopping slippers for this lady, because she's got the creativity to re-use what's already around her home. And this helps Mom keep her family moving forward, even when they're facing rough times financially.
Quote #10
"She gave me an invitation," I said hotly.
"Yeah, an invitation with nothing written on it."
"They'll probably make him wash dishes," Magda put in.
"No, they'll tell him to feed the dog."
Magda pushed her cornmeal away, afraid she'd tip it over while she laughed, but spilled some anyway. (9.73-77)
When Manny gets invited to Dorothy's party, we all know it's just because her dad pressured her into it—even Manny knows it, poor guy. But he's also hoping that maybe there's some actual kindness behind Dorothy's invitation, though Magda and Nardo are being cynical as can be. And when these two start teasing Manny, they make it all about social class because they figure Manny will be treated super poorly at the party, as if he's a servant.
Do you think this is what ends up happening at Dorothy's shindig? Or is Manny able to combat these assumptions about his poverty?