Poverty
Poverty limits success. In chapters one and two of “The Absolute True Diary of a Part Time Indian” Junior talks about missing meals and being unable to afford health care. He said that he had ten extra teeth and when he went to Indian Health Services they told him they only fund major dental work once a year so he had to get them all pulled in one day. He also mentions that they had to put his dog, Oscar, down because they did not have enough money to take him to the vet. Junior is a cartoonist and he believes that this is the only way to become rich and famous as a Native American. When Junior talks about poverty he refers to his parents, and how they had dreams, but they never had an opportunity to fulfill those dreams because nobody had believed in them, because they were poor.
I believe poverty is the cause of other problems that arise in poverty stricken homes and communities. I believe poverty is the cause of depression, and the way people act while they are dealing with depression, is because of poverty. And depression is the cause of alcoholism, self medication, and domestic violence. People who do not have the misfortune of being poor, have more opportunities, they have more support and people who believe in their dreams. Without support and when you have your peers telling you cannot achieve your dreams you begin to believe you can’t and you give up on your dreams and settle for less. Therefore poverty limits success.
