Something that really caught my eye was the amount of imagery that was being used. I found myself creating these images in my mind which helped me understand what was going on a lot better. I found the essay very intriguing because of how relatable the first day of school is. What stuck out to me was when she mentioned, “She has learned that money is the beginning and end of everything in this world, and when the woman finishes, my mother offers her fifty cents.” This had a really big impact because coming from a low-income family it made me resonate with her mother. On top of that, her mother mentions that she doesn’t know how to read or write, this made me feel sad in a way. I think that her daughter is taking her mother for granted. I believe that she should love and cherish her mother a lot more and be thankful because at least she has someone in her life who cares for her.
English 2100 Fall 2021: Language, Identity, and Representation
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this story. What do you think the narrator means when she says that she has learned that “money is the beginning and end of everything”? It seems like a pretty depressing insight – especially for a young girl, but I agree with your suggestion that her poverty is really important here.
I believe that what she is trying to say is that coming from a poor family, money is crucially essential. Money is the beginning because with money you can start anything; whether that means starting fresh and buying a house, investing, a business, or just buying anything in general like daily necessities. Money is the end because without it, you cannot do any of the things I listed previously.
To ellaborate, her mother sacrificed buying herself things in order to buy her daughter everything new for the first day of school. Which indicates the “money is the beginning and of everything scenario”.