Poverty In July's People

Everyone sees the world in different ways. Your worldview is shaped by where you live and how you grew up. It describes the way that you perceive the world, and the issues surrounding it. This is especially true for our opinions of poverty. Because I have never experienced poverty, I cannot precisely describe what it is like to live inside it. While reading July’s People, by Nadine Gordimer, I gained insight and a new perspective on life in poverty and how to combat it. I discovered that poverty runs deep, deeper than just in a physical sense. It breaks down your entire person, both mentally and physically. Maureen is a perfect example of this. She was both physically and emotionally destroyed by the hardships she faces after moving into the …show more content…
I do not see them struggling to fit into a remote village in South Africa like the Smales family does. I would think more about the poor, tribal, villagers. I would think of them to be sad, starving, and filthy. This is partially true, but they have a better outlook on life than I would have thought. They did not live in poverty the same way that the Smale family does. They are better than the white family in many ways. They dance late at night and party. Gordimer writes, “Their fun has its place in their poverty. It ignored that they were in the middle of a war, as if poverty itself were a country whose dispossession nothing reaches” (141). They are not as concerned about their health or current circumstances. They just keep on. The Smales live as if their life is already over. They have no hope, no joy, no tomorrow. By the end of the book, they let poverty completely swallow them. They become a victim of their situation. Another thing I assumed in the beginning of this novel was the main theme. I thought that the book was only focusing on blacks versus whites. I thought that the main source of conflict came from the the fact that Maureen’s family was white and July’s people were black. Part of this is true. They are treated better partly because of their race, but mainly because of the social class. Maureen’s family employed July as a servant. This causes a social order where They are on top, and July falls down …show more content…
July and his people seems to be at a disadvantage during the beginning of the novel. They were, in fact, poor black people. They had no understanding of the life outside of the village. Despite this, July and his people were in fact the happier and more content characters in this novel. They have made do with their limited resources. Life may not be perfect for them, but it still was a good life. They were not the broken and poor people I imagined. July’s people could actually live, unlike Maureen and her family. This made me realize that poverty is about much more than physical. These people had nothing, but they still had joy. They were happy to work and live in their impoverished village. They did not seem to worry like the Smales