Short Stories, with Big meanings.

The short stories were very interesting as well as entertaining. They each were different, telling of different situations they had been in the past. Either way they described there working class experiences and how they coped with it.
A great story, "The Catholic Leg", did a great job of conveying what it meant to live on the edge. The family consisted of a mother and father as well as ten children. Unless rich, this situation creates a hard living for any family and an especially harder living for a working class family. The father had a job, but it of course wasn't enough to support the family. With this life style, the family would never be able to travel, take vacations, have disposable income, buy important material goods, etc. Essentially, they were living on the edge, one false move and everything could have been lost. Yet, the mother had the gift of God apparently, in terms of writing jingles. These jingles led to the winning of contests thus money and other goods. For example, when the family hadn't paid the bills for the house, they were going to be foreclosed, yet the mother won a contest in time to pay the bills and keep the house... almost as if it never was a problem. Amongst money, the mother also won washer/dryer machines, trips around the country and Europe, and other things. Not only did the winning of contests keep this family of ten from extreme poverty, it gave them social and cultural capital. For example, the mother and father were able to travel and go on vacations, learning about different peoples and cultures. Basically, this family was extremely lucky, for without the contests, they would definitely slip beneath the cracks, tumble off the edge, what have you not. Instead of suffering, these ten children were able to grow up in a family setting, making life more enjoyable and worth it.

The other short story I liked was "The Poet and the Pauper." Instead of going along with the typical trend of poetry, the aspiring/in time successful poet wrote about her childhood experiences of being poor. She wanted to write about her experiences but also the experience of poor in general, representing all poor. She wanted to get her point across to the people that were fortunate enough to not experience poverty/poorness. She was told she had a beautiful pen, yet her content was not what the people were looking for. Nobody wanted to read about poor people and what they experience...instead they would rather read about trees (blehh). However through determination the poet was able to get published, thus being able to reach people through her writing. Instead of giving up, the poet tried harder. She never forgot her roots, which in the end was her inspiration. She felt no shame in explaining her tough life and how she was able to overcome-yet not forget it. Speaking at colleges, going on tours, getting her works published were all ways of her trying the explain the reality of being poor, the fact that it is a concept which should not be overlooked by trees.

These stories were inspirational as well as informing, in terms of how people needed to live in order to get by.