Analysis Of Bernard Hare's 'Poverty Is A State Of Mind'

Great Britain is nothing but a shadow compared to its prior self. The glory days of Great Britain is long gone and has become nothing but a memory. Great Britain has been tripping; especially the financial recession of 2008 took its turn. The contrasts between being poor and wealthy have been growing; exceptionally doing the last couple of years. It is clearly seen by the dividing of the north and south of England. The southern part of England, which withholds London as its centre, are safe and sound, whereas the northern part of England is characterized by small red brick houses, which are in severe need of service. The people who lives there are not able to take care of themselves because of the high – and still rising – unemployment. These
Bernard Hare is a social worker-turned-writer, who was born in 1958 in the North England town Leeds, where he also grew up. Hares father was, like many other doing that time, a coal miner, and Hares mother worked as a shop worker. The money was few, but either way Hare did not feel as if he was born into poverty, even though he was. He went to school and managed to continue at college. It was first when the coal miners decided to protest against Margret Thatcher’s liberalization that he really felt a change from the great and harmonic circumstances he had lived by. Hared got caught in the middle and started to drink and do drugs. But years after getting attached to these bad habits, he sees a kid at a very young age doing the exact same thing as he did, and he decides that he wants to make a difference and help the
Bernard Hare has lived a life full of poverty and social mobility, therefore, it is ideal for him to use his own life as an example to get his message through. Hare takes use of the rhetorical technique ethos a number of times. By drawing examples to his own life, he supports his arguments and makes himself seem more trustworthy, which makes it easier to influence the reader. The use of ethos is seen, when he states how social mobility is hard for those, who is born poor: “I had escaped poverty […] A year later I was plunged right back into poverty again,” (p.3, line 170-175). Furthermore, this is also an example of his personal journey and development, when considering how the circumstances in his childhood has influenced his life- and career-choices: “I didn’t want to be a mindless thug. Poverty wasn’t working out for me. In 1977, aged 19, I headed to rural Hertfordshire with a clear conscience and escaped the bad environment that was holding me back,” (p.3, line 154-159). Hare also uses his own experiences to create new claims that is created by them. This is especially seen in the end of the essay, where he refers to the social environment between his father and the other miners. They were having fun and nice times even though they were poor. This leads to the conclusion that poverty is a state of