Welfare Checks By Kristof Summary

In the article, Kristof gives examples of people in need of welfare checks in a poor part of Kentucky. He writes that the majority of Americans living in poverty have helpful appliances like washers, dryers, and microwaves, but “What they don’t have is hope.” The people living off of welfare checks at the expense of their children have no expectation to live better lives because, from their points of view, their lives cannot improve. After reading something as devastating as that, the audience will feel heartbroken and be more susceptible to persuasion and more likely to make social change. To continue, Kristof argues that the stage between being an illiterate child and capitalizing on the illiteracy of their children is just as sad as the
There is no escaping the death grip illiteracy has on young people, and with Kristof masterfully leading the audience to visualize the consequences of this restrictive disability, he continues towards achieving his goal of creating social change. Another great example of the writer’s use of pathos is when he vividly paints a picture of a single, poor woman’s situation, so the reader can imagine any working woman they know in this particular woman’s situation. Kristof writes, “One woman I met, Anastasia McCormick, told me that her $500 car had just broken down and she had to walk two miles each way to her job at a pizza restaurant.” Most people reading The New York Times have jobs or have spent their long lives working and are now retired, so this sentence resonates with the entire audience. They also know what an inconvenience it is when their cars break
McCormick and her babies, whose lives have not even begun yet. In hindsight, Kristof could have told the story of parents manipulating the system to receive federal checks without including Ms. McCormick’s story and the fact that her electricity might be turned off. However, by including this story about more children that are about to be set on a lifelong path of incompetency, Kristof creates a feeling of urgency. His readers will urgently want their elected officials to improve the welfare system before this set of twins falls into a “soul-crushing dependency,” from which they cannot escape. Finally, Kristof ends the article with a powerful final paragraph that includes: “There’s time to transform their lives… They’re too small to fail,” referring to young children of poor, illiterate parents. When the audience reads this quote, they will feel that just because there are American children growing up with parents who cannot read or write and cannot, yet, help themselves doesn’t mean there is no hope for their