The main character, Angela Whitiker, is an African-American nurse who has had a difficult life trying to escape poverty, even though by becoming a nurse she becomes part of the middle class. Angela was born in the working-class as the third child out of five. Her mother was a cook, and her father was a laborer who had never stayed at home since Angela was ten. Due to her father’s absence during her adolescence, Whitiker used other men as substitutes for her father, so that she may feel men’s affection. For this reason, she had five children when she was 23 years old without a husband, where she had been both married and separated with men; she finally had the responsibility of taking care of five children by herself. However, she did not have a high school degree or skills. Thus, she could only work in the manual labor, such as a fast food restaurant clerk position, where these jobs paid the lowest. Fortunately, the father of her youngest child Christopher, Jonathan, paid the rent so that she could better her lifestyle. Furthermore, Jonathan supported her enrollment in a college pre-nursing program. However, she broke up with Jonathan soon after enrolling, and returned to being a poor single mom with children.
While earning low wages, Angela met a guy named Vincent Allen. He had a college degree and came from a stable middle-class family. Based on his background, he knew how to fill the father role in the family, and also how to nurture the children as a parent. He also strongly supported Angela financially and emotionally so that she was able to become a nurse. The couple established a long-term plan to save money for a home and car in the future. To achieve these goals, Whitiker would become a nurse to receive a higher level of income, which would then lead them to become middle class. However, Vincent and Whitiker’s eldest son, Nicholas, had a serious conflict, since Vincent played role of “father,” which Nicholas had also done for his younger siblings. Eventually Nicholas left home and joined a drug dealer family. Angela sent Nicholas to his father’s home for protection. However, Nicholas wandered the streets for some time.
Angela passed the state examination to get a nursing license. However, she could not receive employment in a good hospital, due to her lack of social connections, as well as her lack of an college degree. Due to this reason, she began to work for a small hospital, working extremely hard to build her career so that she could earn a higher income. She believed that she would be rewarded in accordance with her effort, even though other workers earned more. Due to class differences, Whitiker became stressed, for it was hard to integrate with other nurses, who mainly came from the middle class. These other nurses seemed to have more confidence and comfort in being nurses than Whitiker. This stress was caused by the fact that Angela judged herself as not fitting in the middle class, even though she made enough money to be considered a member, as well as to have a better lifestyle.
Although Angela made enough money to enjoy a middle class life, she could not accumulate wealth because she still had to pay for her car and home. She also had to pay expenses for her five children, which included educational and subsistence fees. Furthermore, her relatives, friends, acquaintances and parents asked for financial help, since she earned more money. For this reason, she was unable to save money, which led her to be unable to ready for retirement. Compared to Whitiker, Vincent’s wage was relatively low. Thus, the salary was helpful to general subsistence, but it could not be the main source of wealth. In this situation, Angela tried to invest a lot of money for her children’s education, so that she could offer a better environment so that they could develop their abilities. For example, Whitiker encouraged her youngest son, Christopher, to participate in the gifted class to find and develop his potential abilities. While investing vast money for their education, Whitiker felt sorry for her two big sons, Nicholas and Willie, because they could not receive educational support from her due to her poverty and lack of attention. Due to this reason, two sons became criminals without a high school degree. Whitiker separated these two children from others because they were sources of bad influence. Whitiker was able to leave impoverished conditions and become part of the middle class by having a professional occupation. However, her present life did not become the perfect middle class life, since her two eldest sons had low levels of education and no professional jobs. Despite the fact that these children lacked education, Whitiker and her husband tried to offer the best environment for the children so that they could achieve higher education and eventually receive professional jobs.
According to Walter Allen, a UCLA sociology professor, Angela could achieve upward mobility because she has two dimensions: human capital and social capital. Human capital signifies a “person’s education, job credentials, and employability.” Social capital is “emotional support and encouragement from a reliable stakeholder in one’s life” (230). Whitiker gained human capital by becoming a nurse by enrolling in a college nursing program. She also gained good social capital by marrying Vincent, who supported her in her endeavor in becoming a nurse. These two dimensions helped her escape poverty, but still left her unable to become part of the middle class. However, Whitiker’s middle class existence was still unstable, because she could not accumulate wealth, and there was also invisible racism toward African-Americans in the U.S. Despite this situation, sociologists predict that Angela’s children will become more stable and have higher social positions in the future, since Angela had a higher level of education and stability. As seen with Whitiker’s case, if social benefits such as educational programs are offered to highly motivated poor women such as Angela, they can overcome their poverty to nurture their children to move upward and become good workers for American society.
Posted by Eunjee Cha (ioce53)
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