English

Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits

Toshiba Watson

Tonja McCurdy-Jennings

ENG115221VA016-1132-001 English Composition

January 27, 2013

This essay tells the story of a Korean girl, Suki Kim who went from being wealthy to poor when her family went bankrupt. After her father lost everything that kept them wealthy and that mattered to them, everything started to fall apart.

The most important points in her life was when she started junior high, her father went bankrupt and lost everything that mattered to the family (pg.62). Kim and her family were then moved to Queens, New York in the 1980’s. They lived with a Korean family that ran a dry cleaner. Suki had difficulty adjusting to the American culture and had a very hard time learning to speak English. The supporting details that are in the essay (pg. 63); states that she watched “Three’s Company” in an attempt to learn English. She also said that what was more brutal than learning English was facing poverty with a rich girl’s habits and memory.

Kim’s main purpose in her writing was to explain to her audience that she had experienced a great deal of challenges adapting to different beliefs and cultures living in America, versus living in Korea. At age 13, she took public transportation to school for the first time instead of being driven by a chauffeur. She never had homework without a tutor helping her or having to do her own laundry. These statements tell me that she is now learning to be independent and excepting that she is no longer rich. She now has to do things on her own instead of having maids do everything for her and her family.

Kim’s genre was narrative. Her audience consisted of people of her race (Koreans), who had experienced some of the same challenges or other races as well. As for Kim’s tone, she had a variety of tones. Her attitude was full of sadness, frustration, and confusion. Although by the end of her writing she used a tone of achievement and acceptance.

If I was put in...