Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Ob$e$$ed With Money
Mariatu's life was quickly consumed by her and her family's desire for money. Mariatu is so obsessed with begging to the point where she would rather beg for money on the streets than spend time with her new born son, Abdul. "Begging was completely off limits for me, even though I desperately wanted to go. I tried everything to get Marie to give me permission." (pg. 99) When she is given the opportunity for a generally better life with the help of Bill's money and clothes, the family's greedy nature comes out as they immediately begin suggesting extravagant and expensive foods to buy with Mariatu's money. "They were happy for me, and also for themselves. They started to talk about all the food they would buy when this man's money started coming in." (pg. 126) In my opinion, it is disrespectful that the only thing the family cared about was the cash coming to them. Bill's generosity is being taken for granted, he considered different aspects of Mariatu's life when he decided to send clothes and money, the family is focusing on one shared aspect, food. Food is a key part of life, but it is not the only one, there are others like shelter, water, and health. I couldn't imagine an unhealthy member of my family telling me about finally getting sponsored, and me essentially cutting them off and disregarding their wants, replacing their ideas and wants with my own of what to do with the cash.
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I think that Mariatu's family were just trying to feed their family with the cash that Bill was sending to Mariatu. I don't think they were trying to be greedy.
ReplyDeleteDid you consider the fact that Mariatu never really wanted to spend time with Abdul in the first place, not just when she wanted to go beg? She would only feed him, and then hand him off to someone else to look after him. At night, she would lay there and let him cry. Also, she blames his death of the lack of love she showed him.
ReplyDeleteThe title is cool, but the content is partially **Wrong** (Trump reference). Sure, it was pretty rude for Mariatu's family to talk about how they were going to buy all of these extravagant extra foods with the money, but food is still important. It does not necessarily have to be fancy food like they wanted, but it is still ok for them to spend the money on food (after all, it IS kind of important).
ReplyDeleteI understand how you viewed this part of the story, but I think the idea is slightly misinformed. You see, Mariatu and her family are happy for Mariatu and for the opportunity she had been given, but they are also very happy that they will finally have enough money to afford a few small luxuries, such as fruit. In Canada, we never really have to worry about food, because we can afford all of the different kinds of food that we want, anything from pizza to lobster to perogies. But in places like Sierra Leone, people are forced to the point of begging for a few dollars so as they can buy enough food to keep them alive another day. The children only beg because they have to, not because they are obsessed with money. At the most, they probably only earn about $10 in a day, when Mariatu and her cousins combine all the money they had earned. And to address your mentioning of how Mariatu would rather go begging than spend time with Abdul, I think she is just insanely bored sitting around at the camp all day, every day with nothing to do but feed Abdul and wish she could do something. Keep in mind that Mariatu never really was very close to Abdul, despite being his mother. Again, I understand your premise, but you need to see the situation from Mariatu's family's point of view t truly understand why they were so grateful for the money they were receiving.
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ReplyDeleteI think that turning your title into art was pretty creative but I do not completely agree with the actual title and the idea that it portrays. I do not think that Mariatu was "consumed" by the desire for money, but more by the desire to provide for her family. I would imagine she felt pretty useless when it came to helping out with work so when the opportunity to beg came around, she took it.
ReplyDeleteI do, however, see your point when you say that "Bill's generosity is being taken for granted". Yes, food is extremely important, but to an extent. If I were in that family's shoes, I would focus on buying more of the less extravagant fruits so that I could feed more mouths for a longer period of time, rather than buying less of the more extravagant fruits that will easily put a hole in your wallet faster and even leave you with a want for more.
I do more agree with the first half of this blog over the second.