The writer
In this section, we will help you analyse “Poverty is a state of mind” by Bernard Hare by highlighting a few important points for you to consider when you describe the writer of this story. The text is autobiographical, and it is written in the first person.
The personal style linked to the autobiographic genre has a very impersonal goal in this particular essay. The author tries, through his personal story, to introduce an archetype or a typology of children growing up in poverty.
Consequently, w…
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Childhood
As a child, Hare was curious, playful and hardworking: "It was my job to shovel it through a small grate and into the coal cellar. I was the blackest five-year-old boy in our street – stood atop my coal pile, proud too to be earning my keep." (ll. 15-19); "I had an inquisitive mind as a child and once wondered what would happen if I tied …
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Escaping poverty
As a young adult, he tries to escape poverty through education and by engaging in addictive activities such as alcohol and cigarettes: "I didn’t want to be a mindless thug. Poverty wasn’t working out for me.” (ll. 154-155); "Hatfield Polytechni…
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Changes
Eventually, the political and economic situation in Britain in the 1980s makes Hare give up social work and engage in illegal activities: "Angry, bitter, disillusioned and alienated – belligerence, the most finely tuned of my social skills – I descended into a world of drink and drugs, where I wallowed for the next decade, plotting my revenge." (ll. 201-206)
His life changes again when he realises some troubled children need his help. In this part of the story, Hare describes himself as a compassionate ma…
