Themes and message

Poverty

In "Sweet Potato Pie" by Eugenia Collier, the author explores the theme of poverty through Buddy’s memories about his childhood, but also through Charley’s life. As the children of African-American sharecroppers (p. 5, l. 8), Buddy and his siblings are raised in poverty. Because the family struggles to get by, all children except Buddy are forced to eventually quit school (p. 6, ll. 5-6), which means they have little opportunities to lead better lives as adults. Years later, Charley, Lil, and their families still struggle financially. Lil and Charley’s situations illustrate the cycle of poverty. Although they are probably better off than their parents - for example, Charley and Bea can afford to make a plentiful dinner (p. 7, ll. 15-16) - without proper education, Charley and Lil apparently had little opportunity to improve their lives.

The story suggests that Buddy is the only one who manages to rise out of poverty by getting a higher education. However, this happens only with much sacrifice from his family (p. 6, ll. 20-21) and hard work and sacrifice from himself. For example, poverty leads Buddy to join the army so that he can get a college education thr...