The Politics of Poverty in Young Adult Literature

The three novels herein discussed deal with young people growing up in poverty. Poverty is not a subject to be taken lightly, so when an author decides to tackle it, he or she assumes an added responsibility. Writing about poverty commits the writer to a serious treatment; it is not merely enough that the book be entertaining. I am tempted to say that such a book must shed some light on the social and political forces that create poverty, but many great books have been written which avoid all references to politics, though the characters are poor people. Why then apply this criterion to the books at hand? The ready answer is that they owe it to the spirit of the time. These books would not have been published, would not have been written, were it not that the political unrest of the past decade made it popular for publishers to seek out these kinds of books. They, in fact, exploit the currency of a political and social problem, and in so doing, they incur the responsibility of dealing with it with some degree of critical insight. A Hero Ain't Nothin But A Sandwich by Alice Childress (Avon, 1973) is the only one of the three books which is totally acceptable from both an aesthetic and a political point of view. The other two, Daddy Was A Number Runner by Louise Meriwether (Pyramid Books, 1971) and Nilda by Nicholasa Mohr (Bantam, 1974), are to one degree or another disappointing.

Nilda is the story of a Puerto Rican family living in New York. It is narrated from the point of view of a young girl; Nilda is ten years old at the outset of the story which covers a four year period, from 1941 to 1945. I presume the author chose this time period because it coincided with her own childhood and early adolescence. There is no evidence in the novel that there was any other reason. The author was not striving to capture the flavor of the forties. The biggest event of the time, World War II, is incidental to the story.

Nilda's older brother Jimmy is already on his way to a life of crime at the opening of the book. He has moved away, and he keeps his whereabouts secret. The family is stuck with his pregnant girlfriend, who has been thrown out by her own mother. Jimmy becomes a drug addict, and eventually he is arrested and sent to prison. When he comes out we have every indication that he will return to his criminal activities. With the war on, Nilda's favorite brother, Paul, joins the navy, and another brother, Victor, soon follows into the army. Her fourth brother, Frankie, becomes a member of a street gang.

The rest of the family consists of the mother and her common law husband, Emilio Ramirez. He is Nilda's step-father. An elderly aunt, who spends all her time scouring the newspaper for news of crimes and atrocities, also lives with them. Emilio suffers from a heart condition, and after his first heart attack the family is forced, over his vehement objections, to go on relief. He deludes himself into believing that he will soon be able to go back to work. A year after his first attack he dies. Two years later Nilda's mother also dies, leaving Nilda an orphan in care of a kindly aunt.

The accumulation of details without dramatic purpose results in overwhelming boredom. This, I suppose, is more a failure of technique than of intention. The portrait of life in El Barrio is fair enough but the author seems to be depending on the inherent drama of poverty to carry the book. That drama never, materializes. The characters have no depth. Though none of their actions strikes a false note, the reader is hard pressed to feel for them. Rarely is the book able to arouse any sympathy, pathos, or humor.

Two incidents in the book are exceptions. One occurs when Nilda goes to camp. The other girls in her bunk persecute a girl who...