Class and Poverty

Through its multigenerational portrait of a family trapped in poverty, The End of Eddy explores the self-perpetuating cycle of poverty and the difficulties of ever escaping it. It is obvious that the Bellegueule family is materially impoverished. This is clear in the descriptions of the house and the village where Eddy lives. For instance, Eddy sleeps in the same bedroom as his sister and brother with “cement floor and walls covered with big black circular stains from the damp that permeated the house” (62). Eddy mentions that his mother also uses the children’s drawings from school to cover up the holes that Eddy’s father punches in the wall because they cannot afford repairs (30). It is mentioned several times that Eddy’s family occasionally goes to the food bank to get food and buys on credit from the store. The family cannot also not...