Being poor, living in poverty, seemed a lot like probation—the crime being a lack of means to survive.
-- Stephanie Land (chapter 1)

Importance: This quote shows show Stephanie feels that poverty is viewed and understood by society at large. Equating poverty with a crime highlights the breadth of the divide between economic groups as well as the degree to which poverty is looked down upon. This quote also hints at a cultural value system in which self-sufficiency and survival are of top importance, to such an extent that not being able to live up to those values feels like a criminal infraction. The association between crime and poverty is not born only from the author's emotional state at the time, but rather from how she is treated as a person on welfare. Living in government housing, she is subject to rules and restrictions such as curfews. This shows that the poor treatment of people...