Bryce Gray
English 1103
Summary & Strong Response

On The Meaning Of Plumbing and Poverty Summary In her essay “On The Meaning Of Plumbing and Poverty,” Journalist Melanie Scheller examines the cultural identity of the rural poor. The author brings the readers attention to her call to action about poverty in America while using facts and personal background. While caring for a woman in a psychiatric ward, Scheller witnesses the woman’s obsession for flushing the toilets in her unit. This memory creates an opportunity for her to write an essay about growing up in rural North Carolina. In the 1960’s the author was growing up with her mother and five other siblings, moving from place to place in search of a home where the rent was affordable. Scheller mentions how she lived in a house with five rooms, with one room in particular for her and her siblings to gather in to complete homework or watch television. Furthermore, Scheller describes how “in the South” of her childhood, if a family did not have indoor plumbing they were labeled as white trash and strongly stereotyped at school. They often had comments thrown at them such as “White-trash children had cooties- everybody knew that”(321). When Scheller is granted a college scholarship, she describes the feelings of happiness and delight she encounters when given the opportunity to use as many clean toilets and take as many hot showers as she wishes. Having this newfound privilege is a blessing but she is ashamed to show her true feelings because she doesnt want to be “immediately labeled as a hick”(322). This creates problems throughout her college career as she feels she is “in a vacuum of isolation”(322). When the author reflects back on her childhood memories, she mentions how she feels “blessed” that the embarrassment of her family’s poverty had began to dissipate. She now explains how she enjoys