The story of Liz Murray is a compelling one. It caused me to reflect on the misfortune of the disenfranchised in our country. To grow up with parents who are drug addicted and embedded in the cycle of homelessness and addiction is a very tragic thing.
Liz Murray (Liz) scrounged for food out of trash cans as a child and teenager. She slept in the New York City subways, stairwells, or the public parks. She watched her parents succumb to drug addiction, schizophrenia, and AIDS. Was Liz caught up in a “system” that only benefited the rich, privileged, and elite? As Liz looked to her future, all she could see for some time was becoming just like her parents, caught in a system that ignored their plight and an end that led to nowhere. The “system”, as it were, was for the privileged, those who had nice things and came from good families and neighborhoods.
Liz Murray (Liz) scrounged for food out of trash cans as a child and teenager. She slept in the New York City subways, stairwells, or the public parks. She watched her parents succumb to drug addiction, schizophrenia, and AIDS. Was Liz caught up in a “system” that only benefited the rich, privileged, and elite? As Liz looked to her future, all she could see for some time was becoming just like her parents, caught in a system that ignored their plight and an end that led to nowhere. The “system”, as it were, was for the privileged, those who had nice things and came from good families and neighborhoods.
After the death of her mother from AIDS when she was just a teenager, Liz Murray knew that the only thing that was going to change her course in life was for her to challenge the status quo and break the inherited cycle that she was born into. Liz saw in her parents decent and loving qualities, beyond the shadow of the drug addiction and mental illness. She began to see that they were doing the best they could with their circumstances and the inherited cycle they were caught up in. She desperately needed to see herself as the child of God she was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM59m9fRizk
Liz Murray had a change of mindset after her mother passed. Fast-forward to graduating high school. Liz knew that if she didn’t work hard and see in herself the ability to overcome and achieve, she was destined to become another statistic and throwaway of society.
In the textual account of Liz Murray’s life, we encounter a subverted oppositional reading in that Liz rejects the hegemonic messaging that Harvard is retained only for the wealthy or economically privileged. She perseveres and through hard work and determination, she breaks the barrier and the notion that only those materially privileged or elite can attend Harvard.
From a neo-Marxism analysis, Liz Murray challenged the status quo and rejected hegemonic inferences that overshadowed her existence. In the movie Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story, it is evident that Liz rejected hegemony outright. Was Harvard only for those who drove fancy cars and came from families who had fancy houses and a respectable address? Historically, generally only the privileged and rich who were academically gifted attended such esteemed educational institutions as Harvard. What about the homeless, poor, marginalized young people who were gifted and motivated? Sellnow (Sellnow & Sellnow, 2001) causes us to look at how the “dominant worldview is at best limited and at worst wrong. Because such texts challenge hegemony squarely, however, they often fail to gain broad appeal by general audiences”.
No comments:
Post a Comment