Shannon Spates
First year Studies
February 27, 2013
Scratch Beginnings
The “American Dream” is only as real as one’s imagination. The Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard gives the reader an opportunity to walk in the shoes of a man working to turn “rags-to-fancier-rags”
In the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to a young man by the name of Adam Shepard. Shepard is a young man fresh out of college, with dreams and goals ahead of him, a college degree in one hand and a ravishing life in the other. Adam leaves that all behind to go undercover, and unmask the hardships of poverty. With 25 dollars in his pocket, and only the clothes on his back, he runs off to a random city to start over.
As part of his premise, Adam offers the idea that he will not be able to use his educational background to aid him in finding a job. Doing it all on his own, he is forced to work minimum wage jobs. He wants to prove that you can start from nothing and still achieve in this country. It’s a daunting task and he realizes it. He won’t use any of his existing connections, friends, or anything like that ;he’s truly trying to, as best as he can, start from the bottom up. During his quest on finding a job and making money, Adam refuses to use his college education and degree to make it to the top, instead, he leaves all of that behind him, showing everyone and his readers that regardless of who you are, where you come from and how you live, you can always make it, you can always reach your goal no matter what obstacle is ahead of you.
Adam spends 70 days in the Charleston’s homeless shelter where he meets a variety of people, including his fair share of laggards and old, bearded men with whiskey on their breath, to guys that he didn’t think even existed in shelters. Some people like to see anyone in need, or anyone that might be worse off than they are as a bum and bums can’t get what they want because they don’t try; they are people who always ask for help because they are too...