All Souls, No Upward Mobility: All Souls and The Death of the American Dream Anonymous College

In the book All Souls: A Family Story from Southie (MacDonald), the author introduces the reader to an intimate portrait of his mother, siblings, and his community. The reader is drawn in to the specific neighborhood of “Southie,” or South Boston, an area with intensely high poverty among Caucasians. However, Michael Macdonald, the author, focuses on his mother, “Ma,” and the struggles she has with social immobility. Unable to escape Southie, Ma endures the death of four out of her eleven children – whose very existence testifies to the draw of the streets and the way of life that is so tragically common. Ultimately, All Souls: A Family Story from Southie is a story about how, despite the pervasive myth of the American Dream, social mobility in America is virtually impossible for the poor. Further, the story complicates the view of race because it shows how prejudice in America has actually excluded the poor whites in Southie from a great deal of concern or social intervention.

The case study of “Ma” shows how poverty and fear are inextricably intertwined and how they construct identity. The book makes it extremely clear that Ma is a victim of social immobility. The second chapter begins with an episode relaying MacDonald’s...