In “Another Holiday for the Prince” by Elizabeth Jolley the author draws on many themes, one in particular that Jolley illustrates is how poverty influences changes in life individual within a family. To start with the head of the family; a father is never mentioned in the story, not even once. But by not having a father figure in the story the reader can understand a lot. In society the man is the one who earns money and provides everything necessary for his family, however this story is presented in a society where the mother must be the man of the family. One's self-esteem may be reduced due to poverty and alienation; destructive effects of a weekly personality or society on the individual. The author effectively conveys this theme through the use of characterization, symbolism, and contrast. Jolley uses characterization to locate each character in a poverty-stricken family. The son is called prince by his mother several times throughout the story, even though he dropped out of high school. “Mum always called him Prince; she was always worried about him. I couldn't understand why. He was just my brother and an abandoned one at that" (117). The author describes the son as a person with low self-esteem because he is poor and abandoned and lives a miserable life. His mother tries to provide him as much, but is unable to do so due to his social status in society. “'Sleep as best you can. I wish he would eat!' She watched me while I took the bread and spread the butter in layers, she was never bad with the butter, when we had no other things we always had plenty of butter” (117). Through this passage the author convincingly demonstrates that they are poor and cannot afford an assortment of things... middle of paper... general topic of school. The sister strives to graduate and go to school even though she is poor while her brother blames the school for dropping out and not graduating. “I finished my social studies. Hot Legs has this idea of ​​a test every Wednesday” (118). This shows that she is driven to study for classes and get good grades while her brother tries to convince her that school is worthless and that there is no point in attending. “'Why don't you get out before they throw you out. This is all bullshit,” he said, dropping the books to the floor. “All you'll do is fail the exam and they don't want failures, they'll ruin their damn numbers. They'll ask you to leave, see if they don't'” (118). The brother tries to convince the sister that school is not a necessity and that living the way he lives, being abandoned in a poor family is the best thing.