"It's a man's world, Astrid." she said.

In my book, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, Astrid is a 13 year old girl with a mom in jail. She lived in a foster home with her foster mom, Starr, her foster dad/uncle, Ray, her foster sister, Carolee, her foster brother, Davey, and her other foster brother, Owen. While Astrid still lived in this house, she started to get close to her foster dad/uncle, Ray. Starr, her foster mom, told Astrid to call Ray her uncle because they are not married, but they are dating. Meanwhile, Astrid was starting to mess around with Ray. Once Starr found out that both of them had sex, she shot Astrid in her shoulder and hip and kicked Ray out of her house. Astrid was then moved to a different foster home.

Once she moved into this new foster home, she was getting more letters from her mom then she used to be getting. Astrid met her new neighbor, Olivia, and started telling her about her life story.

"It's a man's world, Astrid," she said. "You ever hear that?"

This little quote made me think. What does this mean? At first, I thought that it was basically saying that mean rule the world, they will always be in charge. Then I started to think a little more. I started to think about the song "It's A Man's World" by James Brown.

This is a man's world, this is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl
You see, man made the cars to take us over the road
Man made the trains to carry heavy loads
Man made electric light to take us out of the dark
Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark

This is a man's, a man's, a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

Man thinks about a little baby girls and a baby boys
Man makes then happy 'cause man makes them toys
And after man has made everything, everything he can
You know that man makes money to buy from other man

This is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl

He's lost in the wilderness
He's lost in bitterness

What this song is basically saying that men have done a lot of work, and they still do, but without a woman they would be nothing. I read on from this quote, I found out that Olivia means exactly what this song is trying to say. Olivia then says,

"Who has all the money? Who has all the power?"

 The song explains exactly what Olivia is trying to say. Men would be nothing without a girl.