History Main / BarefootPoverty

* ''WesternAnimation/CinderellaJetlagProductions'': During her time as her stepfamily's slave, Cinderella's only shoes are those the Fairy Godmother turns into glass slippers and she goes barefoot between the ball and the moment the Prince brings the slipper he found. The stepfamily doesn't seem to notice or care she suddenly went barefoot.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicRiddle'': Cindy, except in her dream sequence.

* Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl is barefoot out in the freezing winter, as a result of AbusiveParents. She actually had slippers on when she left home, but they used to belong to her mother, so they were too big for her, and she lost them while running across the street.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

DoesNotLikeShoes may be a result of this if the character manages to get out of their poverty, or remain in poverty but claim to enjoy being barefoot anyway. A SisterTrope to BankruptcyBarrel, HoboGloves and PauperPatches. Compare EarthyBarefootCharacter, BarefootSage, BarefootLoon, MagicalBarefooter, and UndeadBarefooter.

* ''Manga/InuYasha'': Due to the feudal setting, many background characters are poverty-stricken villagers. The cast, however, are either shoe-wearers or DoesNotLikeShoes examples, with Rin bein introduced as this trope before being saved by Sesshoumaru, whereupon she joins the rest of the DoesNotLikeShoes cast.
* Subverted by L from ''Manga/DeathNote''. L doesn't normally wear shoes unless he's outdoors, in which case he'll wear a pair of beat-up old sneakers. (Untied, of course, to be removed at a moment's notice.) Everyone at To-Oh University thinks L is just a poor student who's there on a [[ScholarshipStudent scholarship]]...but it turns out L is neither a student nor poor. (On the contrary, he's a member of the FictionFiveHundred.) [[TheHedonist L]] just DoesNotLikeShoes.

* In ''Film/TheBarefootContessa'', part of Maria Varga's {{Backstory}} is that she grew up too poor to afford shoes. However, by the time she reaches adulthood, [[DoesNotLikeShoes she comes to enjoy going barefoot]].

* In the Israeli short story ''Images from Elementary''[[note]]"Elementary" here means "1st through 8th grades"[[/note]], which takes place in the early years of UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}, the protagonist, a [[UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} Jewish]] immigrant from UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}, protests his teacher saying (with some racist undertones) that UsefulNotes/{{Egypt}}ian farmers don't wear shoes because of this, explaining that while they are in fact poor, the real reason they don't wear shoes is that [[DoesNotLikeShoes they find shoes restricting and uncomfortable]]. He continues and argues that (predominantly [[AllJewsAreAshkenazi Ashkenazi]]) ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbutz kibbutzniks]]'' don't usually wear shoes either, and asks his teacher if it means they're poor too. The teacher, faced with the intense fervour he argued with, backs down and tells the protagonist, "You win. You win!"

* Historically, [[BarefootCaptives prisoners and slaves have often been kept barefoot]], as described on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot#Slave_codes Other Wiki.]]

* Historically, prisoners and slaves have often been kept barefoot, as described in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot#Imprisonment_and_slavery Other Wiki]]

A character appears barefoot as a sign of their poverty. Usually, the camera will linger on their feet to emphasize the lack of shoes. Bonus points if they are shown walking in the snow and shivering from the cold. A common variation includes a shot of them looking at a pair of NiceShoes with longing. Often used to make the character seem like [[TheWoobie a woobie.]]

** This becomes a plot point during the final arc: The denizens of Soul Society's worst districts are disappearing en masse, leaving only footprints, including some shoe prints. [[spoiler:It's revealed that people who live within Districts 60-80 are so poverty stricken, none have been known to wear shoes for 550 years. This clues in [[AwesomenessByAnalysis Lieutenant Kira]] to the fact that the initial conclusion that villagers killed each other is wrong, and in reality, entire villages are being slaughtered by Shinigami. Thanks to Kira's revelation, it's discovered that, because a huge number of hollows were annihilated by Quincies, [[MadScientist Mayuri's]] men comitted mass murder to avoid a pan-dimensional disaster that could destroy entire worlds: killing spirit-dwelling villagers counter-balanced the destroyed hollows in a case of BalancingDeathsBooks.]]

---> "A short girl with no shoes. Probably looks thirteen."

* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': A few cases are seen in the series through the cast's tragic backstories, the most emotionally -harged being Kanao's past as she lived in extreme misery with abhorrent parents who physically abused all of their children, many of them to death. Other than Kanao, there was Zenitsu who lived as a wandering orphan when he was little, the orphan children Gyomei raised when he was just a monk, and so on.

* Katia Managan from ''Webcomic/{{Prequel}}'' starts out barefoot and without a single Septim to her name. Most of her outfits have been supplied to her by others, not purchased herself, and they don't always include boots. Factor in how often she loses all the clothes off her back, and she ends up spending most of the comic barefoot. Like the rabbit family from ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', she combines this trope with BarefootCartoonAnimal.

* In Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', the rabbit family exemplify both this trope and the BarefootCartoonAnimal.

DoesNotLikeShoes may be a result of this if the character manages to get out of their poverty. A SisterTrope to BankruptcyBarrel, HoboGloves and PauperPatches. Compare EarthyBarefootCharacter, BarefootSage, BarefootLoon, MagicalBarefooter, and UndeadBarefooter.

** This becomes a plot point during the final arc: The denizens of Soul Society's worst districts are disappearing en masse, leaving only footprints, including some shoe prints. [[spoiler:It's revealed that people who live within Districts 60-80 are so poverty stricken, none have been known to wear shoes for 550 years. This clues in [[AwesomenessByAnalysis Lieutenant Kira]] to the fact that the conclusion villagers killed each other is wrong and that entire villages are being slaughtered by shinigami. Thanks to Kira's revelation, it's discovered that, because a huge number of hollows were annihilated by Quincies, [[MadScientist Mayuri's]] men comitted mass murder to avoid a pan-dimensional disaster that could destroy entire worlds: killing spirit-dwelling villagers counter-balanced the destroyed hollows in a case of BalancingDeathsBooks.]]

* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': A few cases are seen in the series through the cast's tragic backstories, the most emotionally charged being Kanao's past as she lived in extreme misery with abhorrent parents who physically abused all of their children, many of them to death; other than Kanao there was Zenitsu who lived as a wandering orphan when he was little, the orphan children Gyomei raised when he was just a monk, and so on.

* Esmeralda from ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' is a poor Romani girl who runs around barefoot. At the end of the film, she falls in love with the clearly wealthy-looking Captain of the Guard, Phoebus, and in the sequel she gains shoes.

* Shion Yorigami from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' spinoff ''Antinomy of Common Flowers'' is a goddess of poverty whose [[TheJinx powers of bringing misfortune to others]] extend to herself and so goes barefoot to go along with her drab clothing patched up with ''debt papers''.

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', a few cases are seen in the series through the cast's tragic backstories, the most emotionally charged being Kanao's past as she lived in extreme misery with abhorrent parents who physically abused all of their children, many of them to death; other than Kanao there was Zenitsu who lived as a wandering orphan when he was little, the orphan children Gyomei raised when he was just a monk, and so on.