Injustice in the Homeless
Social injustice is a hard issue to confront. It forces a person to decide what is right and what is wrong. There are many predetermined thoughts about homelessness. Individuals make judgments based on the influence of their parents, society, and the environment. In the essays “Homeless” by Anna Quindlen and “On Compassion” by Barbara Aschler, readers are forced to make tough and moral decisions about the social injustices and misconceptions concerning the homeless.
There have been many definitions of homelessness. A homeless person is usually defined as a person who has no home at all. Some people believe homes are physical structures and others believe it is a place wherever you lay your head. Quindlen interviewed Ann, a homeless woman who showed her a picture of a house to prove that she was just passing through. Although Ann may no longer physically possesses a house, a home is always somewhere inside her heart because she carried a picture of a house with her everywhere she went. Quindlen states that the homeless aren’t necessarily homeless just because “They are people who have no homes. No drawer that holds the spoons. No window to look out upon the world” (Quindlen 200), a home can be anywhere where the person feels secure and can be themselves such as a park bench or subway station.
Quindlen’s also focuses on the details of homelessness. An example of this is when she states, “We turn an adjective into a noun: the poor, not poor people; the homeless, not Ann or the man who lives in the box on the woman who sleeps on the subway grate” (Quindlen 200). The injustice here is that society is becoming more unsympathetic about the issues. Homelessness is viewed as a problem, but without faces and names put to it. The issue has lost an emotional connection with society. Society has an obligation to not lose focus and become distant to the fact that people are living on the streets, not the poor. Their obligations are to...