Underground Communities

Underground Communities

  • Submitted By: spongebob28
  • Date Submitted: 11/10/2008 3:19 PM
  • Category: Science
  • Words: 1852
  • Page: 8
  • Views: 591

Underground Communities

The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines a community as a unified body of individuals. More specifically it is people with common interests living in a particular area. Communities consist of people from all walks of life and live in all corners of the world. Most people think of communities as people living within cities or towns. In fact, if you look deeper into these cities or towns you will find communities in the most unlikely of places. One particular place is in the tunnels beneath the city of New York City. There are many communities in these tunnels that are similar to the communities that are aboveground. They have families within them, authority figures, laws, regulations, etc. These communities consist of people that were given the name of “mole people.”
The people that typically live in these communities are homeless people. Even though they are not really homeless because they call the tunnels their home, society designates these people homeless because they do not live in what is considered a normal living space. Since they go against society’s norms, the homeless have been called many names and described in many ways. These have ranged all the way from unseen or forgotten man to bums or beggars (Toth, 35). In fact, the people in the tunnels are nothing like how they are stereotypically described. Most form tight bonds with one another and take care of one another. The tunnel dwellers are not usually starving or begging on the streets as most people typically describe them to be. Most of them choose to live their life underground in the tunnels, which is considered different from the majority of the rest of society.
New York City’s underground homeless choose to go underground for many reasons. They do not go underground just because they have no money or there is a housing shortage. Some go descend underground for safety, like getting away from abusive partners or parents. Some go to hide or escape the law...

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