Homeless

Reading response: Anna Quindlen's Homeless

Understanding Context:
Anna Quindlen's attitude towards the homeless seems sympathetic and understanding. She goes beyond looking at them as a group of people and a stereotype and looks into them as individuals. She realizes why it would be so hard for them to go into a shelter or a place like that and why they would opt to stay on a bench or in a box. Encompassed within our homes are symbols of security and stability. Not to mention the sense of pride and ownership you have in your home. Such feelings mean the world to so many people. The worst part to them of being homeless, isn't that they are poor, it's that they own nothing. There is nothing that belongs to them, no wall that they can randomly decide to paint another color, like the story states, they don't even have a mailbox in which they could recieve welfare checks.

Evaluating Strategy:
Ann's role in this article was that of a reality check for the author. It was after this conversation with Ann that the author realized that she hadn't been focusing on these people as individuals, but had been looking at them as the group. I don't think that this essay would have been as effective had the author not used a personal example. The reader can now see that she has been out there among them, seen their conditions and made an attempt to sympathize instead of simply reciting memorized statistics from a book.

Appreciating Language:
Home is a surprisingly powerful word. When mentioned to any individual it has almost an immediate effect on them psychologically. It is a place in which you were raised, with so many memories. It's so predictable, stable, certain. Rushes of memories come to mind of childhood and growing up. So many experiences that were vital in becoming the person that you are today. Quindlen does an effective job of bringing such emotions forward for the reader as she portrays the lack of the simple, yet oh so important aspects of your home. " No window to look out upon the world. My God. That is everything."