Homelessness Is More Than Missing a House Essay Example for Free

Homelessness Is More Than Missing a House Essay We always encounter these types of people: A man who is shaking a cup and trying to present a smiling face to you on the side of the street, his coins are striking against each other, and his clothes were tatty and his shoes unmatched. Or at night, a crew of people who sit or sleep in front of a store with some filthy blankets on. We don’t know what kind of causes affect their homelessness, but we could easily recognize them, probably take pity on them and maybe give them change or food. Homeless people might not expect financial assist but they need mental support because they are not just physically missing a house and they have nothing to lose after the spiritual collapse by missing heart protections. We need to emotionally help them by more psychological fixing. Barbara Lazear Ascher states that we were able to help homeless people by more attentions in her article, â€Å"On Compassion†. Ascher argues that we should pay more attention to the homeless by helping them. She says, â€Å"We cannot deny the existence of the helpless as their presence grows. It is impossible to insulate ourselves against what is at our very door step† (213). We can help them by possibly give a used blanket or some warm soup. However, economical contribution might not able to fix the issue, according to Anna Quindlen’s in her â€Å"Homeless†, â€Å"Home is where the heart is. There’s no place like it†(217). Once those homeless people lose their homes, they lose everything physically, and emotionally miss their hearts and believe, faith of lives, that’s what money or food couldn’t build. Ascher believes that the general public should treat homeless people better. She begins with stating that people shouldn’t judge the homeless by their appearances. She tells a story of a homeless man, â€Å"His buttonless shirt, with one sleeve missing, hangs outside the waist of his baggy trousers. Carefully plaited dreadlocks bespeak a better time, long ago. As he crosses Manhattan’s Seventy-ninth Street, his gait is the shuffle of the forgotten ones held in place by gravity rather than plans† (211). What a pitiful man! What a tragic abjection came down onto his life! He maybe was a successful businessman in his earlier life? By giving details of a homeless person, she sets up the fundamentals of her paper and that straightforwardly grabs attention and sympathy from the audience right into the story. Ascher also observes how did aloof neighbors ignore the homeless person away, â€Å"A man with a briefcase lifts and lowers the shinny toe of his right shoe, watching the light reflect, trying to catch and balance it, as if he could hold and make it his, to ease the heavy gray of coming January, February, and March†(212). A well-educated man would not prefer to give up a dime to the person, and how about others? The rest couple in this image, are standing far away from the man, five of them, are anxiously staring at the direction that the crosstown shuttle come from(212). They feel there was nothing to do about this situation, they were totally out of this moment. Because of human nature, they refused to lower their dignities and positions to help out the homeless man even though he didn’t ask for it. Comparing with details of the homeless person exterior by Barbara L. Ascher, Anna Quindlen begins her essay in a much different way. †She said I was wasting my time talking to her; she was just passing through, although she’d been passing through for more than two weeks. To prove to me that this was true, she rummaged through a tote bag and a manila envelope and finally unfolded a sheet of typing paper and brought out her photographs†(216). Quindlen tells the story of a strange woman whom Quindlen met. The woman was carrying a picture of her old and common house all the time at the bus terminal. Quindlen recognized the lady, â€Å"She had a house, or at least once upon a time had had one. Inside were curtains, a couch, a stove, potholders. You are where you live. She was somebody†(217). From the opening of both stories between Ascher and Quindlen, Ascher focused on expressing the pitiful image of homelessness to the public, bring sympathy and help to them. However, In Quindlen’s essay â€Å"Homeless,† she brought the arguement that society’s view of home has changed in the past few generations. What could we accomplish by changing our perspective on homelessness? In this context, Quindlen noted that a home is, simply more than an exact house-a home becomes a place where we can feel connected emotionally and physically with our families. That was also the main cause why those homeless people refused to live in shelters, mostly they preferred to live on random streets. Because the homes they used to have, were more like a symbol exists in their minds, it was more than just a house and mailing address. However it was a place where it collected emotions such as love, hate, happiness, sadness, and it was a place that offered comfort and security. They used to express themselves in home but not in the shelter. Quindlen stated that our society should have treated those people as a collection of people who are not homeless, but are just missing a home. The main purpose of Barbara Lazear Ascher’s â€Å"On Compassion† encounter in couple different acts of how do people treat homeless people. She witnesses both neglect and kindness to the homeless people by the general society. She also curiously gives how does the middle-class do not understand the poor and homeless of homeless people. However, Anna Quindlen expresses her points in a different view of homelessness. Her point shows we should be able to understand of the depth of the issues of homelessness, and the most important thing for those people is a sense of heart’s place, a home. Homeless circumstances sound far away from us because we have our body and mind protected in our home. Nevertheless, the lady from Quindlen’s story who carried the picture of her house with her all the time, owned her respect and faith of a home, and shouldn’t be treated as a homeless person. There are a lot of things we can do other than just give them food. We could smile, talk, and even contribute a hug for them. Home is not just a house or mailing address. Home is the place where a family’s body and emotions are collected. It also provides the bridge that connects families. People laugh, cry, become angry or stressed, we are dealing with every kind of emotions in our daily life and finally we find out the best place to express all of these emotions are in our home.