Homelessness in Literature
Homelessness in literature serves as a poignant exploration of identity and societal norms, often depicting individuals who live on the fringes of society. Authors utilize the experiences of homeless characters to challenge preconceived notions and highlight the struggles associated with a lack of permanent residence and the loss of familial and professional networks. Notable works, such as George Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London," present firsthand accounts that aim to humanize the homeless, arguing for their recognition as fellow human beings deserving of dignity. In contrast, John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" romanticizes the lives of homeless characters through humor and camaraderie, portraying them as philosophical figures unencumbered by societal competition. Laurie King's "To Play the Fool" further elevates the homeless experience by featuring a former scholar who embraces a life of vagrancy, suggesting that such a sacrifice can reveal deeper truths about society. Literature often reflects on the human condition through the lens of homelessness, allowing authors to critique customs and conventions while fostering empathy for those who live outside societal norms. Through diverse narratives, literature invites readers to reconsider their perceptions of homelessness and the complex realities faced by those who experience it.
Homelessness in Literature
The Issue
Homeless people are without many of the possessions that give identity. Without permanent residence, they have no fixed regional identity; they are everywhere and anywhere. Most have also left their families and professions; they are therefore without those networks by which the majority of people define themselves. Homeless people leave the world of public identity to enter what amounts to another world. Authors who portray the homeless in their works set about to depict and to understand this world apart from houses, jobs, and material possessions.
First-person Realism
One of the first writers to explore the world of the homeless was George Orwell, whose Down and Out in Paris and London appeared in 1933. In this book, Orwell describes his own experiences living as a homeless man. Orwell wants people to drop their prejudices and accept the homeless as fellow humans. He claims that begging is a job like any other—a difficult and very low-paying job, but a job. Orwell addresses the accusation that the homeless are drifters, always on the move, and answers that there are laws that prohibit vagrants from staying in any one shelter longer than a few days. Such vagrancy laws are still common.
With much wit, Orwell shows that the charities that help the homeless do so by demanding that vagrants pay for their supper by listening to a sermon. He asks why, when people drop below a certain level of income, others believe they have the right to preach to them. In one absurd sequence, he shows vagrants who have marched for miles to get a charity meal. They are forced to spend a half hour on their knees in prayer to pay for that meal. Orwell’s account is written in the first person. It is highly realistic; he tries to overwhelm the reader with the gritty details of homeless life.
Comic Romanticism
In John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row (1945), a small group of homeless men are central characters. Mack and the boys live in Monterey, where the book is set, in an abandoned warehouse, which they have converted into a flophouse and which they call the Palace. Mack and the boys provide comic relief throughout the book with their bumbling misadventures. Their best plans go awry: They decide to give a party for a man who has befriended them. It is to be a surprise party, so they give it in the man’s own home when he is away, expected back any moment. By the time he returns home, his house is a shambles. His favorite possessions are broken. The wonderful party backfires completely. Mack and the boys, however, recover from this as from every disaster to try again.
Steinbeck romanticizes this group of tramps. They are brave and lovable figures, akin to Charlie Chaplin. Because they are without ambition, he sees them as healthier than “normal” competitive people. They are true philosophers.
Homeless as Heroic
Laurie King, in her novel To Play the Fool (1995), makes a homeless man her central hero. She creates a character who was once a famous scholar and who gave up his former life to become a vagrant. Her main character speaks only in quotations from the Bible, even when ordering food at a restaurant. Her novel is set in Berkeley and San Francisco, and the students at the University of California, Berkeley, have turned the man into a popular prophet.
King’s book is fascinating in that she brings in much material pertaining to the literary tradition of the fool. This figure dresses in motley and, through mime and other modes, acts the fool in order to expose foolishness in society. King’s implication is that her central character has given up the comfortable trappings of being socially acceptable. He has made a sacrifice of his former life. He has done so in order to reach more people on a common level and is, therefore, heroic.
It is a tradition in fiction to satirize and to question the customs and conventions of society. Homeless people are living outside of those customs that make up “normal life” for the majority. Therefore, they make good material for authors who wish to reflect upon the human condition from a perspective that is outside of the norm.
Homelessness at a Young Age
In the twenty-first century, authors have increasingly used young-adult and middle-grade literature to explore homelessness and its effects on younger people. The 2015 middle-grade novel Paper Things, by Jennifer Richard Jacobson, follows the protagonist, eleven-year-old Ari, as she struggles to balance attending school and being a child with not having the structure of a permanent home as she bounces around between friends' houses and homeless shelters with her older brother. In Sarah Carroll's 2017 young-adult novel The Girl in Between, an unnamed young girl spends time on the streets and in an abandoned mill with her mother, who battles depression and substance abuse.
Bibliography
Blau, Joel. The Visible Poor. Oxford UP, 1992.
Brandenburg, Franz, and Michael Rosen, editors. Home. HarperCollins, 1992.
Review of The Girl in Between, by Sarah Carroll. Kirkus Reviews, 29 Mar. 2017, www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sarah-carroll/the-girl-in-between/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2019.
Nelson, Theresa. The Beggars’ Ride. Orchard Books, 1992.
Neufeld, John. Almost a Hero. Macmillan, 1995.
Review of Paper Things, by Jennifer Richard Jacobson. Kirkus Reviews, 11 Nov. 2014, www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jennifer-richard-jacobson/paper-things/. Accessed 26 Aug. 2019.
Spohn, Kate. Broken Umbrellas. Viking, 1994.
Torrey, E. Fuller. Nowhere to Go. Harper & Row, 1988.