“A weakness, beginning inwardly , extending to the limbs seized me, and I fell: I lay on the ground some minutes, pressing my face to the wet turf. I had some fear-or hope-that here I should die: but I was soon up; crawling forwards on my hands and knees, and then again raised to my feet-as eager and as determined as ever to reach the road.” (327)
In my opinion homeless people must struggle with this all the time. They must constantly fight with themselves; one half urges to shrivel up and die, and the other to get back up and fight for life. Like my classmate Ana said "Jane has now degraded herself ;she use to have a job and earn money now she has hit rock bottom. She has sunk into some kind of depression." Jane has hit rock bottom. But she still struggles to climb out and get back to the top. How strong their will must be to get up everyday and beg for anything knowing that they will most likely get nothing. The shame they must experience everyday when they beg; it must be unbearable. Willing to do any work that comes their way, but no work comes their way because of their appearance. They can't even hope to improve their appearance because they lack the proper resources to do it. They do anything they can to try and make a living, but poverty is a nearly unbreakable bond. People judge you from what they see, and if you come from poverty thats what they see. They don't see your willingness to do anything to leave it or or drive or determination. Here is a link to one of Pablo Picasso's paintings. It shows a poor man doing the only thing he can to make a living; he is playing a guitar. He finds enough strength to get up and try to live. Despite how shriveled and starved he is, despite how the weather has beaten and tortured him. Regardless of how hopeless his situation is, he somehow finds the strength to get back up and fight for every last breath, every last bite of food and drink of water. That is true strength, and Jane shows her true strength in the quote above. Despite how much easier it would be for her to just give up and die, she fights on. But just like so many homeless people today Jane can't hope her situation will get better, because she knows that it most likely won't. Yet, even though she knows this she continues her efforts, never giving up.
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ReplyDeletePoor people aren't not the only people that go through depression. You are writing as if poor people have the only problems. There is a lot of homeless, poor people who would prefer to lie on the ground lazily than to be working a small job that pays little. To give a real life example of this would be to look at a hard working person working at a job he doesn't like. He goes through depression if he is like this and I would consider it as the same depression as a poor man would go through.
ReplyDeleteYou have a strong view on the homeless people. You say that other people who have a job or is a little better of won't give the homeless a job, but I think I'm going to disagree with you. I have seen people out on the street that are young and could probably get a job somewhere, but they are so caught up in their miserable life that they have lost hope in ever raising up in society. Do you think that if it wasn't for Mr. St. John, Jane would have sunk and never gone up again? Do you see Jane as one of the homeless that are hopelessly lost or the type of homeless that try to strive but are just turned down?
ReplyDeleteI agree, poverty is a class of society that you can't get out of. But remember that in this world there are 2 types of people that end up being poor or homeless. The ones that were born poor, and the ones that are born with all the advantages in the world but they end up being a homeless person. You have to be able to distinguish them because they have a major difference. The poor people don't really have a choice. As much as they want to leave that poverty society they won't be able to. The vagabonds in the other hand weren't born with so many disadvantages. Especially in our nation, there's no reason for a person to be homeless because it was their fault they didn't want to do something with their life.
ReplyDeleteYea, I totally agree with you that it is hard being a homeless vagabond. And I like how make it clear that although they are dealt a bad hand they should still keep on playing.
ReplyDeleteCheck your second link. It doesn't seem to be working.
ReplyDeleteInteresting discussion on the homeless. What can you learn about the homeless and about how to handle this kind of situation from Jane? Are there really only two types, as Alan says?