Homeless and on Compassion

334 Words2 Pages
“On Compassion” by Barbara Lazear Ascher and “Homeless” by Anna Quindlen are two essays written about homeless. Ascher wrote from a compassionate perspective she describes events with homeless , but focuses on the reactions of others towards the homeless. The essay written by Anna Quindlen has a different perspective in the matter of homeless. She describes a brief interaction with a woman who appears to be homeless. Despite the woman’s raincoat and bag with the grime shadowing the creases, she produces a series of pictures depicting a house, proclaiming to Quindlen that she is not homeless, at some point in this woman’s life she had a house “she was somebody.” At some point these two essays appear to talk about homeless people in general. However, when looked in a deeper level the reader will realize there is much more to these essays than interactions with a homeless man and women. Ascher writes about a man clearly homeless who has approached a women and her baby on a street corner. After the woman on the street corner holds up a dollar bill to the homeless man Ascher wonders "was it fear or compassion that motivated the gift?" She later describes another event of gift giving with a different homeless man. He enters to a French bread shop and stands in the doorway, he is dressed in worn out, stained clothing reeking of stale cigarettes and urine. Moments later the owner comes out from behind the counter and gives to the man a bag and a cup. Ascher wonders “…what compels this woman to feed this man? Pity? Care? Compassion?” As a society we would rather not be confronted by the ugly reality that some people face every day. "We do not wish to be reminded of the tentative state of our own well-being and sanity" Ascher writes. By avoiding or removing this offender we have rid ourselves of the problem. When homeless people are viewed the most common reaction to
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