Jonathan Kozol wrote an essay that focuses on the homeless people and
the reasons why they have mental problems. Due to their lack of money, they do
not have a proper house to live in since they do not have any source of income.
Two million people have lost their jobs since 1980 and the number of children
living in poverty has grown by 3 million. Another main reason why these
homeless people do not have the basic living conditions is because many of the
low-income housing has been demolished in order to construct big condominiums. In
addition, the median rents have climbed 30 percent, making several poor
families to live on the street. The government also started to invest less
money on constructing low-income housing therefore, the homeless people have no
other choice rather than to live on the streets. The reason why mental illness of
the poor people attracts so much attention from the public is because it is outside
of the sphere of ordinary life. It represents the anguish and the misery of the
public. The mental problems, different from other diseases, conveys a stigma in
the United State that says to isolate the people who represent a threat to
national complacence. The fact that the homeless people have psychological problems
enables the people to believe that it is alright to enjoy the privileges and
ignore the people who do not have anything. Many of the patients in the mental
hospitals are the elders from the street and after they get released from the
hospital, usually, they would start living in low-income housing or boardinghouses.
However, almost 50 percent of these houses have been replaced by luxury
apartments or office buildings. The misery of these poor people is very intense
and most of the time, some pregnant women do not even have the basic living
conditions to have a baby, therefore, their child usually die on their second
year of life. This sad reality will persist for several years and the number of
homeless people is rising significantly. If the government does not invest more
on their living conditions, one day everyone would be forced to listen to their
requests.
Jonathan Kozol used clear sentence structures and word choice in order
to inform the readers about the social problem that is affecting the homeless
people. He has several statistics and credible sources in his essay in order to
strengthen his arguments. An example would be the estimate of how many
low-income housing were demolished in the past few years. This allows the
readers to realize the seriousness of this subject and if the situation remains
the same for the next few years, there will be more people living under intolerable
conditions. He also used several examples and facts to intensify the subject
such as the example of the pregnant women who live in terrible conditions,
therefore, their children often pass away in the first two years of life.
Although the author is simply listing a series of facts in the first few paragraphs,
the readers can realize that the author actually wants to urge the people to
help the society. His introduction was also very well done because he was able
to have a clear thesis and also give the readers a brief description of the
subject. However, the author wrote too much information and statistics that can
be tiring to read. He could have taken off some of the information and added
some suggestions of how the readers can improve this social problem. Overall,
his essay was very well developed and it is suitable for any kind of readers
who is interested in the subject of social problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment