Dear Mr Pilger,
I have found your extract ‘The Man With No Name’ and I thought it was really interesting. The extract has given me a different view on homeless people and how they go about their daily lives.
In the extract you mention something your daughter said “It’s the man’ said my daughter, with no name” this made me feel much empathy for this man as you havnt even been bothered to learn his name. “he comes to my door every week” This masde me feel even more said towards this man as he has visited you once a week and yet you don’t know his name, its as if you think he is beneath you.
“Understandably women hurry away from him; others look through him” this quote makes me think that people are scared of the homeless and want to get away from him, but why should you be afraid, if anything they should be scared of you. Someone that is capable of helping someone in need out, but won’t. It also makes me think that people feel quilty for not helping the man out, and just want to hurry away.
Your extract made me realize just how bad our situation is with homeless people and how it is estimated to be 35,000 children that are homeless in London alone. This shows that we need to change how we act towards homeless people and how we need to do more to help these people.
The homeless are also seen as an easy target “On the commomn and in the streets, he is prey to thugs and the police” this shows how everyone in the community looks down on them and sweeps them aside. The less attractive side of the community, namley the thugs, look down on them. But so do those who are meant to protect us. The police.
Feckless, is what I would call our attitude towards most homeless people. This is only because you think they’ve been stupid in their earlier life and wasted
