Introduction

Name:

University:

Course:

Tutor:

Date:

Introduction

The interviews that Albert Bliss undertakes on himself seem to be interestingly creating a two character interview though it’s the same person. On one side is the imaginative character; Mister Bliss and on the other we have AL who are one and the same person but posing as different characters feigning the roles of interviewer and interviewee. Whereas Mister Bliss is the interviewer AL is the interviewee who seems to be contented with the homeless life that he is living. Mister Bliss is acting on a noble capacity whereby he seems to be surprised by the life that AL is living in. Mister Bliss is living in a life different from that of AL but he is curious to know the lifestyle of AL and how people living in that condition are. AL’s admiration of homelessness is basically fictions and such kind of life for the homeless does not exist.

Unlike other homeless people, Mister Bliss admires the life of being homeless; since his youthful life he used to admire a homeless Indian chief. Though the chief was homeless, he lived a happy life. He could be seen in the streets taking expensive drinks and food comfortably like any other person living in luxury. No despair was ever seen in his eyes. AL, then a school boy, used to admire the man’s freestyle and stress free life. To the society, life in the streets was nothing to emulate. School children were discouraged from emulating such kind of people (Bliss, 13). Children were encouraged to build a better future that could see them live in good homes. To AL, homeless was the way to go but he was wrong.

Mister Bliss put across some points enquiring the extent to which AL was attached to the homeless life. AL shows some contention over the issue claiming that he was much okay with his life because he had free food and may be somewhere to lay his head at night till dawn. He admired and enjoyed the life he led just like the way he admired the great pioneers. After all he would run away from the daily problems to make himself feel stable. Categorically he was forced to live such kind of a life just because he thought maybe all what he had in mind would just leave out of his way (Bliss, 13).

Though he admired the homeless life, AL was very vigilant over the life in the streets. He described the people living there as being there because of circumstances. Some were in the present because of frustrations and a disgusting life in the background. Others were just there because they could not add any further spice to their lives and therefore were just waiting for nothing other than to abuse any drug that they come across. However good the homeless life seemed to AL, he describes it as pathetic and meaningless. He could not hide the fear he had living the same life as the drug abusers and the people who are hopeless. It is just because he could not do anything else other than to adapt to the life as a homeless man (Bliss, 14).

The life of AL as a homeless man was not that good since he had no happiness to display on his situations. His background had been a nuisance in his thoughts; every time he gets free, he finds himself thinking over his whereabouts. To solve the problem, he results in doing some work to constantly keep his mind busy.  However he does not solve the entire problem fully. It is only when he is busy that he could remember the situation. Basically the situation he is in is different from what he is trying to explain. Though he advocates that life in the streets is good and enjoyable, he finds himself working on luggage carriage. He spends most of his time there maybe at least to earn a living and add some coins on top of what he thought to be a prestigious life.

Mister Bliss; his thoughtful mind is trying to make some evaluation of his own life as a homeless person and the things he was going through. Basically he had done a lot in trying to understand the life of Albert Bliss as a homeless person and the life he was going through. Throughout the interview, Mister Bliss plays the role of an interviewee and basically a major social problem arises from the interview. There are different categories of people faced by different the social problem; some are homeless because of disillusionment while others are there because they ran from the home background (Kozol, 264). These problems have to be identified before they are dealt with according to different needs. The drug addicts can be rehabilitated while the other are guided so as to reach out to a better solution over their lives away from home (Baumohl, et al, 1996).

Conclusion

The problem of homelessness is a big challenge facing them society. Some people become homeless because they do not have means while others join the trend because of the situation they are in. Others might join because of admiring the people in the same situation.  The solution to homelessness is just through more education on the society over the implication of being homeless (Kozol, 261).

 

 

 

Works Cited

Bliss, Albert. “Homeless man interviews himself.” Street News Summer Issue. Pgs. 13-14. Print.

Kozol, Jonathan. “Untouchables.” Pgs. 259-265. Print.

Baumohl, Jim and National Coalition for the Homeless (U.S.). Homelessness in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. Print.