“Helping and Hating the Homeless” by Peter Marin

Discussion Questions:
What is Marin’s concern about the general perception of the term “homeless”?
1. Marin’s concern about the general perception of the term “homeless” is that this term is hard to define; there are so many ways in which a person can be define it, he mentions that is ironic because people who are homeless are in this conditions because many of us instead of helping others, we make their conditions worst for them, so many people fall into this category of “homeless” as he mentions even veterans from the war.
2. What does the author imply in the line: “Homeless is the sum total of our dreams, policies, intentions, errors, omissions, cruelties, kindnesses all of it recorded in flesh, in the life of the street”?
What the author implies in the quote “Homelessness is the sum total of our dreams, policies, intentions, errors, omissions, cruelties, kindnesses, all of it recorded, in flesh, in the life of the street” is that most of everybody’s dream is to be happy, economically stable, they dream of having a life free of cruelty, in order for everyone to accomplish their dreams is to have a home to live in and being able to support their family.
3. What is Marin’s central point in discussing the two types of homeless people?

Marin’s central point in discussing the two types of homeless people is that one of them are forced to live under these conditions, they want to escape it, but can’t because of the lack of money or any other necessity. The other groups are people who have a choice but they decide to live as homeless, they have the opportunity to not live under these conditions but they choose to.
4. What was the Victorian manner of dealing with the homeless? Does Marin feel that modern society has advanced in its views?
The Victorian manner of dealing with the homeless is by controlling them and trying to eliminate them by helping them. Marin does feel that modern society has advanced in its views since he claimed that “we begin to see the entangling of self protection with social obligation, the strategy of masking self interest and the urge to control as moral duty”

5. Do you think society’s contending dramas of “magnanimity” and “hatred of deviance” will ever be resolved? If so how?
In my opinion society’s contending dramas of “magnanimity” and “hatred of deviance” will not be resolved, since everybody have different ways of thinking, many people believe in helping the homeless others don’t as time goes by most likely their would be more homeless and people will have different points of views.