Ashley

Ashley Cohen
Writing II
Professor Fulani

“Under Ground Population: The Mole People” By: Jennifer Toth

“The Mole People” is a truly sad essay discussing the tragedy that people with out homes face. Toth tries to play on the readers emotions to display the severity of the situation. I really liked that the author used several examples to help emphasize her point. By doing this she not only applied ethos, but logos as well.
The opening paragraph of the essay really set the mood for the rest of the essay. Toth starts by trying define a homeless person by listing the different names we use to call them. She even uses names outside our language, like the example she used in Japanese for homeless, “Johatsu”. By listing these names she, in a way, shows that we probably do not care for the homeless people, since we use such harsh terms on them. When she used words such as “bums, and hobos” she tries to possibly make the reader feel embarrassed. Calling someone a bum or hobo is hardly nice.
Toth uses a lot of examples to help support her point that the crisis cities have with homeless people is a real problem and no one is doing anything about it. She shows us the dilemma that cities are facing with these “mole people” when she describes two sociologist who tried to find employment for the homeless but stated, they are “too crippled by mental illness or substance addiction to benefit.” (Toth) She explains that the homeless epidemic will never be resolved, and no one is willing to help. She shows how the world instead tries to ignore them.
It is sad to think that there are thousands of people just in New York living such a life. Her quote from the New York City police officer was especially moving because she describes his expression as one of pity and disgust. It is true, it is disgusting. It is disgusting that these people have no one to turn to for help. It is disgusting the way they have to live there lives. And it is disgusting that everyone has turned there back to this issue. Toth tries to reach out to those people within her essay. She describes there life style as one from another world almost.
These people only have one another. Within there holes in the ground that they did not willingly choose to live in. Her last paragraph was the most powerful in her entire essay, because she changed her tone. Instead of just describing the situation, and giving examples, the last paragraph she puts her own opinion on this matter. She describes that they only have on another and that they care and hope for one another. So even though to us, they live a strange and foreign world, but it is one that we created, and that is a powerful statement.