RUNNING HEADER: Homelessness

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Homelessness is More Appealing
S. Michelini
ENG 121 English Composition I
Professor Beth Riley
October 23, 2013

Many of us will never be homeless, and not everyone understands the benefit of having a wife, but after reading the essays’, Homeless (Quindlen, A. n.d.) and I Want a Wife
(Brady, J. 1971), one can gain a better understanding of both. I am a wife. Therefore, I can certainly connect with the narrator’s story of I Want a Wife. This is a narrative essay, in which the narrator reflects on why she too would like to have a wife after a visit with a recently divorced male friend, who is looking for a new wife. The narrator gives a list of duties and activities she will and will not do if …show more content…

I Want a Wife, written in 1971, was a period when the feminist movement was active. Women were looking for equality in the work place but also at home. The essay, published in the magazine Ms., makes me believe the writer’s original target audience is that of other wives, future wives, and anyone else who reads Ms.
Magazine. Her simple statements, or as I like to call it, her laundry list as to why it would be great if she had a wife, are easy to relate to as many of us perform these duties on a daily basis.

In Homeless, the setting of the story, January at the bus terminal, leaves it to the reader’s imagination of the year. The topic of the essay, homeless people, is timeless as it is has been an ongoing problem for decades. The language the narrator uses is simplistic yet descriptively concise. It still gives enough detail to help you feel connected to what the narrator is saying.
You can feel her emotions through her words. I believe her target audience is everyone. As the narrator states, “[We] walk around it when it is lying on the sidewalk or sitting in the bus terminal—the problem, that is.” She is playing upon the reader’s emotions by pointing out how many people ignore the problem even when we come face to face with it at times. I feel this essay can transcend time because of the specific descriptive words the author uses to engage the reader. In addition, until homelessness becomes obsolete, this will be an issue