Essay A & B: John Grism's "THE ST. LAWYER"

Essay by ShakeltonHigh School, 12th gradeA, April 2004

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ESSAY - A

While reading John Grisham's book, The St. Lawyer, I was reminded that homelessness is a sickness that plagues almost all of our nation. I enjoyed the fact that Grisham gave different types of evidence, in his book, to show how bad the problem is. Not only did he start off the book with Mister's first hand account of homelessness, but he later gives us facts as well. Before reading this book, I didn't have the concern that I do now, for this social problem. Not to say that I didn't care about the homeless, on the contrary I really cared about the homeless; I even have a couple homeless friends. However Grisham's book gave me a different insight on the issue and now my views have slightly changed.

I rarely jump to conclusions with homelessness. I believe that homelessness can be due to a wide variety of reasons.

People can become homeless if they lose their jobs, they get sued, evicted from their homes, addicted to drugs, or any number of other reasons. In Mister's case, he and a few others were evicted and some ended up dying on the streets. So we see that there are a wide variety of reasons that homelessness exists. Before reading Grisham's book I guess I never thought deeply about how people become homeless. Unfortunately, in addition to myself, I think most middle class Americans keep homelessness on their back-burners.

Pretty much everyone I meet agrees that it's a problem, but I personally feel that we need to do more than just be concerned. In the book Grisham points out ( using Mister) that we don't do enough, if anything, to help homeless people. Donating money to shelters and cans for a food drive is great, but I feel we...