Issue of homelessness – vulnerability, injustice, prejudiced attitudes, treatment, their plight
Swindells is suggesting that we shouldn’t judge people who are homeless and he is trying to make us understand the difficulties they face and sympathise with them.
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE:
Dual narratives of Link and Shelter juxtaposed = put side by side/run in parallel
Creates a contrast between the two voices – Link’s journey and difficulties he has to face (sympathise with him) – Shelter’s cold, cruel narrative runs in parallel creating a sense of the ominous threat overshadowing Link’s story. He preys upon the homeless as they are vulnerable/an easy target – his attitudes are an extreme example of the wider people’s attitudes to the homeless.
Narratives cross over – details in narratives shadow each other/create links between them. Link’s difficulties getting jobs/treatment by public:Shelter’s attitude that homeless people are ‘dossers’, lazy, don’t want jobs. People going missing in Link’s narrative:Shelter’s murders.
Through this, Swindells highlights to the reader the unfair and prejudiced/ill-informed attitudes people have (don’t match the reality) and also how vulnerable the homeless really are (they can go missing and no one cares, not even the police) – this creates sympathy for the homeless and makes us reconsider our own attitudes.
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