Webb, Chapter 2 - Teaching about Homelessness

Although this chapter on homelessness is not, strictly speaking, Marxist theory, I still like the pairing with Appleman's chapter on the subject. Ultimately, both chapters are concerned with discussions of class. The difference in the approaches is striking, however. Where Appleman presents the theory and shows a classroom example of how it was implemented, Webb builds his chapter around a class he taught. This is a far better example of how theory can be brought to life and made relevant to students.

Too often, academic discussions of literature, even those that use some form of a cultural studies approach, are too removed from the world of the living to be relevant to students. Using homelessness as the theme of the class (as opposed to Marxist theory, for instance) grounds the literature Webb's class was studying in the real world. The students saw homelessness every day; they came to class with preconceived ideas about its causes. Although they may not have formally theorized about it, these students had fit the reality of homelessness into their grand vision of the world.

It is not our jobs as teachers to change our students' minds. We should, however, give them the tools and experiences necessary to view the world in a different way. Ultimately, they walk out of the classroom with the same life philosophies they walked in with, but if those philosophies are now grounded in critical thought, then they are better citizens. I like that literature can aid in that process. Yes, discussions on homelessness allowed students to read books like Oliver Twist in a different light, but I think it's more important that books like Oliver Twist allowed students to read their world in a different light.

One of the concepts that really struck me was the idea of “social fictions” (17). I think I may be reading more into this phrase than Webb intended, but I am immediately beset with the need to look at our world through suspicious eyes. How much of what I am being told by the media, our government, religious doctrines, and social conventions are outright lies? Too much of my young life was spent blindly accepting everything I heard and read as gospel truth. I was comfortable with this condition. It is far more uncomfortable to begin to question every “truth” I was brought up with. And yet, isn't it also freeing?

The social fiction of homelessness is that it is “their” fault, that homelessness is caused by laziness, lack of education, drug use, mental instability (14). This is a far more comfortable view than seeing homelessness as a side-effect of the well-being of others, especially when we are part of that group. We applaud the government of Detroit when it “revitalizes” section of the city by razing old tenements and building new gated communities. We turn away when we see the tenements' ex-tenants slumped against a building. In fact, when Detroit hosts an event like Super Bowl XL, we don't have to see the homeless at all, because they have all been shunted out of the public eye. Teaching literature courses using homelessness as a theme allows students to see the reality of the situation, and perhaps even do something about it.