Unemployed And Working Simon Wykoff Analysis

The story “Unemployed and Working” from Simon Wykoff shows his conventional thinking by writing to influence readers to reimagine the stereotype of the “lazy bum” commonly given to homeless people. The author explains how homeless people work to accomplish the most important job to humans, surviving, which can be just as difficult as a conventional job. Wykoff gives his own personal testimony about the life of his homeless father and the daily struggles and process he went through. He first explains his father’s decision of not using services for homeless people, and how he coped with that while living on the streets. He then goes through each task done by his father in a day, starting with saying how there was often a good chance that something of his was stolen while he was asleep and elaborating on how his father would buy himself food if he had made enough money, but if he had not then he would have to check dumpsters to satisfy his hunger. By saying how his father had usually tried to locate a paper to look for job opportunities and had applied for jobs often, this supports the author’s idea that not all homeless people are lazy bums. He explains the difficulty of his father having to use a bike to get around the city while being homeless (which he would also use to carry around items found by dumpster diving to sell), and how he would play music on the side of the street for income before finally having to dangerously look for a place to sleep at night.