Through a Hobo's Eyes

Wezly Barnard

Through a Hobo’s Eyes

Sometimes people find themselves in difficult places in life and feel there is nothing they can do about it. Others believe that their life is just a struggle and feel that they have been hard done by because they don’t have the “good things” in life. What they don’t understand is that they take some things for granted, small things like having food on the table every night, a bath with warm water, and a comfortable bed to sleep in. Vonnegut illustrates a situation in his book Slaughter house 5, how this situation is very different through the eyes of a hobo. Billy Pilgrim finds himself in a situation where nobody wants him around because everybody has a story about him. “Everybody told Billy to get the hell away.” Billy had done something to everybody in their sleep. It was arranged that Billy was put into another car on the train and found himself having “to sleep standing up, or not sleep at all.” In this car Billy met the hobo “and food stopped coming through the ventilator, and the days and nights were colder all the time.” People being in this situation gives people an idea of the life of a hobo. Hoboes go through life not knowing when they will have their next meal, or where they might rest their head for a night’s sleep. The hobo in Vonnegut’s book quotes, “This ain’t bad. I can be comfortable anywhere” helps people understand how hoboes have to adapt to life. Billy being in the car without food and feeling cold was something the hobo does not even think about anymore. The hobo makes the claim to help people understand that he has been through much worse situations. “You think this is bad? This ain’t bad” is repeated as the hobos last words which emphasizes how much the hobo believes that what Billy was going through was not as bad as the life of the hobo and the experiences the hobo has been through.
People, who think that their lives are difficult or they are going through hard times, should take a moment to think about those who don’t have the things in life that they might take for granted. Imagine going through a day or even a week without food and a home to go to. A person might think differently about how hard their life might be.