Sidewalk-More Writing Style & Viewpoints

Duneier makes three statements supporting my previous reframing discussion:

· “These conditions lead to a resocialization of the individual” (p. 185).

· “Every policy has its unintended consequences” (p. 18

· “not simply because the sidewalk was different but because the lens for viewing the sidewalk was different” (p. 192).

Previously I noted how the men (and Alice) actually “fit” in to a society that has been created for and by them and thus the quote above where Duneier states the lens for viewing is different. Because of his relationships with the men, just as Bourgois had relationships in In Search of Respect, so too did Duneier develop relationships with these individuals. However Duneier does tremendous work to follow every story to its origin. Still the microcosm created on the sidewalk is a miniature system. I was repeatedly amazed at the level of detail and the worries, thoughts, troubles, struggles, and joys the sidewalk men experienced, they were so very normal.

Irony

I admit as I entered the final third of the book I struggled to keep going. The density was fairly consuming and Duneier provided so much thought-provoking data that to keep going seemed overwhelming.

I found the discussion on bodily functions interesting. In one passage the author writes:

“Washington fucking Square Park and they can’t put toilet seats right here? They could fix it, but they don’t want to fix it. They want to keep our ass out of there. I can’t go I there and take a dump in there. I can hardly hold my breath to go in that motherfucker. If I had to take a dump right now, I’d go right behind that tree right there. It’s air out there. You go in there, you ain't got no privacy. That thing suppose to have a partition.” p. 185.

How very ironic that Mudrick is so upset about the ability to have privacy in the restroom yet he states if he needed to go, he’d just go behind a tree in the park. This strikes me as profoundly ironic and an excellent example of how Mudrick and his associates function in a world within the world and sometimes the world he functions in has different values, assumptions, and behaviors associated that the greater system may frown upon, yet created.