Why didnt Joe and Ratso just go to a Homeless Shelter or a Soup Kitchen?
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InherentlyYours — 11 years ago(December 31, 2014 07:08 PM)
first,may I ask how long i took you to type your post? If only I could type a fraction of that in less than 10 mins.
It's it's very common for homeless people to not take advantage of shelters. I have talked to homeless people here in N. Hollywood, and they refuseyet not necessarily because some may have mental illness. They would rather sleep on flattened cardboard in 40 degree weather. However, I figure they get their clothes/blankets from somewhere, so they may occasionally visit some type of charitable place to obtain things. Their whole day is walking up and down the same street, and sitting on a bench (they are not "mobile" like Ratso and Joe were)
They could even be eligible for SSI disability, but it takes a certain mentality to withdraw from the world by not pursuing benefits they could be receiving. It fascinates me as to what makes them tick..where they came from, what happened on the road to life, where their children are..etc. -
Tidewatcher — 11 years ago(January 01, 2015 10:28 AM)
The post took me about 8 minutes maybe less, i usually write whatever comes to mind fairly quickly and adjust the spelling errors later, my mother God Bless her soul can write pages of things in a few minutes, she retired as a Court Reporter in 1970 to become a stay at home mom and raise five children and always said i inherited my love of typing and ranting from her, i just like to write a lot all the time.
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debmet59-1 — 10 years ago(April 05, 2015 08:01 PM)
You are a kindred spirit. I am usually quiet, but when I'm at my computer I can't quit typing and I love to write. Like your mom I was a court reporter and while I was going to school I did data entry. They used to bring school kids in to show them the business, but the kids would get so fascinated with how fast I was typing that they wouldn't pay attention to anything else.
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RuthlessGoat — 11 years ago(January 01, 2015 03:11 PM)
You have to consider the mindset of the characters. Both Joe and Ratso denied reality a lot and were caught up in their own reveries. In spite of Ratso's street smarts, he stubbornly refused any suggestion of medical care and foolishly believed that going to Florida would solve his health problems. Joe Buck was just as stubborn, still thinking that he would strike it rich as a gigolo. They had pride, and would rather steal and suffer than accept help.
Read my review, I go into more detail.
http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/22307/midnight-cowboy/ -
spookyrat1 — 11 years ago(March 09, 2015 03:36 AM)
That has always bothered me when watching this movie
I've thought much the same thing even though I love the film. It's possible I guess as other posters have mentioned that it came down to pride. But I would have thought the street smart Ratso, could and would have had a reliable soup kitchen to fall back on, during hard times. -
jrl0726 — 11 years ago(March 12, 2015 09:01 AM)
That was the crux of the story line. If they were the kind of people who just went to shelters there would be no film. They were misfits as were most of the speaking characters in the film. Add that to these people living in the country's largest city (which was actually a co-star) and you begin to produce the character study plot.
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ememjee — 11 years ago(March 13, 2015 11:43 AM)
Things have changed a lot since 1969. There are a lot more social services available today. Back in '69, there may have been only one or two "homeless shelters" (They were called "MIssions" back then) to service all five boroughs of NY. Also there is a shrinking segment of society that, although penniless, are extremely independent for a variety reasons. There are some who are afraid if they ask for help, that will lead to an encounter with law enforcement. Rizzo is an excellent example ("No doctors, no police").
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ememjee — 11 years ago(March 13, 2015 11:44 AM)
Things have changed a lot since 1969. There are a lot more social services available today. Back in '69, there may have been only one or two "homeless shelters" (They were called "MIssions" back then) to service all five boroughs of NY. Also there is a shrinking segment of society that, although penniless, are extremely independent for a variety reasons. There are some who are afraid if they ask for help, that help will lead to an encounter with law enforcement. Rizzo is an excellent example ("No doctors, no police").
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shipperly-groom — 11 years ago(March 16, 2015 07:50 PM)
MC is partly a critique of the
American Dream
(just one of the ways it parallels Steinbeck's
Of Mice and Men
), and the way many individuals regard achieving some version of it as the only foundation for self respect. Even when they are patently delusional to think they stand a chance of being materially successful, or of 'making it', living in hope of that goal is what at root sustains them.
To Ratso, the dream took the form of Miami, of multitudes of rich widows just asking to be fleeced. For Joe his vision of being a modern frontiers man/ pioneer (like John Wayne's cowboys), became making easy money for sex. His steady dead end job wasn't ever going to give him material wealth, so in pursuit of the dream, he would trade on his assets, like any good entrepreneur. Before he gets there, NY is his land of opportunity, his Miami.
Though both were struggling desperately to survive in NY, in their minds they were on the verge of turning things around. In the narratives they had woven for their lives, they justified their situation as the rags phase of a rags to riches story. Stealing, conning people, selling sex, going hungry, sleeping rough - none of them particularly pleasant ways of getting by, but they allowed J & R
agency
. Asking for hand outs would be passive, admitting defeat, which would mean they were losers - and they didn't see themselves that way. They preferred delusional dreams to keep them going, rather than taking on the identity of bum, which would be the price of begging, soup kitchens, or hostel beds for the night. -
pturman-929-979676 — 10 years ago(April 15, 2015 07:47 PM)
Good reply, shipperly-groom. It's the same reason Joe didn't take a job washing dishes (which if you remember, he was tempted to do). And which obviously would have resulted in less physical hardship but would have voided his whole reason for coming to New York in the first place
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Edward_de_Vere — 10 years ago(April 07, 2015 09:45 AM)
Both Ratso and Joe were deluded in thinking that they could make it big (or at least get by) as a con artist and a hustler. In Ratso's case, there was also a lot of false bravado and pride in thinking that he could make it on his own as something other than a shoe-shine boy (his father's trade).
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agera — 10 years ago(April 10, 2015 05:19 PM)
I'm going to make a wild guess here that the OP has never been homeless. Lots of homeless people don't just drop out of the workaday grind, they pretty much drop out altogether. Shelters, soup kitchens, etc. represent a kind of structure and authority they really don't cotton to. Same with panhandling. They can live their lives in public yet be invisible. They like it like that.
I know I did.
"I have had singing." -
Matthew7819 — 10 years ago(July 03, 2015 11:24 PM)
Thats because most homeless people are either mentally ill, drug addicts or drunks, generally the few that i have encountered fall mainly into these three groups, there are some that were just poor to start off with that managed their money badly, ended up behind in payments and ended up on the streets broke but most of these have family and friends to turn to, too many of the homeless are mentally ill and fall into it because of that, crazy people are not rational, and the drug addicts and drunks usually fall into it because they blow all of their money away on drugs or booze and cannot maintain a residence or normal lifestyle when it catches up to them.
Most Homeless Shelters and Soup Kitchens exist to help and serve the homeless and poor and needy, they give them a place to stay and get free food, a place to go when nobody cares much, instead of just begging on the street for money and food, its smart to seek them out and play by the rules just a little bit, only the idiots or criminal elements of it would reject the help and chance to have food, or the programs that help them get back on their feet again, not trying to be judgemental just sharing my view of it.