Through Link readers should realise that the homeless suffer from great grief and depression. Through out the book of stone cold, Robert swindells has made the reader feel sympathetic towards how you should not take things for granted in life as he uses quotes expressing how it’s like to live. You feel ‘stone cold’
The title also reflects on the target audience as it is mentioning two words that tell the reader automatically what life could be about. It tells the reader that the book could be about anything but specifically that the book relates to the word stone cold. The word stone means rock like. It indicates the meaning of hard. When you put the words together it relates the life and how it is. This also makes the reader feel sympathetic as it is giving the reader something to think about, think about the feeling of the words. They are powerful words which reflect the story of the book in a very brief way.
In this book Link is known to have a stepfather who is ill mannered. The book shows how Link has been treated by his father and why he has been treated by his father this way. Vince the step father has changed Link’s life in many ways resulting to link leaving home. Vince treated link like he was a nothing and he used to brag on about how link used to live off his money. If someone who went on and on getting nastier and nastier to you would you put up with it? No a normal person wouldn’t but defenceless link was too afraid of Vince and what he could or would do to him. In a result of this link had no other choice than to leave home as Vince already put the boot in him. Robert has mentioned all of this as it is an important aspect of life that everyone should take interest in. There are many reasons why the homeless live on the streets and this was one of them.
Link was seeking for a job yet each individual employed worker turned him down. Robert swindells has already told you how hard it is to be accepted for work. Applying is straightforward, but the acceptance of being rejected is difficult. You feel hurt and think how is it possible for a person to accept another being with qualifications yet reject a person in less than 5 seconds judging by the looks. Robert had obviously pointed this out by mentioning that Link has been rejected over and over again. He has pointed out that no matter how much you strive and seek you would certainly not get accepted, this is how convoluted it is to get one. By this it makes you realise that the homeless are poor because of the common rejection and they’re last resort is it beg known as ‘tapping.’ Without this they would die and population would decrease. Would you really want for this to happen?
During the life of begging you have to defend for your self as Robert has included in the book by referring to about how the homeless have to beg, sleep rough, etc… A homeless person would have always come across a situation like this in t heir lives like Link did. The homeless people are people to with hearts and Robert has pointed this out by mentioning phrases like ‘nobody cares, see.’ The homeless struggle and try to get every penny they can just to get some food. People just walk by making their lives misery. Link had to face being alone because he wanted to start a new life, he made friends. Close. He also had lost the girl he had eyes for, the girl who he had fallen in love with. The situation that link found himself in was wretchedly heart breaking. This made me feel sympathetic towards link as he was once again hopeless. He stood they‘re with nothing to achieve in his life. This is a problem which many homeless people die from either from nervous brake downs or even from shock. The readers should feel sympathetic because for link it can be a difficult decision to continue with living off the streets or returning to his home.
Robert swindells makes you feel that you have the right to conflict against shelter as he is mad and mad. Shelter is an evil soldier who has the urge to constantly kill. Nobody in their right mind would have the heart to kill someone or something as it is cruel. Shelter would describe a homeless person as them being a ‘waste of space.’ He thinks of them as rubbish who scrounges for a living.
Overall I would conclude that Robert swindells is making a point to people to make them feel that they have a better understanding of the way the homeless help. Robert was comparing real life to how links life was, he has had good and bad times, and he has feared and has been brave through out facing the real world, facing life. The homeless are people who have no choice so they think if they beg it will help. Everybody should help and try to do their best in helping the poor as they are the ones who suffer as well as those who have money since they have to tolerate watching the innocents of a child starving. They have to take in the guilt and shame. Just remember what you have in life and don’t take everything for granted because when they’ve got you only realise than what you’ve lost…
