A Poor Man's Battle to Live

Kromer’s piece, Waiting for Nothing is a depressing, hopeless story that showed how truly desperate people were during the great depression. Written by a true bum, the book has an authentic feel. Through all of Tom’s stories, you can see a bum’s disparity. Tom himself got so desperate that he attempted to rob a bank. When justifying the robbing to himself he thinks, “No one cares whether I live or die. They would let me starve to death on the streets without lifting a hand to help me.” (p.59) Everyone is looking out for themselves, and themselves only. Another example is seen in the restaurant when the rich guy buys Tom a steak. Tom appreciates the steak, but states that the guy makes the order so loud so other patrons could hear. The rich guy wanted people to see his generosity to think of him better. Kromer also is showing how society is survival of the fittest. He was no different. “To hell with everybody. I am going to get mine.” (p.59) Everyday is a battle for the bums. They must always find food and shelter no matter the cost. We also saw this in The Grapes of Wrath when the migrates turned on each other because of labor competition. Kromer symbolizes groups of people as animals to illustrate blatantly his survival of the fittest idea.Roy Lichtenstein- Hopeless “The animals he uses can roughly be divided into three groups: predators or otherwise dangerous animals, such as bulls, wolves, and snakes; animals that predators feed upon or slaughter, including cattle, pigs, chickens, and lambs; and finally, the scavenger turned predator - an animal Kromer chooses most often to describe the bum - the rat.” (Obropta) The cops aka the bulls are higher on the food chain, they have money in their pockets. The cops are the predators and they can attack the bums. These groups of “animals” are so different they do not understand each other, so how can they police each other. “They have not lived for years in lousy mission flops. They have not eaten swill from restaurants garbage cans. They have good jobs. They don’t know what right or what is wrong.” (p. 63) This piece by Kromer is a realistic and depressing view on a bums life during the great depression. It is not romanticized. It shows the real struggle that many bums went through on a day to day basis. It shows a bum’s disparity, lack of hope, and struggle to stay alive in society that did not really care.