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Summary Of The Night-Soil Men By Steven B. Johnson

744 Words3 Pages

"The Night-Soil Men" by Steven B. Johnson is a powerful piece of literature. The author shows through powerful imagery how it was like to live in the lower class. He as well references several authors to help show the what these people lived through everyday. "The Night-Soil Men" is a commentary about how the lower and middle class was treated in the Victorian Era and how today we take things such as "recycling centers, public-health departments, safe sewage removal" for granted. The lower class of society were considered "ghosts," they were undesired by the upper class because of their place in society. The upper class did not want to see them, to the, they were not people. The terms that were used for them sounded more fitting for a …show more content…

He -talks about how they would wade through a river of sewage just to find something valuable to either sell or eat. At times a pocket of methane gas would appear, and since the people people carry kerosene lamps to light their way it would ignite and set them aflame causing them to die in the sewage. Johnson describes all the items they collect, and it just makes such a powerful image in your mind of how horrible and not easy it was for this people to live. All they were trying to do was to just get by with whatever they could make do with. He as well references both Charles Dickson and Henry Mayhew to give more of a idea of how hard the lower classed worked to find something salvageable to bring back home. His use of imagery makes you feel like you are actually there; you can feel the atmosphere, and just see in your minds eye how they lived. Today many people do not live life like this. It would be unacceptable if someone did, but even with people no longer living in these types of conditions we still today have are own "ghosts" that we often …show more content…

Johnson just opens your eyes on how truly terrible things were back then and how we often take many resources for granted. Often when you think of the Victorian Ear you think balls, fancy gowns and the explosion of a new form of literature. You do not really think of the nity gritty of what was truly going on during that time, while this is a thing of the past it is still very relevant today. The homeless are like are "ghosts" of today. They are often stereotypes as being insane or druggies and alcoholics, most of the time people just walk or drive right pass them and ignore them. The homeless are often wanted to be seen in society just like the lower class of the Victorian Era. "The Night-Soil Men" is a great piece of literature that opens your eyes to how things truly worked back then, it shows how much we take for granted

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