Lars Eighner is a prolific essayist and novelist starting in the early 1980s with Bayou Boy and Other Stories, which is an anthology of autobiographical stories; eventually, losing his job, subsequently becoming a homeless man in the later 1980s, and writing his book Travels with Lizbeth, which consequently is a novel about the hardships in a life of homelessness in cities from Austin to Los Angeles; and finally publishing writings of being a homosexual in the controversial novel The Advocate, which evinced the truth about difficulties with acceptance of homosexuality and a “gay movement” in contemporary society: The works and ancillary essays entail the hardships of life in sects.

In “You Can’t Go Homeless Again,” Lars Eighner is speaking of his newly rehabilitated life of living in a home for an ephemeral period of time after his novel Travels With Lizbeth raked in some money. Eighner brings an admirable point to the table by asking this question concerning the new law that will be enacted in order to ban sleeping on public land: “What place is there to exist that is neither public nor private?” This means that it is fundamentally illegal to be a homeless person in Austin, Texas; therefore, Eighner is addressing the issue of homeless citizens of Texas not receiving the attention that they deserve from the government through programs. He fails to evince the fact that not only those programs, but also a superfluity of programs are botched endeavors to alleviate tribulations of our country: Social Security, Medicaid, and the Government Welfare Program are devices to which American doctrines are far more inferior than they should be standing. Social Security is a travesty, failing internally from over expenditure. Medicaid is not providing adequate coverage, and is outmoded. Even welfare merely doesn’t facilitate enough people: all of these are excellent in theory, but don’t truly function. Eighner makes intimations at the way our government unjustly runs the American citizen in order to improve upon the higher-ups so that they will be elected in successive years. In this treatise Eighner makes a profound avowal in regards to his becoming homeless once again: “You see, I just sort of thought we would both be dead before the money ran out.” The American populace wants to believe that the money they saved up for retirement will make it, and that they won’t have to work again, nonetheless most retirees have to return to work due to their savings running dry. As soon as a individual jumps the from living in a mansion to an house, a house to a trailer, a trailer to an apartment, an apartment to a hotel room, and lastly a hotel room to the streets they are branded with a lower tier of acceptance; consequently, constituents of the higher tier will stand on their perch and gawk at you like you’re an obscene growth on the side of their faultless features. They don’t want the malady you have, Eighner hits upon that when he states the following: “…the more people who are threatened with the real prospect of homelessness, the more those who are already homeless are despised.” Now, if a person were to traverse the gaps of class status and became richer they would feel just the same about the “gross” poor people of lower classes that they, themselves were once. (Eighner, “You Can’t”)

Furthermore, Lars Eighner’s “A Crime To Sleep” is written in conjunction with “You Can’t Go Homeless Again” and is set when the law known as a “camping” ban was passed. Eighner starts with something that really churns thought. “As virtually everyone who is homeless would have a home if it were within his or her power to get one, the law is against people’s existences.” This exemplifies the way that even the police and government, not just the rich despise homeless people for problems that are out of their control: “The homeless become criminals by being alive.” Other instances of sects being punished for being alive are rife throughout history, such as African-Americans being hated by the Ku Klux Klan for being born with particular skin pigmentation. Jewish people are another example of this during the Nazi take over in Germany, where countless millions of Jews and other people were part of Hitler’s mass genocide to eradicate people that were “different.” Eighner really wants to show in these essays that discrimination is ubiquitous in human nature. (Eighner, “A Crime”)

In Lars Eighner’s “Gifting The Homeless,” he is attempting to purvey a view that he and other homeless people want to be accepted. “You have to be able to see, that is observe, the homeless as people.” Many sects in American society are not looked upon as equals, Mexicans and Chinese people are talked about amongst co-workers during break for example and things like “look at how they never stop working,” or “greasy Mexican” and other derogatory statements.  Eighner also speaks of the way that spending trends in the United States in a quote: “A hundred dollars is not five times as useful as $20.” When a person gets a huge some of money they spend it very quickly on one or two big things, yet when a person doesn’t have much money they tend to spend it more conservatively. (Eighner, “Gifting”)

Homelessness is omnipresent as Lars Eighner says in his essay “Lizbeth” and adaptation from the novel Travels With Lizbeth. He says of his canine companion, “She did not know she was homeless.” Once again Eighner gets on the point that there is not always a choice when it comes to social classes such as being homeless. In reference to his dog Lizbeth he says, “For her services as watchdog alone, she was easily worth whatever extra trouble it was to keep her.” This quote isn’t simply about his dog, but about services and admiration of people and animals the same. The “service” is anything that a person does for another person, and the “extra trouble” is representative of the thanks that the person returns. Eighner is trying to say that everybody should be venerated no matter what they look like or who they are: his dog might be filthy, fetid, and a dog, yet Lizbeth keeps him company, and guards him while he sleeps, and helps in innumerable ways in his homeless life. (Eighner, “Lizbeth”)

Furthermore, Lars Eighner’s “Bunch Brittain,” is contrary to his normal proclivity to state that dissimilar sects are under appreciated, and how difficult it is to live in a particular sect. He is writing about homosexuality, another recurrent theme in his works. Bunch Brittain was a man who established a gay bar called The New Apartment in Austin, Texas. This was one of the first of its kind, and was showing true progression in acceptance in society. Eighner supports the gay man by writing the following: “Bunch King Brittain was a great man.” This is emblematic of the attitude that people were becoming okay with the differences that they shared, although he also subtly proclaims that homosexuality is not accepted as readily as it could or should be. Gay bars were the “only gay-identified places that the majority culture would tolerate.” This can also be applied to any disenfranchised, or disrespected group. There is often a place that a disliked group is accepted, but that place is not just to allow the group to be together, but more than likely to keep the group away from the establishers. Clearly Eighner wants you to realize this when he makes a statement about the establishers: It is a “rare thing for a gay bar to be owned and operated by a gay person.” Many groups are being put in a particular place almost reminiscent of the encampment facilities America put Japanese in during World War II. (Eighner, “Bunch”)

Ultimately, through these essays it is obvious to see that Eighner takes anecdotal evidence, and hints at outside references that all fundamentally speak of the hardships of life in sects. Groups have a difficult time being accepted in society due to their differences, and Eighner feels that this is unmerited in a contemporary society, yet the tribulations will likely live on perpetually.