Everyone Needs an Anchor
“People are looking for stability in a shaky world. They want something they can get hold of that's firm and sure and an anchor in the midst of all of this instability in which they're living.” - Gordon B. Hinckley
When life puts you into unimaginable situations, one needs to have an anchor; a person/people that keep you grounded when things are too terrible for you to handle on your own. In Hawaiʻi, people deal with situations like those on the U.S. mainland but magnified: homelessness/living in poverty, drug use, and domestic violence/abuse. According to an article published by The Economist in December of 2014, Hawaiʻi has one of the worst homelessness rates in the country caused by pricey housing: “the median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Honolulu is more than $1,800—one of the highest in America.” Drug use has caused Hawaiʻi to rank 34th in drug overdose mortality rates in the United States, with 1.9 in every 10,000 people suffering drug overdose fatalities (Lang and Segal). In 2013 during the National Consensus of Domestic Violence Services, 575 victims of domestic violence in Hawaiʻi were supplied assistance (1). Three Years on Doreen’s Sofa by Lee Cataluna and Homeless in Hawaiʻi by EC Stilson both deal with issues of homelessness, drug use/abuse and domestic violence and shows how characters change or do not change the directions of their lives with the use of anchors.
Three Years on Doreen’s Sofa revolves around the life of Bobby, an adult man who tries to restart his life after being released from prison for intent to sell cocaine that was on his person. Bobby has no anchor, no one to look out for him or keep him accountable, leaving him to fend for himself in a world that’s out to get him. As he tries to transition into a better life, he lives on the couch of his sister/cousin Doreen. Although they were both born into the same family situation (which was quite terrible), they ended up living completely different lives because of anchors. Doreen became involved in relationships with abusive men thus leading to her having kids and she knew that she needed to get her act together in order to give her kids the life she never had. Bobby, on the other hand, didn’t have an anchor. His mother became a druggie, he went to prison, and when he got out he didn’t have anyone to keep him reliable. All his relationships before going to prison were with other druggies and homeless people, so he really didn’t stand a chance trying to forge a new life for himself. On page 56, Doreen tells Bobby, “You don’t know what it’s like to try to do your best and the world just keeps knocking you down no matter what. Better be like you, yeah? Just don’t try, then you never get hurt.” This excerpt shows how Doreen knows that she needs to keep her act together in order to take care of her kids.
Homeless in Hawaiʻi by EC Stilson is the second book in a memoir trilogy and it follows the life of Elisa, a young teenage girl, who flees from her home in Utah to Hawaiʻi, specifically the island of Oʻahu. Elisa is forced into a life of homelessness, sleeping on the beach, with nowhere to go as she tries to find herself (one of the main reasons she left Utah). Running from her past, she is running into an uncertain future. As Elisa embarks on this new part of her life, she finds an anchor in Cade, the male protagonist of the story. At the tender age of seventeen, she leaves her native Utah. Running from her past, she is running into an uncertain future with a man she hardly knows. Together, they end up in Hawaiʻi. With nowhere to fp, they are forced to sleep in a park with other homeless people and transients. Elisa and Cade become street musicians, doing what they know. They realize that their chance of survival is greater as a team. This bonds them, and gets them through some very frightening situations. Through their relationship, with Cade being her anchor, they are able to weather the storms that life throws at them and Elisa ultimately finds herself.
Bobby and Elisa are two people from completely different worlds. Bobby was born into a life of struggles, drug addiction, violence, and homelessness; Elisa flew herself into a life of homelessness and into a world she knew nothing of. Even though both characters are quite similar, they couldn’t be more different. Bobby is used to the rough life and even though he’s seen the worst of it, he doesn’t try to escape from it. He is so complacent sleeping on Doreen’s couch that even when he has chances to get jobs or help Doreen out, he ends up ruining it somehow or doesn’t even try. He has no anchor. He has no one that is looking out for his well being, keeping him accountable, or even showing him that he is loved. Having no one like that in your life must be hard, but it’s as if Bobby didn’t try at all to better himself on his own. In an example, found on page 209, Bobby is high after spending time with his friend from work and her girlfriend, after four months of being sober. He says to himself “fuck, I am hilarious when I am my normal unhealthy fucked-up self.” He was doing so well in his life: he had a job, he was paying Doreen back all the money he stole from her, and he was not drinking or doing drugs; but once the opportunity to get high came, he seized it and fell back into his ways.
Elisa, on the other hand, entered into a world and a culture that she knew nothing about, strived to find work even while being homeless, and eventually found what she was looking for: herself. Unlike Bobby, Elisa is a teenage girl with no family ties, no connections, and no idea how life in Hawaiʻi works, but she didn’t just fall into a life of drug abuse and alcoholism. Sure, she is homeless, but she still does everything she can to make things work. Elisa is a determined, multitalented character who lacks one thing: to find herself. And that’s the real reason she escapes to Hawaiʻi. Through the perfect symbolism of her communication with God in her dreams, she achieves just that. However, other factors also help Elisa find herself: her supportive boyfriend, Cade; her beach friends; her scary adventures on the island. Not only did Elisa try harder than Bobby to succeed, she also had a positive outlook on life; “Life is hard, but so beautiful” (Stilson 59). This quote is said by Elisa right after she and Cade perform live music for the first time. She is able to see the goodness in her situation because she has someone that allows her to. If Elisa were alone and didn’t have anyone looking out for her, she probably would have turned out just as bad as Bobby did.
Not much unlike Bobby and Elisa, Doreen and Cade have many things in common. Doreen was born and raised, like Bobby, into a broken home with no real example of what a family should be like. Although it was not described in detail, Bobby recollects how Doreen was in multiple relationships with men who beat her, ultimately leaving her with three kids: two boys and one girl. Now since Doreen grew up seeing what it was like giving into the temptations of the world when things got hard, she never did. She saw what happened to Bobby and how his life had gone downhill and she knew that she couldn’t let her kids grow up in the kind of family that she and Bobby had grown up in. Doreen uses her kids as an anchor to the real world, knowing that if she goes off the deep end whether into drug/alcohol abuse, homelessness, or getting with another man who beats her, that her kids may end up as bad as their uncle Bobby. That may be why she chooses to allow Bobby to live with her in the first place, because she wants her kids to be able to see first-hand how shitty life can treat you if you let it. For example, Doreen explains to Bobby that she knows how to switch from speaking pidgin to speaking proper english, or like the haoles do, because she knows that she wouldn’t be able to keep a good paying job if she could only speak pidgin. This shows that Doreen, no matter how messed up her life began, knows how to mold herself into someone society accepts because it’s what is best for her kids.
Similarly, Cade finds his anchor in Elisa. Unlike Doreen, not much of Cade’s background story is revealed, it is just enough to know that he is homeless, which is how he meets Elisa. Although he is older than her, he sees his relationship with her as an opportunity to turn his life around and he realizes that he no longer only has to watch out for himself, but now Elisa also. What started as a relationship to keep each other safe turned into a relationship filled with love. Cade knew that he had to at least try to get money and start a regular life with Elisa. Homeless in Hawaiʻi revolves more around Elisa and her personal life than Cade, but the slow building and smooth transition of Cade and Elisa falling in love is what really makes the reader see that Cade is a good guy who wants the best for Elisa. Their relationship builds so effortlessly and he plays such an important role in helping Elisa find herself that it wouldn’t be fair to disregard Cade as a critical character in the story. Cade allows Elisa to be herself, both through music and her actions, and he knows that if he messes up she’s going down with him.
Both novels deal with issues that seem to be on the extreme end of the spectrum here in Hawaiʻi, but that’s what makes each novel powerful in and of itself. Three Years on Doreen’s Sofa gives insight to a family that has dealt with all the hell that life could possibly give, and shows how having an anchor can help you break the mold of what you were born into. It also shows that if you have no one to keep you accountable, there is no saying what harm can be caused for you and because of you. Homeless in Hawaiʻi gives insight to what it is like to transition from a comfortable life, like the one Elisa had, and into a life of homelessness; a transition that I think is all too common here in Hawaiʻi. It shows that hope can be found in even the darkest and hardest of times. Bobby, on the other hand, shows readers just how important it is to have accountability in your life because no matter how well you thinking you’re doing, one slip-up could make everything go downhill, fast. Both novels give the reader hope that no matter the situation, if you have people in your life that you need to take care of or that keep you accountable, you will be able to defeat all odds.
Works Cited
Cataluna, Lee. Three Years on Doreen's Sofa. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge, 2011. Print.
"Domestic Violence Counts Hawaii Survey." <i>National Nurturing to Ending Domestic Violence</i>. Web. <http://nnedv.org/downloads/Census/DVCounts2013/State_Summaries/DVCounts13_StateSummary_HI.pdf>.
"Homeless in Hawaii: Paradise Lost." The Economist. 20 Dec. 2014. Web. 1 Jan. 2015. <http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21636768-catering-tourists-comes-hefty-price-locals-paradise-lost>.
Lang, Albert, and Laura Segal. "Drug Abuse 2013 Data for Hawaii." Trust for America's Health. 7 Oct. 2013. Web. <http://healthyamericans.org/reports/drugabuse2013/release.php?stateid=HI>.
Stilson, EC. Homeless in Hawaii. Wayman, 2012. Print.
