Prejudice

The novel Stone Cold by Robert Swindells also looks at the theme of prejudice, which is mainly illustrated by Shelter. As an ex-army man, Shelter has developed an obsession with “cleaning” the streets of London and getting rid of the homeless, whom he sees as “garbage” (Daily Routine Orders 3, 40%). In Shelter’s opinion, all homeless people are idle, lazy, violent, or alcoholic, and do not care to change the situation they are in.

Link’s situation shows that not all homeless people are the way Shelter sees them. For example, Link gets angry when another homeless man steals his watch and thinks about being violent: “My left wrist felt naked without the watch and I added the Scouser to my hit list. Rat-face and the Scouser. I was going to turn into a serial killer if I went on at this rate” (Daily Routine Orders 7, 31%). Link does not act upon his anger and shows readers that not all the homeless are as violent as Shelter expects them to be. 

The general public also looks at the homeless through a prejudiced lens. At the beginning of the novel, Link claims that he is one of the invisible people that passers-by dislike because he does not fit their expectations:

Right now I’m sitting in a doorway watchi...