The Mole People Analysis

Society has developed this standard way of leaving and when one is put out of this inner circle, they are left to look at life in a whole new perspective, challenging themselves against the norms in order to survive. No group of people knows this better than the “Mole people” introduced in Jennifer Toth’s book, The Mole people, where life is a constant struggle against others, police and what lurks in the abyss of the New York City tunnel system. The sociological concepts of accommodation, alienation, and culture play a key role in how we view and understand the lives of this counterculture based off of various sociological theories. These sociological tools will provide us with the ability to understand the lives of this group of people and

how the existence of this counterculture shows us the structure of the U.S society.
In Toth’s book, The Mole People, she records her various interactions with the people of the underground subway tunnels and how they live and interact with others. Ever account has its own significant piece on understanding why the homeless end up migrating underground. For some it’s a choice, others it’s the only options. The sociological concept of accommodation illustrates the existence of this counterculture and how nature and the social structure of society have created the counterculture. This group of people named as the “Mole People” has had to undergo an extreme change to adjust themselves to being able to survive the environment around them. Living under in the subway tunnels is a dark, dangerous place infested with fast moving trains, electrical and water leakage, rodents and garbage. One most reevaluate them self and learn to adapt to their surroundings. As Toth says in her book,
“ Here rats run in dark waves toward, not away from people and the crunch of roaches underfoot is familiar as the stench of sewage seeping through the rock walls. Here thin streams of daylight filtering through the occasional overhead grate barely penetrate the floor in the stagnant black.” (Toth 41)
Based on the labeling theory, these people are labeled mole people cause they live underground, totally encased in the darkness and forced to live with rodents.

The public and the police, whom also see them as deviants, label them. They don’t live like we do in clean houses that have electricity and running water. They live a different standard that makes most uncomfortable. Toth explains how New York also has a high rate of substance abusers and mentally ill in the underground population (41). This proves that there is a broader problem here that reflects on how the structure of the U.S society. Based off of conflict theory, the reason the “mole people” are like this is because we secluded them from our society, with alienating them. They end up turning to drug use for an escape or some of them became this way because they were addicts and mentally ill and we didn’t supply the help needed to fix them. Our society is set for the individual and what we can do to improve ourselves that we often forget to help the less fortunate. In a capitalist system, the definition of alienation is defined as being unconnected to one’s work, product, fellow workers, and human nature. Reading the numerous accounts of people Toth has interviewed, we learn about the homeless that ended up there due to a poor upbringing or some who used to be somebody that sadly ended up homeless and seeking refuge in these tunnels. Some choose this life others are destined here because of the fault in the U.S

system in helping people in financial crises. However, this alienation drives them to create communities underground to survive. They build up this system where everyone shares and looks out for each other in the community. Unlike the capitalist system where everyone is left on their own, they work together, gathering information, pooling money if someone is hurt, playing roles that help each other out. Bernard Isaacs, a thirty-eight-year-old man, nicknamed “Lord of the Tunnels”, has a camp that embodies this example. Toth writes,
“Bernard’s camp is the hub for these tunnel dwellers…Food is shared, but many people also have their own private cache. Chores such as cooking and collecting firewood are also shared… Most of the group eats at the same time, and there is always coffee on the grill for anyone stopping by.” (102)
Their alienation from the rest of society brings them closer together to create this closeness. When Jennifer Toth interviews the mole people, most like to leave out their past. It can be painful for some to talk about what they once were before migrating down to the tunnels. With becoming homeless not only do they alienate from the rest of society, but they alienate themselves from their past. They disconnect themselves from any memory or anything at all to do with society or the thought that they were once “normal”. The numerous accounts of testimonials from the mole people themselves and their lives give us the ability to use sociological imagination to try and put ourselves in their shoes and understand what it's like.
Culture is the ideas, values, practices and material objects that allow a group of people to love in harmony and order.

It is a given that our culture will vary differently than of one that dwells in the tunnel. In prehistoric time, the underground was seen as a place of safety, much like it is seen today for the mole people. Throughout literature, the underground man, as Toth explains, is extreme, withdrawn and isolated. He is self exiled from human society and only maintains as much contacted as needed to survive. He believes in nothing and is often filled with rage and anguish (177). Many of the tunnel dwellers share many of the same practices and use of material objects key to their survival like eating rodents, using loose electrical wires for electricity, finding water through leaky pipes and cardboard and garbage for building a home. They all share the same knowledge and ideas of how live in the tunnels. They evolve by the changes in their environment and learn how to change to better protect themselves from predators like outsiders or from the dangers of trains. They have norms like we do but what they considered to be a norm, is what we may see as a folkway. Some may even develop their own language so others in their group can understand them. The nature of this counterculture and its formation shows that our society has the ability to create various countercultures that can either show how we excel or fail as a society. However it does show that if we were to

ultimately collapse that we have the ability and means to survive in the our environment and adapt to a new way of life. We can see this group of people as an example of how to survive in the worst of conditions and not just an out-group that is looked down upon.
Society has flaws that can be seen as failures or benefits. The becoming of the mole people is a failure in our society’s ability to help each other and bring one another up but it can show our endurance that a community and counterculture like this one can survive in the darkest and deadly conditions. It may not be ideal but we must see that the ability to do this is beneficial to the future. However, for the mean time, letting these people go by is not acceptable for our society. We need to help those in need instead of labeling them as “mole people” and alienating them. Jennifer Toth’s book, The Mole people, has broaden the understanding of these problem and given the opportunity through a sociological perspective how these people survive in times like this.