Analysis Of There Are No Children Here

The book That was Then, This Is Now is about to really good friends Bryon and Mark starting to go their separate ways. Bryon was a 16 year old hustler who lived in a hood. His mother was poor and she had adopted his best friend Mark. Mark was an illegitimate who was adopted by new parents that got in a drunken fight and killed each other. Mark was a thief, and he always got away with everything that he possibly could do. Teen kids in there element who thought they could rule the world, everything was theirs and that nothing could possibly go wrong. They did everything bad together smoke, drink, jump kids for their money, steal, skip school, take drugs and get into gang brawls.

Alex Kotlowitz's book, There are No Children Here, is a story about two boys, Pharaoh

We saw prejudice and discrimination throughout the book. For example, when Lafayette’s was charged with a crime due to hi, been associated with who did it. When LaJoe lost her benefits from the state due to her on and off husband using her home address and when collecting unemployment benefits which LaJoe did not claim as income coming into the home. In both instances, the Rivers were treated as if they were liars and criminals. Because of Lafayette being from the inner city, there was this predetermine thought about any youth that lived in the inner city from the court system. LaJoe was treated with disrespect by the welfare office because of the prejudgment they had formed about people that lived in the inner city. Due to the location in which they stayed, the importance of healthy living condition was not a priority to the city. They were forced to live in the vicinity of garbage, broken sewer systems, dead animals, etc. Also, the children were forced to either stay in their apartments or play on the railroad tracks because the city had only a few areas for them to play. These areas had become run down and it was unsafe for kids to play in. It is unsure why the was such neglect for those areas of the inner city, but one could only think that it had to do with how this race has been treated for years.

     Alex Kotlowitz’s book, There are No Children Here, is a story about two boys, Pharoah and Lafeyette Rivers growing in the late 1980’s in Henry Horner, a housing project in Chicago. The boys try to retain their youth while they see constant gang violence, death of close friends, their brother in jail and their dad struggling with a drug addiction.

This neighborhood factor drives children to seek companionship amongst others on the already violent streets and causes them to follow suit. The final factor that may result in violence stems from the individual. For instance, children raised in a bleak and violent environment may develop low self-worth and feel little power over their future. Unable to break the cycle, they become a direct reflection of what they experience in their community and contribute to the ongoing violence.

It is not the migration of jobs and respect becoming the new social currency that he argues for as reasons for increased difficulties in inner city life, but instead he states that he believes the introduction of crack cocaine to the general public that led to the deterioration of inner city neighborhoods. While Anderson mentions crack cocaine when talking about the reasons why grandparents often get custody, he does not attribute this to the prevalence of violence among the neighborhood. However, Dave Kopel also cites the lack of stable families in the inner city as another factor that led to the rise in violence, which is something that Anderson would most likely agree with (Kopel). While a study done by the government does not specifically mention respect of the reasoning for escalation of violence, they do have statistics stating that “several studies have shown that aggressive children tend to be hypersensitive to cues of threat, selectively attend to aggressive cues, and overlook other situational factors that may have influenced the person’s behavior” (Cooley-Strickland, 2009). This corresponds with Anderson’s statements that actions that people do not consider disrespectful or threatening in other locations, might be misconstrued as a prelude to a physical attack in the inner city (Location

America has had an extensive relationship with her inner cities. Inner cities were and are the backbone to America and her achievements. The cities assisted in the mass production of the automobile industry, the destruction of the tyranny known as the Nazi Empire, and are the center piece for businesses today. The inner cities had a reduction in employment during the 2008 financial crisis, leaving the cities and their inhabitants in shambles. This not only affected jobs and parents, but the children as well. This was unfortunate because the cities that built America were now spilt into two parts. One part became an area of bustling traffic and lively people, the other underprivileged individuals with no source of income due to financial collapse of their places of employment. Inner city children face an abundant number of obstacles in their lives being raised in these low-income areas. These areas have become poverty-stricken and are being ignored by the government. Without assistance, whether from the state or the federal level of government, certain factors of their lives are being neglected. Some of the factors that are detrimental to the children are the inadequate educational programs, lack of attendance at school, and parent involvement, lack of availability of nutritional produce and a higher rate of exposure to crime.

Anderson explains “the kind of home a child comes from influences [them] but does not always determine the way the child will ultimately turn out” (Anderson pg. 68), referring to the powerful influences of friends and the low self-esteem of young people. Growing up in an area where is the not many resources or wealth children are forced to learn the “code” of the streets quickly in order to earn “juice”. often times, any means of earning it, whether it be verbal or physical is supported not only but their peers but also their parents. This “becomes part of their working conception of the world, so that by the time they reach adulthood, it has emerged as an important element of public social order” (Anderson pg. 69). With little to no repercussions or negative attitudes toward this way of life they often engage in criminal activities such as theft, assault, aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, and much

The lack of opportunities that children have in the inner cities such as west-side Chicago is

The book is a sort of fictionalized portrayal of the author Claude brown’s adolescent life growing up in Harlem in the 1940’s and 50’s with his own self-narration. He cycles into the street life and gets shot mid-escape from a robbery, then being placed in a juvenile detention center. In the effort to escape the street life, brown then starts carrying several small jobs in order to help himself finish school.

Everywhere Richard gets a job he works for a white family or a white business. He gets treated like he is not an actual person and just a thing. And every time the job offers a chance at learning something new it ends up being a lie and they tell him that they're aren't actually going to teach him anything. Richard struggles with that because he has a hunger to learn, to read and become a writer. Celie tries to become her own person other than being tied to her abusive husband that makes her feel insignificant. Through her journey she meets a woman who so happens to be her husbands ex lover, who teaches her how to love herself and become

Many communities that are underdeveloped run the risk of higher criminal activity within one community. In most cases, the community is less wealthy which directly correlates to more crime. Schools that are poorly funded, as well as limited amount of other resources in communities for kids only leads to problems. Low-income neighborhoods have few resources to address problems such as behavioral issues, academic difficulty, and medical needs of students within the districts. Typically communities that have these characteristics also provoke violence. According to Cornell, “Aggressive children and adolescents who are living in neighborhoods with high levels of community violence, drug and firearm trafficking, gang presence, and inadequate

Another clear metaphor of the poverty that engulfs the Thomas’s was displayed when a large black rat scurried across the floor, startling Vera and Mrs. Thomas. Buddy and Bigger chased the rat down, but the rat refused to go down without a fight. After the rat attacked Bigger and bit a hole in his pants, Bigger smashed the rat’s head with a shoe. After these un-relatable events took place in the Thomas apartment, I believed that this would be a story of conquering and overcoming poverty and racial norms that this family had to go through. However, I was not prepared for what would actually occur in this story. Bigger’s mom, as with any concerned mother, tells Bigger that he needs to help his family with their financial situation by getting a job with Mr. Dalton, a rich, white man who owns the apartment building that they stay in. She also warns him to stop affiliating with his gang, because she feels that he is being selfish and wasting his time instead of helping his family. However, as with any twenty-year old kid would, he refused to listen to his mother at first and instead meets up with the members in his gang. The members of Bigger’s gang are Gus, G.H, and Jack. Bigger explains that he has a plan to rob a deli owned by a white man named Mr. Blum. What intrigues me about this novel the most is how much it has taught me about the thought processes of a black man of the early 1900s. For example, the robbery that Bigger and his

He states “Youth who grow up in disadvantaged neighborhoods where crime, gangs, and lacking social services are normative may pass unhealthy behaviors to one another through familial or peer networks”. Alvarado argues that growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods can have serious repercussions on the behavioral development patterns of children. By growing up in a disadvantaged environment children are more susceptible to troubling conditions in the future. Due to their high-crime environment these children might grow up to join gangs and live unhealthy

Despite the air of racism and discrimination that fills the atmosphere of the book, a common drive that is evident is the dreams that the characters of the book have. The motivating force behind the main characters in the book is the power of dreams and hoping for a change of their circumstances in the future (Emery 21). In a great way, the grip that the characters have on their aspirations relieves them off the sight of their daily struggles and hard work. As one of its inspirations, the book informs the reader of the undying determination of a black family in the pursuit to overcome their challenges and maintain a family that uplifts each other. There is an ever present grow to keep the family hope alive, with anticipation for a better tomorrow.