In Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace, he examines the lives and experiences of many children living in the Bronx. In all cases, they lived in run-down apartments surrounded by violence, drugs, and hopelessness. His main argument was that the poor people of this area were not treated well by the city, and the society tried to hide and forget about them. The second chapter of his book have several examples of this practice.
The first point that was made in chapter two was that the children of this area were being taught history that completely contradicted their own existence. The man who founded the town, Richard Morris, built the town using profits made from a sugar plantation where slaves did all of the work (Kozol page 27). The history book,
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however, tries to ameliorate Morris by saying that “There is reason to believe that the slaves owned by the Morris family were treated more humanely than slaves elsewhere” (Kozol page 27). Morris was also a man who did not believe that poor people should be allowed to vote, and tried to influence the constitution so that it benefited property owners. This history is ironic because the people who now live in the Bronx are African American or Latino peoples and are in the lower class. The only history they are being taught is about a white man and how he accomplished so much by exploiting people of their races. They are taught about the one person who, if still alive, would treat them like animals. Even now, people who are racist and classist (like Morris) are the reason that the people in the Bronx are not treated well and are not given adequate aid. The implications of this is that these children, despite the hardships they endure, are taught from a young age that the only “great men” in history were white, and this is simply another way of society erasing the people of the Bronx. The second point made in the chapter was the fact that the city spent money on a beautiful mural to fool tourists into believing the Bronx was not as downtrodden as it was.
They did not spend this money on new school facilities, or fixing apartment buildings, or building safe areas for children, but rather they spend it to “paint the back and sides of the buildings so that people driving to the suburbs will have something nice to look at” (Kozol page 31). This is yet another way the city tried to cover up the people in the Bronx, while at the same time not doing anything to help them. The people there are still starving, or doing drugs, but heaven forbid a tourist get offended by the blatant disregard of the city’s most disenfranchised people. The money spent on that mural could have gone into actually aiding the community, perhaps through bettering the hospitals or repairing housing units that had elevators and electrical systems that killed people. The city was more focused on making people believe that places like the Bronx were not as bad as they actually were than they were with actually fixing the problems.
Amazing Grace is a book that all Americans should read. The stories of the people living in the Bronx are evidence of the systematic racism inherent in our society, and could make people look at lower class people in a new
light.
It is not simple to maintain an imaginative, colourful society. As stated in the story, society is often an uncommunicative wasteland. The adult world has little to offer its children. The story “The Fall of a City” by Alden Nowlan, is about a young little boy known as Teddy, being parented by two drab, unimaginative adults who corrupt his mind and lead him to destroy his ambition for the future. Without good role models for the children on earth, this world will have no future.
The book deals with several sociological issues. It focuses on poverty, as well as s...
The children in this book at times seem wise beyond their years. They are exposed to difficult issues that force them to grow up very quickly. Almost all of the struggles that the children face stem from the root problem of intense poverty. In Mott Haven, the typical family yearly income is about $10,000, "trying to sustain" is how the mothers generally express their situation. Kozol reports "All are very poor; statistics tell us that they are the poorest children in New York." (Kozol 4). The symptoms of the kind of poverty described are apparent in elevated crime rates, the absence of health care and the lack of funding for education.
Raquel and Melanie are two poverty stricken students that attended University Height’s High School in the South Bronx, because their school was not federal funded, it lacked resources; so it does not come as a surprise, perspective students like Melanie and Raquel have more of a ...
Amazing Grace, allows the world outside of South Bronx, to grasp a small understanding of what it is like to live a destitute life. The inequality issues, healthcare problems, and educational shortcomings of the district are a few of Kozol's problems concerning the treatment of the lower class society today. The presence of drugs, the acts of prostitution, and the side items that come with living in the ghetto, are not things that should be present in a child's everyday life. Kozol's examination of the lives of the people living in these slums, clearly shows that these people deserve the same freedoms and comforts that others in privileged classes take for granted.
The West side of Chicago, Harlem, Watts, Roxbury, and Detroit. What do all of these areas have in common? These areas, along with many others have become mine fields for the explosive issues of race, values, and community responsibility, led by the plight of the urban underclass. Issues such as violent crime, social separation, welfare dependence, drug wars, and unemployment all play a major role in the plight of American inner-city life. Alex Kotlowitz's book: There Are No Children Here, confronts America's devastated urban life; a most painful issue in America. Kotlowitz traces the lives of two black boys; 10 year old LaFayette, and 7 year old Pharoah, as they struggle to beat the odds growing up in one of Chicago's worst housing projects. Their family includes a welfare dependent mother, an alcholic-drug using father, an older sister, an older brother, and younger triplets. Kotlowoitz describes the horrors of an ill-maintained housing project completely taken over by gangs, where murders and shootings are an everyday thing. Kotlowitz does a fine job at portraying ghetto life; those who are outside the American dream. He succeeds at putting a face on th people trapped inside the housing projects with virtually no hope of escape. One can truly feel a sense of great loss for the family, and a great deal of hope for the two young boys. You can truly feel yourself hoping that things will work out for them, and you can really feel like you know these young men on a personal basis. Kotlowotz spent a great deal of time with the boys so he could portray the world from the eyes of a child growing up in the ghetto, and he does an amazing job.
Comparing ?Everyday Use?, ?Sonny?s Blues? and ?The Cathedral?, one can conclude that they share a common meaning. Although all three stories consider poverty as their theme, each chooses to elaborate it in a different manner. In fact, ?Everyday Use? emphasizes on the state of extreme poverty in which certain people live. On the other hand, ?Sonny?s Blues? contributes to the theme by describing the poverty of spirit of Harlem?s ?inner kids?. Carver?s ?The Cathedral?, however, prefers to explore the notion of poverty as a state of one?s mind rather than the environment in which one lives.
The tenement was the biggest hindrance to achieving the American myth of rags to riches. It becomes impossible for one to rise up in the social structure when it can be considered a miracle to live passed the age of five. Children under the age of five living in tenements had a death rate of 139.83 compared to the city’s overall death rate of 26.67. Even if one did live past the age of five it was highly probable he’d become a criminal, since virtually all of them originate from the tenements. They are forced to steal and murder, they’ll do anything to survive, Riis appropriately calls it the “survival of the unfittest”. (Pg.
Michael MacDonald’S All Souls is a heart wrenching insider account of growing up in Old Country housing projects located in the south of Boston, also known as Southie to the locals. The memoir takes the reader deep inside the world of Southie through the eyes of MacDonald. MacDonald was one of 11 children to grow up and deal with the many tribulations of Southie, Boston. Southie is characterized by high levels of crime, racism, and violence; all things that fall under the category of social problem. Social problems can be defined as “societal induced conditions that harms any segment of the population. Social problems are also related to acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in society” (Long). The social problems that are present in Southie are the very reasons why the living conditions are so bad as well as why Southie is considered one of the poorest towns in Boston. Macdonald’s along with his family have to overcome the presence of crime, racism, and violence in order to survive in the town they consider the best place in the world.
Carolina told about two boys wandering the streets of the favela who were from shelters in the city. At the shelters, there were innocent children abandoned or orphaned, but also there were young criminals sentenced to stay there. Both groups were thrown together and treated as though they all had prison sentences. Carolina wrote, “I felt that in the State Shelter the children’s morals were lowered. […] What’s lacking? Concern for the unfortunate or money from the State?” (81). Whether it was babies dying in the favela, or children growing into poverty, the families of favelados were destined for misfortune. Carolina’s older children were still in school, but they contributed to the family income, as was common at the time, by going out to beg or to collect paper and scrap with her. Favelas of Brazil bred the destruction of innocence and children grew up quickly, such as when “the son of Joaquim went to school drunk” (130). Intersectionality of race and class was also pertinent. Racism and classism prevented poor, impoverished children from receiving any opportunities to improve their
The process of becoming an adult takes more time for children who enjoy freedom. When the kid is still young, one’s parents or guardians would not mind whatever the child does. But when one grows up, one’s hobby and attitude has to change according to one’s age. The Fall of a City is a short story written by Alden Nowlan to illustrate the forced maturation of the 11-year-old child under the influence of his relatives. It is a piece of writing full of pathos, where the protagonist ends up destroying the creation of his childish imagination because of his uncle and aunt’s judgment. Once they discovered what Teddy has been doing up in the attic, he decides to follow the course of his fate. He leaves his imaginary world, where he is the almighty king, to face the much more challenging real world. The Fall of a City is written by Alden Nowlan in order to express his vision of the transition from youth to manhood because of societal pressure, and the hardship is shown through the critique of Teddy’ uncle and aunt about their nephew’s character traits and the diverse conflicts which the protagonist faces within the story.
In the utopian city of Omelas, there is a small room underneath one of the buildings were a small unwanted child sits and is mistreated and slandered for existing. The child’s terrible existence allows the city to flourish and thrive with grace and beauty. Visitors come to view the miserable juvenile and say nothing, while others physically abuse the innocent child. The utopian society is aware of the child’s “abominable misery” (216), but simply do not care to acknowledge it. Le Guin states, “[T]o throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of happiness of one: that would be to let guilt in the walls ... [T]here may not even be a kind word spoken to the child” (216). This means that since the child holds the responsibility of keeping the city beautiful, it has to go through the torture of neglect and separation from the outside
Instead of helping, the public housing programs further concentrated the African-American community and “those who remained in the ghetto tended to become more distant” (Anderson), having access to an adequate education, resources required to obtain jobs, and also lacking protection under the law as violence grew daily amongst its inhabitants. Since “Socialization is the way in which people learn the norms and values found in their society, develop social skills, and participate in societal roles that will be continued throughout their lifetime” (Koepke)the “economic and social isolation emerged from the ghetto” (Hart)and in a sense cut its members off from the “real”
The social conventions that are set up in this book play out in a small black community in Ohio called "the Bottom." The community itself formed when a white slave owner tricked his naïve black slave into accepting hilly mountainous land that would be hard to farm and very troublesome instead of the actual bottom (fertile valley) land that he was promised. The slave was told "when God looks down, it's the bottom. That's why we call it so. It's the bottom of heaven-best land there is" (4), and on the basis of this lie a community was formed. Its almost as if the towns misfortune is passed down ...
Upon reading the first paragraph, Shirley Jackson describes the town in general. The town is first mentioned in the opening paragraph where she sets the location in the town square. She puts in perspective the location of the square "between the post office and the bank" (196). This visualizes for the reader what a small town this is, since everything seems to be centralized at or near the town square. This is also key in that the town square is the location for the remaining part of the story. The town square is an important location for the setting since the ending of the story will be set in this location. Also, Shirley Jackson creates a comfortable atmosphere while describing the residents of the town. First, she describes the children gathering together and breaking into "boisterous play"(196). Also, the children are described as gathering rocks, which is an action of many normal children. She described the men as gathering together and talking about "planting and rain, tractors and taxes"(196). Finally, she describes the women of this community as "exchanging bits of gossip"(196) which is a common stereotype of women. She creates a mood for the reader of the town and residents of this town on a normal summer morning.