Analysis Of Edward Jones's 'Young Lions'

In 2013, just shy of my 17th birthday, I planned a day trip with two of my friends to see The Phantom of the Opera in New York. At this point in my life, I was entirely unaccustomed to large cities, such as New York City, and felt excited to experience the bustle I expected. While in the city, a woman informed me about methods to avoid the crime so intertwined with life in the city and introduced me to the concept that, just as New York City held many attractions for tourists, it also held some dangers as well. This idea takes pride of place in Edward Jones’ short story, “Young Lions” and its discussion of Caesar Matthews. As I learned a few years ago, the city truly contains amazement for those experiencing it, but, like all things in life,

In “Young Lions,” readers follow the protagonist, Caesar Matthews and his introduction to a life of crime in Washington D.C. As a teenager, Caesar’s father essentially disowns him and Caesar moves in with Sherman Wheeler, a confidence man that teaches Caesar about robbing people without getting caught. After Caesar completes his first “job” of removing his belongings from his father’s home, he meets Carol, a woman who develops a relationship with Caesar and falls in love with him. Caesar schemes to rob a “feeble-minded” woman, Anna, and involves Carol to wheedle the money from Anna. Horrified at her involvement in Caesar’s repugnant actions, Carol cannot react as Caesar wants her to after taking the money. Once this becomes clear, Caesar becomes enraged with Carol, strikes her repeatedly in a park, and threatens to shoot her. During this violence, Caesar “realized that if he beat her with the pistol, that, too, would not surprise her. And had he shot her, in the face or through the heart, she would not have been surprised at that either” (Jones 76). Following this attack, Carol leaves the park in tears with the full realization of the type of person Caesar is. Ultimately, Caesar is left alone and has no one to offer him

The woman I met spoke pragmatically about avoiding crime in the city and this, more than anything else, depicted the prevalence of crime that, having grown up in a much smaller town, I had never experienced. The unbreakable grips that New York City’s denizens maintained on their belongings while engulfed in throngs of people suddenly made absolute sense in a way that I felt almost uncomfortable with. “Young Lions” also illuminates the frequency of crime in cities and, perhaps more disturbingly, the forethought individuals devote to stealing from others. While following Anna, Caesar explains that “for two months he had secretly placed himself in her life, doing all the scoping out, the drudgery that had once been up to Sherman” (Jones 63). This passage depicts the effort Caesar commits to stealing from a woman attempting to simply get through her