Analysis Of New Orleans

Every place in the world has at least two different views; to some the place is a home and to others it is a culture, a building, a new world that is to be awed and viewed for the small amount of time the tour bus drives past. A places meaning can change as events happen, but at some point the new memory will become the norm. New Orleans is seen as a place that was hit with a tragedy, but has recovered. The pictures to a tourist are full of beads from Mardi Gras, street corner voodoo shops, bowls of Cajun food, warm beignets covered with powder sugar, and a big Cathedral right in the middle of the French Quarter. The picture of New Orleans to a resident, is completely different. For the girl who is just going through the motions New Orleans

Nola faces traumatic events throughout the story when interviewing several sex offenders, and she blames the city for these sort of men. One specific traumatic event was within chapter 9 when Nola is meeting with Mr. Hopkins, a convicted rapist and cutting phene, and the interview is going normal until the very end. Mr. Hopkins tells Nola that he just tells people exactly what they want to hear when questioning him about whether he will rape again or on other such criminal questions. This is obviously alarming to Nola that the system in New Orleans is failing, but Mr. Hopkins then takes the meaning of creepy to another level. Upon finishing up their interview, Mr. Hopkins grabs Nola by the hand tightly and says that she has not gotten a tour of the house yet and pulls her through the house a bit. He then says to her: “You scared?” (135), to which Nola responds in her head with: “Fuck yes, I’m scared, you pyscho son

When Nola is at her friend’s wedding or at the weekly two hour field trips with Marisol, the reader sees the beauty of New Orleans, what the world still wants to see. The reader travels to the New Orleans zoo, gazes at the fish in the aquarium, gawks at the pure beauty beneath the high arches of the Cathedral. Joy Castro incorporates how a tourist would feel and where they would visit, but makes it a first time experience for a girl who has lived in New Orleans her entire life. As Nola interviews the sex offenders or drives through the Desire Projects the reader feels the panic and uncertainty New Orleans releases. Nola radiates fear as the men approach her car while she’s interviewing mothers in the projects. When she is threatened by the sex offenders, New Orleans becomes a place that is no longer friendly, but needs to be taken on with caution. When the reader, and Nola, have almost lost all hope for New Orleans, Joy Castro is able to pull them back in with scenes of Nola walking to church with her mother, going out with her friends, or taking risky, but exciting, adventures to the soccer field. In these small unremarkable scenes the reader sees New Orleans as a home. It isn’t until later on in the novel that the reader sees how much these scenes actually played into the vibe that New Orleans portrayed as a