Amazing Grace is a story that addresses the poverty and poor conditions in the South Bronx, which has been left out in the cold and subjected to poverty and a lack of proper accommodations for its residents. The city became a refuge for the homeless that have been relocated from Manhattan in an effort to give the downtown area a more desirable appearance. With the residents of the Bronx struggling to survive in the environment they were born into, Johnathan Kozol gives us a glimpse into what life in the Bronx is like.
Two major problems in the Bronx that have been portrayed by the book “Amazing Grace” is a wide addiction to intravenous drugs and the diseases that come along with such a lifestyle. While there are plenty of reasons why drug
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In the book “Amazing Grace” it states, “These, according to a former user who tells me she became an addict at 15 but has …show more content…
The filthy conditions in the Bronx are a cause for many dangers and health hazards across the borough. Johnathan Kozol describes these hazards in the book stating, “hundreds of broken elevators trash heaps in which rats may thrive, and serious fire hazards like illegal barred windows or illegally obstructed doors will be added to those other hazards that have already gone undetected” (108). The rats are something of a hideous legend in the Bronx, infesting public housing and businesses to the point that it is no longer safe or acceptable to occupy them. Kozol paints a picture of just how disgusting and menacing the rat problem is, by including the testament of a local who says “They live in dirty water. They look like they’re all blown up, like if you pricked them they’d explode. Sharp little claws. I’ve seen them walk right up a tree like they were walking on the ground.” According to the book, the Board of Health had attempted to exterminate the rats by poisoning them, but failed, as the rats had developed an immunity to the chemicals that were being
Grace is a very sweet and sensitive girl. She made some mistakes herself, but because of her foster parents she got through the tough parts. In Far From the Tree written by Robin Benway, she created a character that had a child in highschool and Her little girl was adopted and has a better life than what Grace could have offered her. Once Grace got told she had a sister named Maya she bursted into joy. Her heart was beating out of her chest when she was emailing Maya to meet up. When Maya replied with an answer Grace was ecstatic, but at the same time she did not know what to think. The moment when she saw the answer was ¨yes¨ she ran downstairs to tell her parents. Her whole life was now different because she had a relief that she had someone
The definition of compassion: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. As this definition shows compassion shows concern for other that every person would love to have. In The Chosen written by Chaim Potok, Mr. Potok really presents compassion in his book. Not only does he display compassion in one of his character but in every single one he gives them compassion that is expressed in different ways. He goes into detail example of compassion with each of his characters and really emphasizes the true meaning of compassion. Three main character that he shows compassion through in different ways are, Reuven, Mr. Malter and Reb Sanders.
Three months before her hearing, Christel overdosed on her mother’s pills. Before her overdose, she wrote a note to God demanding his help to guide her in the right way because she feels that her life is unimportant and useless. In conclusion, it is known that the system operates from cradle to the grave. Each of these individuals all have the same mindset of “if nobody cares why should I?” Beecher Terrace is a high crime-rate neighborhood, where all the individuals either lived or grew up in.
The above is an excerpt of a prayer taken from one of the saddest, most disheartening books I've ever read. Jonathon Kozol based this book on a neighborhood in the South Bronx, called Mott Haven. Mott Haven happens to be not only the poorest district in New York, but possibly in the whole United States. Of the 48,000 living in this broken down, rat-infested neighborhood, two thirds are hispanic, one third is black and thirty-five percent are children. Not only is Mott Haven one of the poorest places, it is also one of the most racially segregated.
Gabor Mate 's essay “Embraced by the Needle” addresses important issues on the negative effects that childhood experiences have on the development of addictions, and the long term effects that drugs play throughout an addict 's life. The author states that addictions originate from unhappiness and pain that is often inflicted upon addicts at early age such as infancy. In Mate essay, he uses many patients past childhood experiences to help create a picture of the trauma that an addict faced as child and the link it plays with who they are today. Mate builds an impressive argument based on the way he organizes his ideas on what addiction is, and how it corresponds to a person 's childhood experience. The author does this effectively
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.
Jonathan Kozol's Amazing Grace is a book about the trials and tribulations of everyday life for a group of children who live in the poorest congressional district of the United States, the South Bronx. Their lives may seem extraordinary to us, but to them, they are just as normal as everyone else. What is normal? For the children of the South Bronx, living with the pollution, the sickness, the drugs, and the violence is the only way of life many of them have ever known.
Throughout “Chasing the Scream” many intriguing stories are told from individuals involved in the drug war, those on the outside of the drug war, and stories about those who got abused by the drug war. Addiction has many social causes that address drug use and the different effects that it has on different people. In our previous history we would see a tremendous amount of individuals able to work and live satisfying lives after consuming a drug. After the Harrison Act, drugs were abolished all at once, but it lead to human desperation so instead of improving our society, we are often the reason to the problem. We constantly look at addicts as the bad guys when other individuals are often the reasons and influences to someone’s decision in
Stress, there is no way to avoid stress being alive. For some reason, people try to avoid, or run away from their problems by doing all kinds of drugs, such as nicotine, marijuana, ecstasy, and much more. These drugs relaxes people, relieving stress for a period of time. Of course, doing drugs is not good for your health, and we can not really prevent people from doing drugs, and getting an addiction in the first place. What people with drug addictions need to do is find any source of help as soon as possible, relieve their stress, or just find a medication. If nothing is treated to the addiction, then the addiction will just grow worse. Drug addictions can only prevent people from accomplishing goals or dreams in life. People sometimes feel
In the book, Addiction & Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions, May explores how addiction develops and can be treated from a psychological, physiological, and spiritual standpoint. This theme is clearly shown throughout the text as it shows addiction from a whole person's perspective. The book covers the development of addiction from desire through the experience of addiction. The key focus is on looking at the matter of addiction from multiple stand points then broken down by explaining how addiction is an issue psychologically, physiologically, and spiritually. By focusing on these three areas, the author is able to present the reader with a clear understanding of addiction from all sides of the problem.
People sometimes say that drugs and alcohol make for the best stories. While the saying often refers to a fun night out, drugs and alcohol can just as easily tell stories about desperation, despair, and, tragically, death. What starts out as a good time, can turn into a disaster in a blink of an eye and without a warning. Sadly, the user is too stoned to notice and the downward spiral begins.
Drugs are used to escape the real and move into the surreal world of one’s own imaginations, where the pain is gone and one believes one can be happy. People look on their life, their world, their own reality, and feel sickened by the uncaringly blunt vision. Those too weak to stand up to this hard life seek their escape. They believe this escape may be found in chemicals that can alter the mind, placing a delusional peace in the place of their own depression: “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly halucinant,” (52). They do this with alcohol, acid, crack, cocaine, heroine, opium, even marijuana for the commoner economy. These people would rather hide behind the haze than deal with real problems. “...A gramme is better than a damn.” (55).
In 2009, a girl named Savannah was an addict at the age of ten. Both of her parents were really hard drug users, she lived with her mom at the time which is when she got introduced to pills such as: Percocet, Vicodin, and a lot of downers. She had struggled with depression because her family was both physical and verbal abuse, so she abused herself using drugs, cutting, bulimia, anorexia, and guys that she had brang into and out of her life.
Drug abuse has been a hot topic for our society due to how stimulants interfere with health, prosperity, and the lives of others in all nations. All drugs have the potential to be misapplied, whether obtained by prescription, over the counter, or illegally. Drug abuse is a despicable disease that affects many helpless people. Majority of those who are beset with this disease go untreated due to health insurance companies who neglect and discriminate this issue. As an outcome of missed opportunities of treatments, abusers become homeless, very ill, or even worst, death.
The use of drugs is a controversial topic in society today. In general, addicts show a direct link between taking drugs and suffering from their effects. People abuse drugs for a wide variety of reasons. In most cases, the use of drugs will serve a type of purpose or will give some kind of reward. These reasons for use will differ with different kinds of drugs. Various reasons for using the substance can be pain relief, depression, anxiety and weariness, acceptance into a peer group, religion, and much more. Although reasons for using may vary for each individual, it is known by all that consequences of the abuse do exist. It is only further down the line when the effects of using can be seen.