No Hope for the Children in There Are No Children Here Henry Horner Homes, an inner-city housing project, is the setting in which the story of two boys growing up in America’s inner-city occurs. The story tracks the River’s family, particularly the two middle boys, Lafeyette and Pharoah, focusing on the strife-ridden times of drugs, death, gangs, and poverty. The author describes how devastating life in the inner city is for a family, but mainly for the children. Public housing complexes were seen as pleasurable places. When the boys’ mother, LaJoe, first moved to Horner she was thirteen. The homes had white, freshly painted walls, new linoleum floors, closets you could hide in, and brand new appliances. The children went to dances in the basement, belonged to the girl scouts, and played outside on the playground surrounded by freshly planted grass. This harmonious sight all came to an abrupt end. The housing authority did not have the money or interest to put into the projects. They did not have much concern for low-income families and, therefore, the projects were neglected. The smell in the apartments became so bad that people thought dead fetuses were being flushed down the toilets. The appliances in the apartments hardly ever worked, so cooking was limited. After an inspection of the basement, over 2000 new and used appliances were found covered with rats, animal carcasses and excrements. The dead animals, paraphernalia, and female undergarments explained the smell lingering throughout the apartments. Inner-city life is filled with glimmers of hope. The children had hopes of leaving the dreadful streets of the ghetto and moving into an innovative and improved place. There are times when Lafayette states, ... ... middle of paper ... ...eir mothers are getting pregnant, commonly, with a different father for each child. Kotlowitz does an excellent job portraying how demoralizing life in the ghetto really is. Through showing what the children of the book go through, Kotlowitz remains very neutral. He bestows the thoughts, fears, and hopes of inner-city children that normally are not exposed to those who do not live in these circumstances. Lafayette and Pharoah are only two of the thousands of children suffering in these disturbing conditions. The Chicago Housing Authority did go in and clean up the buildings, but without accessible money there is not that much that can be done. The children born into poverty cannot overcome the situation, unless they are provided with the means and opportunities to do so. Works Cited: Kotlowitz, Alex. There are no children here. New York: Doubleday.1991.
as she grows up during World War II in a Japanese internment camp. Along with
The book itself is an on-going dialogue between Kozol and the neighborhoods residents, interjected every so often with thoughts from Kozol. He covers a spectrum of topics from AIDS, drug addiction, prostitution, crime, poorly run and funded schools, white flight from schools to over-crowded hospitals and the amazing faith in religion and God that many of these people have.
In Horner, there are two gangs that claim it as their area, and the Rivers family is always hiding from all the shooting. The apartment they live in is so unkempt, and mostly too old. Their mother, LaJoe, does all she can to keep her children out of danger in the community. The children also have to watch out for themselves from danger and quickly losing their childhood. The boys find it difficult to have friends because most of the other children are involved in the gangs or are dealing with drugs. Pharaoh
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
At a young age Lajoe, her parents and other siblings were the first family to move into the newly built Henry Horner Homes, a public housing high-rise project, on Chicago’s south side. Lajoe recalls how clean and spacious their apartment was then. As the years passed the city became less and less able to allocate funds to keep up with the repairs the buildings needed and the city seemed not to care. The projects became ran down, dank and to condense to support a large family. Lajoe became pregnant at the young age of fourteen and was unable finish her high school education.
...ll. The inner city has many complications the fact that most are African American is a mere coincidence. If we as a nation are capable of fixing all institutions and structural issues we could bring the slums out of poverty. The cycle of unemployment and poverty is a terrible cycle that cannot only be judged by race and cultural values. When reading this book keep in mind the difficulties, any family or person could go through these tribulations. There are many arguments and sides to each problem; this is another one of those. The battle for inner city poverty, and the factors that go along with it, has not been finished. Wilson brings out a different aspect which could help people expand horizons and come up with better solutions.
As a child, Dubois was born a free man into a wealthy family. With opportunities around for him at every corner, Dubois became determined to make something with his life. After studying at Harvard and becoming the first African to graduate with a P.h.D. there, Dubois set his mind onto the African American treatment in America. Seeing the disgusting nature of white supremacists, Dubois knew that the only way for Blacks to actually obtain their rights was to demand them. Since Booker’s beliefs only appealed to hopeful lower-middle class African Americans, Dubois wanted a resolution that would take less time to come to. Without knowing how long they would need to wait for their rights to finally come, the African American community deserved the equality needed for them. If blacks are held down by the society and fail to get the education they need, they will definitely be stuck in their state forever. When talking on the problem of education for blacks, Dubois stated “Education is that whole system of human training within and without the schoolhouse walls, which molds and develops men”. That being said, if blacks follow Bookers path and decide not to use education to their advantage, they won’t develop into the ment they need to be. If whites are the only ones able to obtain an education, they will remain the men in charge of the nation. With racism being a constant issue within the
The book asks two questions; first, why the changes that have taken place on the sidewalk over the past 40 years have occurred? Focusing on the concentration of poverty in some areas, people movement from one place to the other and how the people working/or living on Sixth Avenue come from such neighborhoods. Second, How the sidewalk life works today? By looking at the mainly poor black men, who work as book and magazine vendors, and/or live on the sidewalk of an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The book follows the lives of several men who work as book and magazine vendors in Greenwich Village during the 1990s, where mos...
The separation of the Wakatsuki family is a second effect of the evacuation and internment. Before the evacuation, the Wakatsuki family members were living in the same house in Ocean Park, California.
In There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, the way of life in Chicago's Henry Horner projects has a profound effect on all the residents who live there. The children become desensitized by the constant violence that they are forced to witness every day. Children are forced to walk home from school through the urban war zone of these housing projects. It is not unusual for the children to run home from school to avoid becoming casualties of the ongoing battle between rival gangs. The violence has affected Lafeyette and Pharaoh as much as anyone in the projects.
During the month of October, Canada’s political scene was very busy due to the 2015 federal election held on the 19th. Throughout the previous months, the public held great interest towards the campaigns of each party as well as their platforms in order to choose the party that the public wanted as the new government of Canada. In the campaigns, a major topic that was included in every party’s plan was the Syrian refugee crisis that is currently an issue in many countries around the globe. This crisis has taken the media by storm and is a concern for many citizens in Canada. As a country known to be peaceful and generous, many people would assume that Canada would be one of the first to step in and help those in need but that is not the case. The general population does not know that the current laws in place make becoming a refugee in Canada a long and unfair process. Acquiring refugee status in Canada, protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, health care for refugees and the current stance of Canada in regards to the refugee crisis are all factors that the general public must be more aware about. The current laws regarding refugees of Canada must change.
At several points in the story, Baldwin emphasizes the quickness at which Harlem residents fall to the pull of evil. The children of Harlem are de...
Soon after Papa’s arrest, Mama relocated the family to the Japanese immigrant ghetto on Terminal Island. For Mama this was a comfort in the company of other Japanese but for Jeanne it was a frightening experience. It was the first time she had lived around other people of Japanese heritage and this fear was also reinforced by the threat that her father would sell her to the “Chinaman” if she behaved badly. In this ghetto Jeanne and he ten year old brother were teased and harassed by the other children in their classes because they could not speak Japanese and were already in the second grade. Jeanne and Kiyo had to avoid the other children’s jeers. After living there for two mo...
First, in inner cities the minority of people protects about the injustice that they experience in American society like brutality by the police. The people in the inner cities live in hopeless bout their own destiny. Richardson, post a picture about of two little boys who walk peacefully on the protest. The two little boys symbolize how the new generation faces their reality in society. The present of the two boys call people attention about how the parents involved their children in this activity and they teach their children how can defense themselves in front the injustice of live miserable. The picture shows how the innocent of the new generation is changed drastically because the eyes of the two boys show innocent and worries because they feel that their childhood is gone because he doesn’t understand their reality. Baldwin in his article, ‘Notes of a Native Son’ would argues that the people in Baltimore are going through to protect themselves front the hate they experience by the people in society. Baldwin states, “I did
Young adults from such backgrounds may lack the support that is indispensable for their success. The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability says “Families play an important role in helping youth envision a future for themselves that is rooted in high expectations and thoughtful planning. All youth need the support of their families and other caring adults as they transition into adulthood.” Although this is directly geared towards young adults with disabilities, it can be applied to all individuals. Families need to support their youth as they prepare to face the challenges a young adult experiences. The NCWD gives several steps we as adults can take to help our young adults; maintain high expectations, remain involved in their life, help them access information, take an active role in transition planning , and help youth access networks of personal and professional contacts. These may seem like miniscule tasks to you, but to your loved one this form of support is