The Cost to Come of Age
How grave must a situation be for one to mature in their perspectives, or in other words, come of age? Evan Hunter’s On the Sidewalk Bleeding explores the idea of psychological growth through the seriousness of death. The protagonist Andy, transitions from ignorance to knowledge, idealism to realism, and thinking of self to thinking of others throughout the story. He goes from misunderstanding what a gang represents to knowing the negativity of being in a gang, from picturing an idealistic future to realizing that death will keep him from having one, and from thinking only of himself and the gang to thinking of the rest of the world. Each transition prominently leads Andy through a shift from adolescence to adulthood.
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Andy considers his feelings about the gang at the end of the story, as “[h]e [remembers] how happy he was when the Royals had taken him” (Hunter 4). It clearly meant a lot to Andy when he was first accepted into the gang and it can be inferenced that the gang is and always has been, his main priority. Throughout the duration of the story, Andy tends to solely focus on what the gang makes him feel such as pride and happiness. He focuses less on the small number of relationships he has, for example with Laura. The beliefs that were instilled in him prevented Andy from getting to know others around him. Ensuingly, as Andy lies in the alley, he sees people passing down the street and “wonder[s]…if he [will] ever get to know them” (Hunter 4). Seeing the people helps Andy to consider everything that he has missed and all the experiences and relationships he lost out on. He becomes weary when he realizes that there are so many people he could have encountered. Once Andy asks himself about the people, he ponders the fact the he will never get to experience life, while “watch[ing] the world [pass] at the other end of the alley” (Hunter 4). Andy looks at the world and watches as it passes him by, realizing that the illusion of happiness the gang may have made him feel does not measure up to the relationships that he could have had. He stops thinking about himself and the gang, and just watches. He also thinks of Laura in a more selfless manner and considers the world that he never tried to get to know. Andy shows a newfound maturity when he starts to think about others and becomes selfless, depicting his coming of age. Initially, Andy solely focuses on himself and his gang. Once he notices the people, he is able to look outside of himself and consider the rest of the world. Andy stops thinking of himself and starts to think of others, and shows a developmental change in
One character that changed in their story was Andy from “On the Sidewalk Bleeding.” At the beginning of the story, Andy was proud to be a champion, proud to be a Royal. He was not ashamed of who he was. In “On the Sidewalk Bleeding”, it states, “He could remember how happy he was when the Royals had taken him...There had been meaning to the title.” This shows that Andy was proud of who he was. He was not scared of the Guardians. However, towards the end of the story Andy realizes he was stabbed because of his Royals jacket, not because he was Andy. He develops hatred for the jacket, knowing know that winning a championship was nothing to die for, nothing to give up seeing his lover. In the story it states, “The jacket had only one meaning,
We were the lords of all creation. As for andy he spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange little smile on his face, watching us drink his beer." This quote shows how little things teh prisoners get can make them happy.Another example would be when he used the hammer to escape from prison. It started when he asked Red to get him a rok hammer, which he said he would use to shape rocks. He calms Red's conscious as he tells it would take him a thousand years to break out of prison with a rosk hammer.When he received the rosk hammer he started to shape rocks as soon as he could and hidden that hole with a poster.After he had the hole big enough to crawl throught, he asked Heywood for a six-foot piece of rope.
The book emphasizes the idea of how difficult it is to leave the gang lifestyle. There are frequent cases of relapse by individuals in the book, who were once out to again return to gangs. This case is brought by what gangs represent to this in the book and what leaving entails them to give up. The definition of gangs presented to the class was, three or more members, share name, color, or affiliation, or must exist in a geopolitical context. To members associated with gangs, this definition can include your family members, neighborhood, everyone that they associate with. Take for example Ronnie from Jumped in by Jorja Leap it states,” Ronny’s role models are gangbangers. His family is a hood. His mentors are older homies in county jail.”(102). Ronnie and other gang members like him do not
This is because the book, Do or Die: America’s Most Notorious Gangs Speak for Themselves is about how gang members, speak about their life and how it could’ve ended. Another connection that I thought of after reading the story; was that I was judged as someone bad when I wasn’t. This relates to the story because people saw Andy as a bad person for his reputation of being a Royal. The last connection I made was that it reminded of when there was a gang shootout and many the gang members died. This is related to the story because it shows that being a gang member can cause a risk of
worsen the situation and control his actions, through the gang he learns to be who he wants and to
Andy loses his best friend in a car wreck after drinking and driving. This affects Andy greatly. Draper shows Andy having to go to therapy for his depression from losing Robert. The beginning of therapy sessions were not great. Andy
The evolution Andy has from seeing things idealistically to realistically, the ignorance to knowledge transition and the selfless rather than selfish decisions all bind together to demonstrate a maturing development; this is an often-required aspect found in stories of the coming of age genre. Furthermore, this growth is a candid experience that all adolescence will undeniably face and gaining this maturity is something that one must develop; it does not come with age alone. All members of society will go through this change at some point in life. These maturing experiences are the unavoidable guarantee of entering
First, Andy preserves his self-respect by fighting or defending himself from the rape squad of Shawshank Prison known as “The Sisters”.
He then continues to say, “Do you want to miss a match? Blow your ride?” The pressure that his dad puts on him to be rebellious like him made Andrew get into detention in the first place simply because he got caught. Andrew describes that he “taped Larry Lester’s buns together”, he then goes on to say “that the bizarre thing is that I did it for my old man.” This further proves that Andrew’s dad has influenced the way he has behaved, and his parent-adolescent conflict worsens as his push for freedom establishes a harsher, goal-seeking father. Instead of becoming close in a new, harmonious way, it appears Andrew and his father will eventually distance themselves from one another. He wonders if he will end up like his parents or not: “Oh God, are we gonna be like our
I haven’t lived yet. It seemed very important to him that he take off the purple jacket” (Hunter 6). It is at this point that his character shifts from selfishness to selflessness. It is as if by taking off the jacket Andy is sending a message to others that gangs are not important and that in the end, he did not want to be associated to a gang in his death, he only wanted to be Andy.
The kids became gang members for many reasons. Some needed to find what their place was in the world, and they needed to know who they were as human beings. Joining the gang gave them a feeling of being involved in something and made them feel better about themselves. They felt that as a gang member they received the attention, emotional support, and understanding that they couldn’t get from their actual family members at home.
In the story, Andy is part of a gang called the ‘Royals’. While he is bleeding on the sidewalk, the couple that passes by chose not to help him. (Freddie says “He’s a Royal.”) I think this is because Andy has removed his previous identity, one where he is not associated with a gang, and replaced it with one that people around him found hostile, aggressive and scary. By saving Andy, the couple would have taken a risk that would show other gangs that the couple is affiliated and in support of the Royals, which could lead to them being in the same position as Andy.
While in the prison, the inmates are not accustomed to the changes in time. They are only used to the confines of the prison itself. Through this, Red and Andy realize that time waits for no one. Most importantly, it is vital that every precious moment in life must be taken in all seriousness. Through these experiences in the prison both inmates find a revelation within themselves and their time spent in the
Red has a hard time adapting to life outside and starts to feel discouraged till he decides to break parole and reunite with Andy. Red could've have never taken a chance and yet he did to feel free of all the burden he used to have. Even when Andy and Red were the most vulnerable he still found life and did not sink into