The Characteristics Of My Father And Anderson's Code Of The Street

Anderson’s Code of the Street introduces readers to a society in Philadelphia consisting of decent and street-oriented individuals. Old heads are considered to be role models who set powerful examples of work ethic and responsibility to youths. Old Heads consists of the decent daddy and the black inner-city grandmother. This paper will compare and contrast the characteristics of my father and grandmother to Anderson’s description of the decent daddy and decent grandmother. Based on Anderson’s Code of Street, “The decent daddy is a certain kind of man, with certain responsibilities and privileges: to work, to support his family, to rule his house-hold, to protect his daughters, and to raise his sons to be like him, as well as to encourage other

My father works two jobs. He is a Sheet Metal Mechanic at Spirit AeroSystems and he owns a Vietnamese and Chinese restaurant called Pho MC. At one point in time he was the main supporter in my family money wise. He not only supplied my family with the necessities and wants in life, such as, food, shelter, clothing, and material things, but also his attention and love. Growing up in an Asian heritage my household’s authority was patriarchal. My father was born into Buddhism, but converted to Catholicism for my mother, and has been deeply religious ever since. My father was always overprotective with my sister and I. We could not date, hangout, or even talk to boys until my junior year of high school. Since I was young my father always said, “Do not be a penny. You are worth much more.” He has high standards and morals that he has put upon me. My father always takes the initiative to teach my brother and cousins life lessons and instructs them to have a good honest lifestyle. In Code of the Street, Anderson explains how the home of the decent daddy is a safe haven for the community. My house has always been the “protected nest” for my extended family. There are many times where my cousins would come live at my house for a short period of time due to family problems and my father would be the peacemaker between altercations involving their families. He has

My grandmother is deeply religious. She goes to church every single day, prays multiple times a day, and spends time in the adoration chapel. Similar to the decent grandmother, my grandmother use to live with my family and take care of my siblings and I when we were young due to my parents’ heavy work schedules. My grandmother is the backbone for my nuclear and extended family. She is well respected among many and is caring, loving, and has “mother wit.” The difference between Anderson’s decent grandmother and my grandmother is that while most decent grandmothers are around thirty-seven-years-old, my grandmother is seventy-years-old, and became a grandmother at the age of forty-five-years-old. Another difference is that my grandmother did not have to deal with her children becoming crack addicts and abandoning their children for days on in. In Code of the Street, Betty is resistant in letting her daughters, Angela and her youngest one, move back into her apartment due to their boyfriends doing drugs and Betty was not financially stable to care for all of them. This situation differs from my grandmother, because my whole extended family from my mother’s side lived in one small house with my grandmother back in 2000. My grandmother accepts everyone and does not worry about her financial stability regardless of difficult