Immediately I was shocked when reading this article and there were several issues that sadden me and made me sick, and some even warmed my heart. It takes places in New York which was the first thing that shocked me because it so close to here. iIt made me sick when Kozol says "in Humid summer weather roaches crawl on virtually every surface of the houses...rats emerge from holes in walls, and outside the restlessness and anger that are present in all seasons intinsify under the stress of the heat". I found this quite disturbing and sad to know this is how some people live and it also creeped me out the fact that rats crawl through holes in walls. When the little boy was interviewed I noticed a few things; he was very mature for his age, he was religious, and knew everyone.
When Kozol talked about this little boy he met I felt like I just wanted to hug this child and take him out of the hell hole in lives in. This young child saw many things a kid should not see; for example, peopke dying and getting shot, people doing and selling drugs, and poverty. If you ask me no one should experience this let alone a young child. For this reason I feel as though he was very mature for his age because he had to grow up fast to deal with his hardships. Also, I noticed that even though he had so many hardships he was still very religious and giving; when a man on the streets was starving he generously gave him a slice of pizza even though it was his meal. When explaining why he gave this man food the young boy responded, "god tells us to share". I thought this was very noble and kind of this young boy.
The last issue that sickened me was the fact that statesmen and everyone knows about the poverty in New York and everywhere and they really do not seem to do anything about it. One woman explains that they just make it worse by dumping things in their neighborhoods to make it worse. For example, the city added a garbage dump just down the street from her neighborhood. She then explains that people dump whatever they want here making the neighborhood more dumpy.
Finally, the last line of this article gave me chills, it explains the herion drug dealers seem to laugh when they yell at "DOA" because they are "laughing at their lives and at yours". Also, I think the title represents the little boy because out of his miserable life he is like the "Saving Grace" that helps people and makes the best of situations. What is your interpretation of the title?
I totally agree with you. It feels as if I am completely oblivious because when I read articles like this one I become completely disturbed and shocked. I work with kids and I can't imagine having one of them speak so easily of those hardships without the blink of an eye. Its hard to come to terms that a kid can understand adult hardships and live through them.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea of the powerful trying to hard these hardships is easy to understand. It is the whole idea of "out of sight, out of mind."
this was by far one of the best articles we had to read. It was so shocking to see the things these poor children had to live with. This reading kind of reminded me of the neighborhood our school is in. I mean in our school's neighborhood the streets flood and have trash floating down them when it rains. The potholes never get fixed. Also, windows are boarded up and houses are left with doors off of them. When i look around it reminds me of this reading.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all three of the posts here.. I was so sad just reading about all of this that goes on outside our state, yet so close to where we live. I'm sure there are people living here that have similar stories. I think that as Sam said, it is amazing to see a child speak so freely about something so difficult. I know that it's hard for me to talk about things in my life but I see it as courage how he speaks so freely about it. I think that certain children are so brave in many aspects. You see some growing up so quickly because of what they have to face.
ReplyDelete