In the book DeShawn and the children at his school don’t get a good education. DeShawn gets offered a chance into a better school called Hewlett Academy. On page 29 it says, “Maybe you’re the one who’ll really do something with his life. But to do that, you’ll need a better education than you’ll get here. So you’ll think about Hewlett, right?” Mr. Brand, DeShawn’s teacher believed that he was smart enough to go to a good school like Hewlett Academy. But on page 89 the author states, “Let’s see your standardized test results.’ … City-wide, your test scores are in the twenty-third percentile.” Therefore, people thought DeShawn was smart, even his teacher thought he was smart enough to go to Hewlett Academy but according to his test scores he fell into the twenty-third percentile and could not apply for Hewlett …show more content…
Between peer pressure and the lack of money most people join the gangs. On page 55 it says, “If you got with us, Marcus might think serious about bringing us into the Disciples.” Terrell, DeShawn’s best friend, had created a junior gang which they called Soon to Shoot and Terrell was trying to get DeShawn to join their junior gang. Terrell believed that if DeShawn were to join their gang then Marcus, the leader of the Disciples, would think about bring them into the Disciples. On page 154 the author states, “You said it couldn’t be kept by a Disciple.’ Marcus stared at me for a moment. ‘You sure?’ Uh-huh.’ ‘All right , but you can keep that.” At this point DeShawn had dealt with poverty many times and decided that it was time to join the Disciples to end his money troubles. He was giving Marcus the envelope of money that he had given him to try and earn Marcus’ loyalty. In the projects if you become a part of the gang there is no way out. If you are a part of the gang you can’t just get up and leave, you are bond to the