Your surroundings don't define who you are. In The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace written by Jeff Hobbs, Robert Peace grows up in Newark; a community that increasingly declines in safety and rises in poverty and drug dealing. However despite his surroundings Robert shows remarkable signs of intelligence in which his mother sacrifices ⅓ of her salary to be able to feed his thirst for education by sending Rob to private school. However, Peace’s father becomes wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of two women, which takes a huge toll on Rob’s life. Although he shows no signs of struggle or troubling behavior growing up, he’s keeping most of his feelings about his father bottled up inside and using it as a motivation to help him succeed
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He felt he needed to be involved in his father’s case and prove his innocence. Skeet was accused of the murder of two women, sisters, by the name of Charlene and Estella Moore. The third victim, who was intoxicated and was shot in the face and arm, identified Skeet. He waited three years to start the trail and when the trial started, Rob was called onto the stand to save his father’s life. Hobbs informs that “To the extent that he could, Rob used his responses to declare over and over that his father was a nice man who cared about homework and would never hurt anybody. Lechliter managed to sway the judge towards the death penalty regardless.” (44). At ten years old, he had to convince the judge in front of him that his father was a man of innocence, but failed and his father was sentenced to a death penalty. This failed responsibility would have a heavy weight on Rob. Most children in Rob’s community grew up without a father and that put him on a common ground with other kids. However Rob’s carried a deeper pain that the kids around him could never understand; the pain of having a loving and supportive father ripped away. Even though it was clear to all the burdens he had weighed on him, he never told anyone of his situation. He constantly asks his mother when he will see him next, and at age 13 he becomes actively involved in his community as his father once was. Rob began smoking and drinking with his …show more content…
Rob called his double life “Newark-Proofing” in which he would keep his academic abilities to a minimum around his ghetto community and still be an exemplary student at school with no struggle. However he still begins to make a name for himself. People would notice him reading large books quietly for fun, and had the third highest GPA in his class. Then word let out that Robert Peace knew all the Bone Thug-n-Harmony songs, in which the songs were so fast-paced that only knowing one was amazing enough. Meanwhile, in his community people were amazed at his football skills, how someone who seemed to just smoke and relaxed loved to smash himself into others. At the same time, Rob was teased at from his community members. Hobbs describes how Rob’s neighborhood friends acted towards him:
They wondered loudly how a badass like Rob Peace could have chosen an all-boy prep school like that over a real school like Orange High. They made Jesus jokes. They made pussy jokes….Rob had no grounds to fight them for it, because in his eyes these friends were more or less right to laugh. Matriculation at St Benedict’s posed problems.
He felt he needed to be involved in his father’s case and prove his innocence. Skeet was accused of the murder of two women, sisters, by the name of Charlene and Estella Moore. The third victim, who was intoxicated and was shot in the face and arm, identified Skeet. He waited three years to start the trail and when the trial started, Rob was called onto the stand to save his father’s life. Hobbs informs that “To the extent that he could, Rob used his responses to declare over and over that his father was a nice man who cared about homework and would never hurt anybody. Lechliter managed to sway the judge towards the death penalty regardless.” (44). At ten years old, he had to convince the judge in front of him that his father was a man of innocence, but failed and his father was sentenced to a death penalty. This failed responsibility would have a heavy weight on Rob. Most children in Rob’s community grew up without a father and that put him on a common ground with other kids. However Rob’s carried a deeper pain that the kids around him could never understand; the pain of having a loving and supportive father ripped away. Even though it was clear to all the burdens he had weighed on him, he never told anyone of his situation. He constantly asks his mother when he will see him next, and at age 13 he becomes actively involved in his community as his father once was. Rob began smoking and drinking with his …show more content…
Rob called his double life “Newark-Proofing” in which he would keep his academic abilities to a minimum around his ghetto community and still be an exemplary student at school with no struggle. However he still begins to make a name for himself. People would notice him reading large books quietly for fun, and had the third highest GPA in his class. Then word let out that Robert Peace knew all the Bone Thug-n-Harmony songs, in which the songs were so fast-paced that only knowing one was amazing enough. Meanwhile, in his community people were amazed at his football skills, how someone who seemed to just smoke and relaxed loved to smash himself into others. At the same time, Rob was teased at from his community members. Hobbs describes how Rob’s neighborhood friends acted towards him:
They wondered loudly how a badass like Rob Peace could have chosen an all-boy prep school like that over a real school like Orange High. They made Jesus jokes. They made pussy jokes….Rob had no grounds to fight them for it, because in his eyes these friends were more or less right to laugh. Matriculation at St Benedict’s posed problems.