Chicago Slums Analysis

Register to read the introduction… Here, the boys could be children. They could let their imaginations run wild and they could just take a break from the horrible life they have waiting at home. Lafeyette and Pharoah are a part of large family living in the Chicago projects. Their mother, Lajoe, has eight children; the three older ones have slowly fallen off the deep end, but the five younger have a chance to do good. Lajoe takes great pride in her children and does everything she can to raise them to be upstanding citizens and stay out of trouble. She is greatly disappointed in the way her first three turned out, so she makes it a point to keep the younger kids under strict supervision. Because of the absence of their drug addicted father, Lafeyette, a child himself, takes the role of man of the house. He looks out for his siblings and takes care of his mother. Even when Lajoe loses her welfare check, her Lafeyette stands strong and reassures her it will all be ok. During the course of their lives, the children face everything from drugs, violence, rape, imprisonment, and worse of all, death. They learn quickly that they must grow up fast to overcome the despair that shadows their everyday lives. Lajoe tries hard to preserve the youth of Pharoah and the triplets. Because of this, most of the responsibility gets put on Lafeyette and his childhood is quickly taken from …show more content…
Because America strives to be the greatest country citizens often try to hide the poverty that runs our inner city streets. For the wealthy it is easier to just turn away and pretend this “other America” doesn’t exist.
“Horner sat so close to the city’s business district that from the Sears Tower observation deck, tourists could have watched Lafeyette duck gunfire on his birthday.” (Kotlowitz, …show more content…
There are No Children Here. 1st ed. United States: Anchor Books.
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