Tattoos In The Heart: A Thematic Analysis

Gregory Boyle’s book, Tattoos in the Heart, is filled with many ideas throughout the book. Boyle talks the many experiences he went through running Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, California. In parts of the book, you can see how he helped gang members in that area have a second chance to get their life straight and be in a better position for themselves and their families. In Tattoos on the Heart, the two main ideas that the audience see transition in parts of the book is to have compassion and our jurisdiction wide open just like God has compassion and acceptance toward us. One of the main ideas in this book is to be compassionate towards other people just like God is towards gang members in the book. “Compassion isn’t just about feeling the pain of others; it’s about bringing them in toward yourself” (Boyle 75). This quote is saying that to be compassionate one must feel the other person’s pain and see their point of view in order to understand them and their situation in order to be compassionate towards that person. In the book …show more content…
The two main ideas the we see develop throughout his book is compassion and jurisdiction towards other people just like God has compassion and acceptance towards people. We can see that Boyle does everything he can in his power to be a positive change for a gang member’s life by having compassion for them and understanding their pain that they had in the past and get them back into the right track for a better future. We can also see the acceptance the people in Boyle’s life have towards each other even if they are considered enemies. Boyle sees all of them the same and treats them with the same acceptance and love because accepting someone means accepting them for who they are and loving them enough to be that one person that changes their life for the