There Are No Children Here Essay - 2507 Words

There Are No Children Here The book â€Å"There Are No Children Here† follows the life of two young boys, Pharoah and Lafayette as they battle everyday life in the dangerous neighborhood of Henry Horner. Many of the life events of Pharoah and Lafayette’s book â€Å"There are no Children Here† can be tied to lessons in the book of â€Å"Juvenile Delinquency.† Some of the more prominent themes are macro level theories, critical theory of labeling, juvenile justice system, and drugs and gangs. In this book summary I will be discussing how these theories can be applied to the book â€Å"There Are No Children Here.† Summary: (Small side note: I actually live like 15 minutes away form Hery Horner when I was little, I lived in Cicero which was like west from there, so I kinda new some of the streets and hospitals they where talking about in the book! I don’t know just though it was kinda cool, haha.) The book starts of by showing the reading with a small scene of children running along the train tacks one summer night, in this chapter we meet our two main characters nine year old Pharoah and Lafayette, as they experience one of the few peaceful days in their lives. In the next chapter we meet the children’s mother LaJoe who is described to be a beautiful, gentle woman who has been though too much. We also learn about the children home, an apartment complex known as Hery Horner Homes named after the Governor. In this chapter we also learn a bit more about LaJoe and her past life, and how she wasShow MoreRelatedThere Are No Children Here2082 Words   |  9 Pagesâ€Å"Chicago Slums: The Other America† Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate. (Anonymous)† In the 1980 Chicago slums this quote couldn’t be truer. The slums were/are a terrible place for not just children, but everyone to live. The Henry Horner homes in particular are full of death, drugs, and poverty. This may not seem like the greatest place for children to be raised, but for some, they know nothing different. The constant gang trouble, drug trafficking, and hidingRead MoreAnalysis Of There Are No Children Here1160 Words   |  5 PagesJackson Evans Sociology Dr. Wernet 11/4/17 There are no Children Here The book â€Å"There Are No Children Here† by Alex Kotlowitz details the challenges two young boy’s face by being raised in the inner city housing project (Henry Horner Homes). These challenges stem from racism, discrimination, the social construction of reality, social location, social class, and the deviance theory, which is due to their location and influences at which causes many youths to lead a life of crime. The book focusesRead More There Are No Children Here Essay978 Words   |  4 PagesThere Are No Children Here Alex Kotlowitz was a freelance journalist. In 1985 a friend came to him and asked him to write a text for a photo essay he was doing on (children living in poverty) for a Chicago magazine. That is when he met the Rivers brothers, Lafeyette, age ten, and Pharoah age seven. He spent only a few hours with them interviewing for the photo essay. Lafeyette had an impact on Kotlowitz. When asked what he wanted to be, Lafeyette responded with If I grow up, Id like toRead MoreThere Are No Children Here By Kotlowitz Essay1236 Words   |  5 PagesIn There Are No Children Here, Kotlowitz describes the experiences of Pharoah and Lafayette to highlight the racist and classist undertones existing within the criminal justice system of Chicago in the late 1980s. This essay will utilize the theory of critical criminology to illustrate the structures of inequality within the criminal justice system and the subsequent marginalization of youth that exists within the Henry Horner community, leadin g to youth deviance and violent crime. Beginning withRead More There are no Children Here Essay1736 Words   |  7 Pages nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Alex Kotlowitz’s book, There are No Children Here, is a story about two boys, Pharoah and Lafeyette Rivers growing in the late 1980’s in Henry Horner, a housing project in Chicago. The boys try to retain their youth while they see constant gang violence, death of close friends, their brother in jail and their dad struggling with a drug addiction. In Horner, there are two gangs that claim it as their turf, and the Rivers family is constantly ducking from shots of gunfireRead MoreThere Are No Children Here Essays: Style607 Words   |  3 Pages Style of There Are No Children Here There Are No Children Herenbsp; In Kotlowitzs description of the harsh realities of the Chicago projects, three stylistic elements stand out: his precise narration, his bluntness, and his questionable objectivity. These three elements blend to form a unique style that is particularly well-suited for There Are No Children Here. If there is one thing on which critics agree when discussing this book, it is that Kotlowitz is a brilliant narrator. He has aRead MoreThere Are No Children Here - Book Review1651 Words   |  7 PagesBook Review – There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz Summary There Are No Children Here is a story of the struggles two preteen boys live with while growing up in the projects. From the first pages the scene is set amongst the all too familiar gun fire blazing through the neighborhood. This story is of eleven year old Lafeyette and nine year old Pharoah dealing with the daily fight for survival in inner-city Chicago circa 1987. The boys are living in an apartment at the Henry HornerRead MoreThere Are No Children Here By Alex Kotlowitz Essay1933 Words   |  8 PagesRenee Driver CCJS 454 0101 November 22, 2016 Final Paper There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, tells a story about the family of LaJoe and Paul Rivers. The book focuses on Lafayette and Pharaoh, two of the younger children in the family, and their interactions with each other, the neighborhood, their family, their friends, and the police. Following the family over three years shows the importance of neighborhood factors when it comes to crime. According to Sampson and Groves (1989)Read MoreThere Are No Children Here By Alex Kotlowitz Essay1909 Words   |  8 PagesThere Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz tells the harrowing story of the Rivers family and their shocking experiences living in an underserved Chicago public housing project. The story focuses on Lafayette, a middle school aged boy discovering his identity, Pharoah, an elementary school aged boy with high ambition and goals, and their resilient mother LaJoe. Matza’s Techniques of Neutralization discuss how people can create rationalizations to justify d elinquencies and crimes. Specifically applicableRead MoreThere Are No Children Here Essay examples1767 Words   |  8 PagesAlex Kotlowitzs book, There are No Children Here, is a story about two boys, Pharaoh and Lafeyette Rivers growing in the late 1980s in Henry Horner, a housing project in Chicago. The boys try to retain their youth while they see constant gang violence, death of close friends, their brother in jail and their dad struggling with a drug addiction. In Horner, there are two gangs that claim it as their turf, and the Rivers family is constantly ducking from shots of gunfire there. They live in