Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol Essay

Everyone here at Northwestern, even though it is a Christian college, has a different view of faith. Some people put it above all and others only know the stories. In the novel Ordinary Grace, Krueger throws challenges at the Drum family. Each family member reacts differently to every challenge thrown at them and has their faith strengthened or destroyed. In William Krueger’s Ordinary Grace, he shows the different levels of faith from the strongest to the weakest, and how they react to different obstacles in life through Nathan, Frank, Jake, and Ruth.

Kozol also shows us letters he has received from young elementary school children trying to understand why they do not have the same luxuries other children in wealthier school districts have, and why they do not have basic needs such as toiletries. Pathos is used within this essay to convey the sorrow of these students’ situations. For example, when he speaks of a letter written by an eight year old girl named Elizabeth, “It is not fair that other kids have a garden and new things. But we don’t have that.” (Kozol 206) There is a deep amount of sadness from the tone of this little girl’s letter, which me feel empathy for this

The books that we were required to read for Bible 115 class were Engaging God’s World – A Christian Vision Of Faith, Learning And Living by Cornelius Plantinga Jr. and The Call – Finding And Fulfilling The Central Purpose For Your Life by Os Guinness. Both books offered very useful advice for today’s Christians. Engaging God’s World is written for students and will help them make sense of their education in a Christian perspective. Both authors use scripture, humor and common sense to validate their points.

Alvin Ailey’s Revelations was premiered in 1960 and is based on Alvin Ailey’s childhood memories of worshipping at his Baptist church in Texas. The music within Revelations is a compilation of African American spirituals which helps to develop the idea of the music that was played and sung in the small black churches near to where Alvin lived with his mother during his childhood. Throughout Revelations you see and feel a mixture of emotions as the story starts to unfold and you can see clearly the intensity of how much his life has influenced revelations largely.

The Pilgrimage of Grace was a religious uprising in York, England which started in late 1536 and finished in early 1537, where people lead by Yorkshire lawyer Robert Aske staged protests and demonstrations in opposition to King Henry VIII’s dissolution of monasteries and break from the Catholic Church. This rebellion was mostly aimed at Thomas Cromwell, who was Henry’s High Chancellor; and many of these marchers influenced Cromwell’s policies. The participants of the Pilgrimage of Grace had a goal to reinstate the Catholic Church, and a concern of the economic impacts caused by losing monasteries; those who opposed the movement had a goal to punish leaders and anyone associated with the movement and a political concern of losing power for

Kozol’s main argument is that public education should be free and equal to people of all economic classes. Kozol believes that children from poor families are cheated out of a future by unequipped, understaffed and under funded schools in the United State’s inner cities and less affluent suburbs. The majority of these children are non-white, and living amongst poverty and crime. Kozol argues about the unfair standards we expect these underprivileged children to rise to. Children in these poor areas are being compared to children in affluent areas where the quality of their education is much higher. Kozol asks how these children will succeed in today’s world if they are not given the same opportunities as affluent schools give their children. Kozol believes that by depriving our poorer children of their basic needs we are forcing them into lives of crime, poverty and a never-ending cycle of inequalities in education. Kozol stresses that these students must be taught that “savage inequalities” do not have to exist between them and students in more affluent schools, and that all children are entitled to an equal education.

In 1964, the author, Jonathan Kozol, is a young man who works as a teacher. Like many others at the time, the grade school where he teaches is segregated (teaching only non-white students), understaffed, and in poor physical condition. Kozol

In the Republic, Socrates starts the discussion with the definition of justice. When Thrasymachus angrily interrupts and gives his own definition, he in fact takes an opposite view on justice and argues that injustice is more advantageous and profitable. Glaucon and Adiemantus further develop Thrasymachus’ view with a theory of the nature and the origins of justice and claim that justice is desired only for the sake of rewards. In Amazing Grace, injustice happens every day at every corner of Mott Haven, yet there are still a lot of citizens trying to lead a just life. In the conflict between the authorities and the Mott Haven citizens, the ceaseless injustice in Mott Haven, and some people’s just acts, Thrasymachan view of justice is reflected.

Today's world is filled with both great tragedy and abundant joy. In a densely populated metropolis like New York City, on a quick walk down a street you encounter homeless people walking among the most prosperous. Unfortunately, nine times out of ten the prosperous person will trudge straight past the one in need without a second thought. A serious problem arises when this happens continually. The problem worsens when you enter a different neighborhood and the well-to-do are far from sight. Many neighborhoods are inhabited only by the most hopeless of poverty - ridden people while others downtown or across the park do not care, or are glad to be separated from them. Such is the problem in New York City today and in Mott Haven in Jonathan

The Grace That Keeps This World, by Tom Bailey, is an enthralling novel about the Hazen family who have lived in Lost Lake their whole lives. In this novel Kevin Hazen, a young man of 19, is searching for where he belongs in the world and in his own family. He wants more for his life than the life of survival that his parents have lived their whole lives. The story of the Hazen family is centered around the first day of deer season. For the Hazens, this hunt is more than just a sport. They use the meat of every deer they shoot to help them survive through the winter.

While reading Amazing Grace, one is unable to escape the seemingly endless tales of hardship and pain. The setting behind this gripping story is the South Bronx of New York City, with the main focus on the Mott Haven housing project and its surrounding neighborhood. Here black and Hispanic families try to cope with the disparity that surrounds them. Mott Haven is a place where children must place in the hallways of the building, because playing outside is to much of a risk. The building is filled with rats and cockroaches in the summer, and lacks heat and decent water in the winter. This picture of the "ghetto" is not one of hope, but one of fear. Even the hospitals servicing the neighborhoods

At first glance and after reading through Amazing Grace, it seems that Jonathan Kozol is going to take us on a journey through the lives of the underprivileged, but similar to the ones you read about, or hear in the news. However, this is not the case; the real underlying theme seems to be how the life and society they live in is very alike to a life in a prison, not because it talks explicitly about prison conditions in this area, but also because their lives are portrayed as being a prison. Kozol uses the views of children and adults throughout this book to emphasize this theme through their living conditions and personal lives, background and struggles.

American religion is freedom. Every religion has their equal right to worship and develop. The government cannot be biased in any religion in particular. The Mormon is about sharing and helping as a family. In the book “In Search Of Grace” by Kristin Hahn, she followed the sisters to each household to talk with them about joining Mormon Church. The Christian Science is about believing in self-healing, and all the illnesses are from our imagination, or they are illusions of life. Unitarians believes that God is one as in the book she mentioned “they together embrace individual liberty, free will, reason, inquiry, independent communication with God,…” (chapter 8, page 111). In chapter ten of the book, Hahn talks about how Jewish people blend the belief into daily activities such as

We just finished reading “Amazing Grace” by Jonathan Kozol. Kozol went to the South Bronx and met a little boy named Cliffie. Kozol was taken by Cliffie on a walk in the neighborhood. He learnt that this city is harsh. There are lots of meanings in this story, this story shows that everyone is struggling with something in their life.

The Grace That Keeps This World by Tom Bailey revolves around a family from Lost Lake. It is narrated by the Hazen’s and people who impact their life in some way. Gary Hazen and his wife Susan have raised their sons to appreciate the strenuous but honorable way of living life. However, both sons eventually slip away as they struggle to find something more than their parents set up for them. Through the use of the tracks that Gary sets up for his family to live by, Bailey develops the randomness of life versus the attempt to control it.