Essay on The Fifth Child

Ben is the main character in the Novel ‘Two Wolves’. Throughout the novel, written by Tristan Bancks, Ben goes through some significant changes, both mentally and physically. One of the major problems he sees in his life, involves his perceptions of his physical appearance and the way he feels about himself. Ben’s story is one that also involves nature. Throughout his journey, he develops a different frame of mind towards nature, which is for the better. A lot of the story also revolves around family. What is family? Does family matter? And, if family matters, why? From Ben’s point of view, he thinks most of his problems stem from his own ideas and interpretations of what his family is or should be. His ideas and thoughts about himself, nature and family definitely change for the better in many different ways throughout the book.

The Toronto Star published an article reporting that Toronto currently has the highest rate of children living in households that are considered low income in Canada (Monsebraaten, 2015). The article reports that in Toronto the child poverty rate is higher than the poverty rate of any other age group. This paper will discuss child poverty, how this is a challenge to public health practices and policies, and finally, discuss potential solutions for public policy that address this issue.

The book Unequal Childhoods describes observations made by Annette Lareau to shed light on the significance of social class and how it affects student’s learning. Lareau presents her observations by highlighting the two dominant ways of parenting that ultimately affect how successful students become as they transition into adulthood. These styles of parenting consist of Concerted Cultivation where parents put through kids through structured activities, and Accomplishment of Natural Growth where unrestrictive freedom and directives are exercised (20-22).

Here the author talks about couple of kids who belong to different social class and race. She mainly focuses on how economical condition affects parenting. Although most of the parents want the best from their kids but indeed they have to balance between their work and financial situation and tune it with their parenting style.

Lareau, in Unequal Childhoods, focuses on socioeconomic status and how that affects outcomes in the education system and the workplace. While examining middle-class, working-class and poor families, Lareau witnessed differing logics of parenting, which could greatly determine a child’s future success. Working-class and poor families allow their children an accomplishment of natural growth, whereas middle-class parents prepare their children through concerted cultivation. The latter provides children with a sense of entitlement, as parents encourage them to negotiate and challenge those in authority. Parents almost overwhelm their children with organized activities, as we witnessed in the life of Garrett Tallinger. Due to his parents and their economic and cultural capital, Garrett was not only able to learn in an educational setting, but through differing activities, equipping him with several skills to be successful in the world. Lareau suggests these extra skills allow children to “think of themselves as special and as entitled to receive certain kinds of services from adults” (39). Adults in the school system are in favor of these skills through concerted cultivation, and Bourdieu seems to suggest that schools can often misrecognize these skills as natural talent/abilities when it’s merely cultivated through capital. This then leads to inequalities in the education system and academic attainments.

In 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, leading to youth deviance and violent crime. Beginning with a brief outline of the major characteristics of critical theory, the essay will then address the increasing focus on gang involvement as an explanation for inner-city youth crime, using examples from the Disciples and Vice Lord gangs, and how that focus demonstrates the bias and inequality within the criminal justice system. Next, the necessity of the Henry Horner community creating a system of “self-help” will be analyzed, a result of the perceived inadequacy of the criminal justice system in addressing the problems that the community faces. The theory of critical criminology demonstrates how structures of inequality are represented in the criminal justice system: the incessant focus on gangs and inadequacy of the system to provide protection causes the marginalization of youth like Pharoah and Lafayette, reinforcing instances of youth deviance and crime.

Alex Kotlowitz's book, There are No Children Here, is a story about two boys, Pharaoh

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), social disorganization refers to “the inability of a community structure to realize the common values of its residents and maintain effective social controls”. Many aspects in the book exemplify how neighborhood factors, social controls, and community factors have impacts on crime. The book exemplifies how neighborhood disadvantage can lead to informal social controls, which in turn produces crime. Due to these factors, social disorganization is the best theory to explain the crime that occurs in There are No Children Here.

In like manner, Romero’s stereotypical portrayal of the protagonist Ben was that of an alpha male. Ben differs in nature and demeanor to Barbra. Ben embodied the alpha male, an aggressive, domineering unpleasantly rough hero who was persistent in finding solutions despite various objections. His aggression allowed him to courageously take on the ghouls, even if it involved him stepping outside to fend them off. When a multitude of the undead surrounded the farmhouse, Ben stepped outside and fought the ghouls and successfully slew a small number of the zombies while the other characters stayed inside the farmhouse. Ben also arrogantly asserted his plans above the other characters. A prime

     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.

I recently read The Explosive Child, written by Dr. Ross W. Greene. I found this book to be extremely informative, and I could relate to its contents on both a professional and personal level. In The Explosive Child Greene discusses “a new approach for understanding and parenting easily frustrated, chronically inflexible children” which he refers to as “inflexible-explosive.” A child who is inflexible-explosive “is one who frequently exhibits severe noncompliance, temper outbursts, and verbal physical aggression.” (Greene, 2001) I think that The Explosive Child is a great resource for parents and professionals, because it manages to provide useful tools to help teach parents how to react appropriately when their inflexible-explosive child

That’s like being in a prison in your own home. Their own freedom was taken from them just because of this stupid tradition. Being denied their freedom, all these people were missing a lot. They couldn’t go out and meet with their friends, they couldn’t go and visit other places that they always wanted, they couldn’t work, and simply put they were isolated from the outside world. Enjoying the company of others was their least problem.

The oldest child plays an inimitable role in the structure of her family. She has a propensity to be confident and often craves her independence at an early age. She sets the standard for her younger siblings and realizes that her actions are observed closely by impressionable eyes. This accountability often instills in her a drive to act in a respectable and responsible manner. As the oldest child in a family of eight, I have been persistent in regarding these characteristics and have enabled them to shape my identity.

Over the last thirty years, the idea of children as witnesses and the accuracy of their testimony has been widely debated. People are asking themselves if the memories of young children, specifically between the ages of five and ten, can be accurate and in return trusted. So, can children’s memory and testimony be accurate? Prolific amounts of research have been conducted in an attempt to answer this question. Most of the research suggests that unfortunately we can not rely on their accurate recall in testimony. I would have to say I agree with the findings.

In relation to the disability theory, Ben becomes less human. He loses certain characteristics and becomes abundantly incapacitated. Each of the form of species is becoming more simpleminded than the next. He believes that everyone thinks too much and that “Our brains are getting bigger…and dies when there’s too much thought and not enough heart.” The fact that he believes humans are beginning to overthink things and are becoming smarter, symbolizes the way he reverse evolves into simpler species. The forms that he devolves into don’t think as complex as humans do. Specifically, as he devolves, the specie he forms into at the end is a “one-celled wonder…brainless…” Furthermore, he worries a considerable amount about overthinking and forms into a species that doesn’t think at all. He is less of a man and more of a “lesser minded” animal. Through each species that he forms into he then decreases as a man; for instance, he first turns into a baboon, which still has traits similar to humans then into a completely nonhuman form, a salamander. Animals don’t use the mind to the standard of humans. It appears that Ben assimilated into different species to “recapture the ‘heart’ of life” In this way, Ben disables himself from other human beings, but is able to become emotionally connected with