There Are No Children Here - Book Review

The entire story centers around three main characters: Uncle trash and the two brothers. Although the boys’ mother and father are mentioned briefly in the beginning, the mother comes off as unstable and out of her right mind, causing her to run away and the father going after her, both leaving the kids behind not taking into consideration that they are too young for the responsibility of independence, much less their living conditions are barely enough to support a decent quality of life. Despite Uncle Trash being given the responsibility to look after the boys, he’s not necessarily one to care for much of what goes on outside of a bar, especially the boys well being since upon his arrival his first

Alex Kotlowitz’s There Are No Children Here is a documentary exploring life in inner-city Chicago during the late 1980’s. The book follows the lives of two African American youth, Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, who live in Chicago’s Horner Homes over the course of two years. It tells of a lifestyle that is a reality for many Americans and forces the reader to acknowledge a broken system that so many turn a blind eye toward. Kotlowitz does not sugarcoat the struggles and hardships that the citizens of the inner-city face every single day. The Rivers’ boys, like all the children of inner-cities, experience situations and know of unimaginable horrors that rob them of their innocence and childhoods. Lafeyette and Pharoah have to face and overcome many forces that can change their lives for the worst, such as: gangs and drugs, the social system, the Chicago Housing Authority, and the battle within them to give into the worst of society. Sociological concepts, including: racism, strain theory, and social stratification can explain some of the exploitation of Lafeyette and Pharoah.

   Throughout There Are No Children Here, a continuous, powerful tension always lurks in the background. The gangs that are rampant in the housing projects of Chicago cause this tension. In the Henry Horner Homes, according to Kotlowitz, one person is beaten, shot, or stabbed due to gangs every three days. In one week during the author's study of the projects, police confiscated 22 guns and 330 grams of cocaine in Horner alone (Kotlowitz 32).

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 an overcrowded apartment with leaky facets, heating problems and animal carcasses in the basement. The boys' mother, LaJoe, tries to keep them away from gangs and violence since her eldest children fell to the harsh reality of the neighborhood.

In There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, the way of life in Chicago's Henry Horner projects has a profound effect on all the residents who live there. The children become desensitized by the constant violence that they are forced to witness every day. Children are forced to walk home from school through the urban war zone of these housing projects. It is not unusual for the children to run home from school to avoid becoming casualties of the ongoing battle between rival gangs. The violence has affected Lafeyette and Pharaoh as much as anyone in the projects.

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.

The book “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 focuses on the Conflict and Symbolic Interaction theories of sociology. What is the true cause of their struggle? Is it the run down housing, lack of education, race, gangs, violence and drugs? I think that all of these play a part into their everyday

Life in the Henry Horner Homes can be everything but present. Life in the city of Chicago can seem more like a curse than a gift. The residents of this public housing only experience brief instance of true joy before the reality that is their lives come crushing back down on them. There Are No Children Here shows first hand experience of the hardship of Americans and the wreckage, that is urban life. Throughout the story we focus on two major characters; 10 year old LaFayette, and 7 year old Pharoah, as they struggle to beat the odds against them and the struggles of growing up in one of Chicago's worst housing projects. Living in a family that is not strong financially adds to the many stressful problems that the boys must face daily. Their mother is depends solely on welfare, a father who abuses alcohol and drugs, an older sister, older brother and younger triplets. Alex Kotlowitz describes the horrendous conditions of the poorly-maintained housing project completely taken over by gangs, where murders and shootings happen daily, where you guard must always be up in order to survive. The book tracks Pharoah and LaFayette over a two year period which touches on all of the struggles they deal with in school, mourning the deaths of close friends, resisting the temptations of gangs and still find enough courage to find that quiet, inner peace, that most outside this life for granted. Alex Kotlowitz has a magnificent way of portraying “ghetto life”; those who are outside the

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 an overcrowded apartment with leaky facets, heating problems and animal carcasses in the basement. The boys’ mother, LaJoe, tries to keep them away from gangs and violence since her eldest children fell to the harsh

A small family of four, living in the Tory town of Redding. Life was great Mr. and Mrs. Meeker owned a small tavern that supplies their town with food, rum, and supplies. Their son Timmy helped around the tavern and did chores, because his older brother Sam was off at college. Everyone in Redding was close and knew the Meeker family, they all admired how they had raised Sam and Timmy. Every year after college was over, Sam would come home and visit, except one.

There Are No Children Here: Analysis At the start of the book, it is easy for one to say that “There Are No Children Here” is about mostly adults. However, once reading the book one can easily tell that is not the case at all. The book is set in Chicago in the 1980’s. It is evident that the meaning behind “there are no children” has something to do with the excess of gang violence that they are constantly surrounded by.

Altgeld Gardens Homes is a housing community in Chicago Illinois built for African-American WWII veterans to provide better housing than most had at the time. It was created by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The responsibilities of the community were later given to the Chicago Housing Authority. The population of the homes consist of 90% African-American residents with 65% of all residents being below the poverty level. The housing is surrounded by landfills and facilities with toxic byproducts. Health impacts on the residents include high rates of cancers in the prostate, bladder, and lungs, frequent birth defects such as tumors and improper growth in the womb.

Mao’s Cultural Revolution was an attempt to create a new culture for China. Through education reforms and readjustments, Mao hoped to create a new generation of Chinese people - a generation of mindless Communists. By eliminating intellectuals via the Down to the Countryside movement, Mao hoped to eliminate elements of traditional Chinese culture and create a new form Chinese culture. He knew that dumbing down the masses would give him more power so his regime would be more stable. This dramatic reform affected youth especially as they were targeted by Mao’s propaganda and influence. Drawing from his experiences as an Educated Youth who was sent down to the countryside Down to the Countryside movement, Ah Cheng wrote The King of

Beautiful Joe, written by Margaret Sanders serves as an educational text on the value of compassion towards animals, children, and one another in society. Set in the later part of the 19th century, Beautiful Joe was reflective of society’s reforming views on the treatment on these lower creatures. In this time period, North America was moving from an industrial era where children were viewed as economic participants and property, and into a child-saving era where childhood was meant to be protected and cherished. Rich with humane guidance and parental instructions, Beautiful Joe illustrates it’s time period’s beliefs of the parallels between children and animals as lower creatures in need of protection from abuse, and the role of society to provide them with both education and moral instruction.

Essentially, sociology is the study of society and individual’s relationship with society is complex. Many traits and behaviors can be influenced by society and vice versa. Sociologist C. Wright Mills emphasized the importance of this relationship and coined the term sociological imagination, which is defined in “Sociology in Modules” by Richard Schaefer as “the awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society, both today and in the past” (Schaefer 5). Looking at interactions independent of individual characteristics allows one to gain a better understanding of the aspects and values of society and the institutions the individual is living in. My view of the relationship of the individual and his actions with society is similar to the interactionists’ view. People’s behaviors are shaped by other individuals and the wider society. Behavior is conditioned by social institutions and groups because of socialization. The movie “Consuming Kids” that the class watched depicts how the media has been gaining extreme influence over children. Kids are constantly learning the desired attitudes, behaviors, and values of society through school, media, and their parents. Advertisements aimed towards children are directly affecting and manipulating the desires and values of kids. Family, school, religion, and peer groups are all agents of socialization, but I believe that media and technology have the greatest influence. It markets what kids should wear and what