As we continue our journey with
MacDonald, we find his family moving from Jamaica Plain, back to South Boston. The
title of the chapter (Ghetto Heaven) gave me an idea of what the atmosphere was
like once they moved there. As you can gather from Brittany and Rosemary’s
posts about chapter 3, there was quite a bit of violence and racism occurring,
however I found there to be a few humorous parts of this chapter.
MacDonald
writes about him and his friends spending summer nights lighting dumpsters on
fire. Although I’m sure that alone was loads of fun, MacDonald said they did it
because they knew firemen would show up, and they would allow the kids to play
on the fire truck. The way MacDonald put it was, “we knew we’d see them again
soon, same time, same place, unless there was a real fire going on somewhere
else”. Both parties knew that the only reason they were showing up was to hang
out. To me this was a sweet moment amongst all of the violence. When MacDonald
started describing this routine occurrence, I thought: 1) The kids were just
lighting dumpsters on fire for the hell of it 2) They were climbing on the fire
trucks without the consent of the firemen. Clearly my assumption was wrong. I
also figured that these kids would get in trouble for lighting dumpsters on
fire, but again, clearly wrong. If kids did anything like that these days they
would have hell to pay….but for MacDonald and his friends it was chill.
There was
also the family’s battle with cockroaches when they arrived at the new apartment.
Although this was a miniscule part of this chapter, I thought it was funny that
Macdonald took ‘roach killing so seriously. He was basically waging war against
all cockroach kind.
Amongst all
of the violence and racism that MacDonald describes in this chapter, there are
still a few lighthearted and funny moments.
Its kind of crazy to think that there can be moments of happiness in such tough times, but it really shows the strength of the people. Who would think to light the fires in the dumpsters to see the firemen? Were the firemen their role models? Or did they just like to look at the shiny trucks in contrast to the "ghetto heaven"?
ReplyDeleteThis story is interesting. I wonder what the firemen thought. Maybe they were sick of the dumpster fires, or maybe they liked the attention they received from the kids. Possibly - they might have felt bad for these kids, and couldn't yell at them to get off the trucks.
Finding the silver lining, or the humorous in dark situations is how some people survive. It is a way of life to some. There are even some people who have good lives but don't know the happiness of finding the silver linings that surround them.
I read All souls and found it be very touching. Ican understand the pain this family been through. God bless Mrs McDonald for been a strong advocate for her children!
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