There is nothing
cheerful about chapter six. Nothing. At all.
The very first
line of chapter six begins with one of Michael’s brother, Joe, bragging about
how he almost got shot the night before. If that had been me, I probably would
have: A) Been crying in the corner and B) Never go outside again. Ever. But
apparently in Southie this is just business as usual. Then, MacDonald writes
about a situation where one of their neighbors nearly stabs his children to
death, leaving them for Ma and the kids to take care of. This highlights SOME
of the violence MacDonald had to deal with as he was growing up.
The MacDonald
family also experienced a drug raid. When I first read of the men in black breaking
into their house, I thought it was just a gang of kids robbing them, but
eventually I realized that the men in black were cops. Apparently I was alone
when I questioned this, MacDonald writes in this chapter that he wasn’t
completely certain if the men were cops or just a group of gang members.
By far the most
upsetting part of this chapter was Davey’s death. I would be lying if I said I
didn’t see it coming, but it was still very sad. As I’ve said in other posts,
Davey had schizophrenia and was put in Mass. Mental. Although he was released,
you could definitely tell he was off. Throughout this chapter Davey was clearly
not right, sitting on the beach wall with his head down, screaming “Jesus, I
love you” down the street, and walking across the rooftop. To say this was
completely unexpected would be a lie.
In previous chapters
MacDonald wrote about violence against other groups such as the police and
blacks, however in this chapter violence within the community is brought to the
attention of the reader.
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