When Michael offered Dylan and Elijah new shoes, Elijah was initially worried that they were connected to something he didn't want to get involved with, but his friends pressured him to accept the shoes."If Elijah's all suspicious, I'll give 'em back."..."Wait! Elijah, come on. He says it's all good."..."You know you want to try 'em on and play."This was how simple and easy it was for Elijah to get mixed up with the Blood Street Nation. In This Way Home, by Wes Moore, Elijah was the high school's star basketball player.He had helped his team win the state championship game and was on the radar of several college recruiters. The summer following his junior year, he and two of his closest friends joined a three-on-three outdoor tournament. His friend Michael apparently found them a sponsor who paid for their shoes and matching jerseys. The shoes were the best ones out there and the jerseys were perfect except for the fact that they had the Blood Street Nation patch, the symbol of the most intimidating gang in the city. Elijah and Dylan, his other friend, were initially suspicious but let it go after Michael said it wasn't a big deal. Elijah's mother eventually caught on to what the patch meant and forced them to stop wearing their jerseys. The three boys won the tournament in their t-shirts and beat up tennis shoes and when Dylan and Michael went home, Elijah went to talk to a college representative. Later his phone refused to stop ringing and people had left him some confusing voicemails. He found out things that he wished he never knew, and realized that nothing is ever predictable.I chose to read this book because I thought it would be interesting to read about something I have no experience with. This book is written from a teen perspective so I could definitely relate to the peer pressure Elijah goes through and how once you give in you can find yourself in a situation you never thought you'd be confronted with. His life is very different from mine, because he lives in a big city with street gangs and he has to be careful who he associates with. In Decorah, while we do have some issues, I don't feel like my safety is being jeopardized when I walk through certain neighborhoods. To me, the way Elijah thought was relatable but the situations he was in were very different from my own experiences and reading this book was a way for me to partially understand what going through this would be like as a teenager.Most people understand that gangs exist and that they aren't good news, but I think the common misconception is that gangs are made of people who explicitly choose to join. Reading this book helped me to understand that it is really easy to get mixed up with a gang, especially if someone is pressuring you into thinking it's not a big deal. I'd like to think that if one of my friends offered me something related to a gang I would refuse their offer right away, but Elijah's experience showed me that it's not as easy as saying no. You never really know how you will react to a situation until you are faced with it. It's far more difficult to realize what you are getting yourself into when your friend is trying to convince you that you aren't doing anything wrong. Written by Cassidy
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSTenth grade students at Decorah High School share how they're reading outside of their own experiences and how it has changed them. Categories
All
Archives
November 2022
|