There Are No Children Here By Alex Kotlowitz Essay

There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz tells the harrowing story of the Rivers family and their shocking experiences living in an underserved Chicago public housing project. The story focuses on Lafayette, a middle school aged boy discovering his identity, Pharoah, an elementary school aged boy with high ambition and goals, and their resilient mother LaJoe. Matza’s Techniques of Neutralization discuss how people can create rationalizations to justify delinquencies and crimes. Specifically applicable to There Are No Children Here is the theory of Denial of Responsibility which occurs when the perpetrator of an offense claims the situation was out of their control, they did not know the law, they were a victim of circumstance, or they were acted upon by outside forces rather than acting themselves. The second theory applicable to There Are No Children Here is Becker’s theory of Master Status. The theory of Master Status states that labels can take on a â€Å"master status† and can have an enormous influence and once you’ve been labeled, then define you. These theories aid in understanding how the pattern of violence and destruction is perpetuated in the projects of Chicago and the misfortune in the Rivers family. The theory of the master status can be applied to almost all characters in There Are No Children Here to understand their behavior and mentality. Terence, the older brother of Lafayette and Pharoah, got wrapped up in crime in his adolescent years. By the time he wasShow MoreRelatedThere Are No Children Here By Alex Kotlowitz Essay1933 Words   |  8 PagesRenee Driver CCJS 454 0101 November 22, 2016 Final Paper 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)Read MoreAnalysis Of Alex Kotlowitz s There Are No Children Here1695 Words   |  7 PagesAlex 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 n ot sugarcoat the struggles and hardships that the citizensRead MoreKeeping Our Youthfulness in No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz1459 Words   |  6 PagesThere are No Children Here; by Alex Kotlowitz is a story about two brothers and their mother, Pharaoh, Lafayette and LaJoe Rivers and them growing up in the late 1980s in the (HHH) Henry Horner Homes, a housing project in Chicago. In the story the boys try to retain their youthfulness while they see constant gang violence, death of people close to them and their brother is in jail and their dad is struggling with drug addiction. In Horner, there are two gangs that claim it as their area, and theRead MoreLife in the Henry Horner Homes902 Words   |  4 Pagesbut 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 themRead More Effect of Environment in There Are No Children Here Essay633 Words   |  3 PagesEffect of Environment in There Are No Children Here In There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, the way of life in Chicagos 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 casualtiesRead More There Are No Children Here Essay978 Words   |  4 PagesThere Are No Children Here Alex Kotlowitz was a freelance journalist. In 1985 a friend came to him and asked him to write a text for a photo essay he was doing on (children living in poverty) for a Chicago magazine. That is when he met the Rivers brothers, Lafeyette, age ten, and Pharoah age seven. He spent only a few hours with them interviewing for the photo essay. Lafeyette had an impact on Kotlowitz. When asked what he wanted to be, Lafeyette responded with If I grow up, Id like toRead MoreEssay about Finding Strength in Poverty in There Are No Children Here1204 Words   |  5 PagesThere are No Children Here – Finding Strength in Poverty  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Being privileged is something that I didn’t understand until I read There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz. The truth is that I knew I had it better than others, but the absolute difference was not truly recognized until I met the boys Lafayette, and Pharaoh. These boys were presented to me by Kotlowitz, via his book, and the evident pain and sorrow that these young men went through on a daily basis was more than mostRead More There are no Children Here Essay1736 Words   |  7 Pages nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;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. In Horner, there are two gangs that claim it as their turf, and the Rivers family is constantly ducking from shots of gunfireRead More The Effect of Gangs in There Are No Children Here Essay949 Words   |  4 Pagesin There Are No Children Here  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚   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 authors study of the projects, police confiscated 22 guns and 330 grams of cocaine in Horner alone (Kotlowitz 32).    Read MoreA Photographer By Alex Kotlowitz1761 Words   |  8 PagesAlex Kotlowitz met Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers in 1985 while working as a journalist. He was interviewing them for a photo essay in Chicago magazine on children living in poverty. The violence that occurred every day where the brothers lived in Governor Henry Horner Homes, or Horner, disturbed Kotlowitz. Lafeyette and Pharoah are 12 and 9 years old at the start of the book but have experienced more than many kids their age. The boys did not seem sure of what life held for them. Lafeyette told