"There Are No Children Here" by Alex Kotlowitz

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, at the Henry Horner homes, children are not looking to come over and play with the latest Matchbox cars because many of the children are already being lured by gangs and getting used by older kids in drug activities; friends are people you could trust, but at Henry Horner, Lafeyette, the child character in the book, didn't feel that he could trust anyone besides his family. The author points out that, to the kids of Henry Horner, the police become a threat because, even if they aren't doing something bad, they are constantly surrounded by bad things; therefore, if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time, they are immediately accused of doing something. The paper relates that children at Henry Horner are desensitized to experiences such as violence, gang drug exchanges, and death; the children and the residents there have to put their emotions away and become stone on the inside.

From the Paper:

"In an area where the summertime is feared and school is a safe-haven, where it is dangerous to make friends as they might try to lure you into a gang, where drug lords run your neighborhood enforcing rules like a dictatorship with the manpower to back it up, you are stripped of your freedom. Sitting in public with a little kid can be embarrassing sometimes. "Mommy, that woman is fat!" or "Daddy, why is that man crying?" are questions that children will ask loud and clear without hesitation. They don't realize that other people can hear them or that other people have feelings that might be hurt. They are egocentric. However, for a child living in the Henry Horner homes where LaJoe and her children live, a comment like this can become life threatening."

More papers on "There Are No Children Here" by Alex Kotlowitz:

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• Book Review # 21646 : "Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights" and Kotlowitz' "There Are No Children Here"

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