In There are No Children Here it tells us about the everyday lives of a family living in the projects of Chicago. Today, many of us can in our own way imagine what the projects are, but our imagination is nothing compared to the reality in which the people living in these projects had to endure daily. The book talks about the fact that this family was living in conditions where their heat didn’t work, or they did not have a functioning bathroom. It described their building at literally falling apart, or in some cases ripped apart. Meaning that individuals came through and ripped apart this building on purpose, even while knowing that family’s and children still lived there. Now for most of us in this class it’s difficult to really picture what the conditions were really like. But, for me the first thing that came to mind after reading this was that video on Detroit. In that video it showed pictures and videos of how these building a left in ruins. To me it looked as though Detroit was now a post-apocalyptic city. The sad reality is that this family as well as many others living in Chicago’s projects are living in very similar conditions that can be found in Detroit.
So, the question that comes to mind is why are these people
still living there, why don’t they just leave? In most cases it really is not a
possibility for a family to just leave.
It can be very easily said to just move out of these poor
conditions, but in reality that isn’t really possible for these families. In
Chapter 8 they talk about 7 different ideas related to Neighborhoods and
Communities. In the first section Herbert Gans’s talks about the deprived and
the trapped. He defines them as, “the deprived (the ghetto poor who have few
opportunities to move); and the trapped and downwardly mobile (often elderly
persons who lack the resources to move despite changes taking place around
them.” (Gottdiener et al. p 197). The deprived
and the trapped are two terms that are about as close as you’re going to get
when trying to define what this family is. For minorities it isn’t as easy as
it is for whites to just move somewhere new or better, if you no longer like
that area you’re in now. Also, in chapter 8 they talk about the different types
of neighborhoods, one neighborhood in particular really reminded me of the projects
that this family is living in. Chapter 8 calls it the anomic neighborhood,
basically it’s the characteristics of most poor neighborhoods. They have low
voter turnout as well as weak community organizations. Also, there is little or
no interaction between residents.
Besides just terms from chapter 8, this book also made me think of the movie Freedom Writers. In this movie a young teachers tries to inspire her class of students from the projects to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school. But, this very naive young teacher soon finds out that the lives of these students are a lot more disorganized than she could have imagined. For these students their more worried about where they’re going to live, their friends or families being shot and killed, or if the police are going to show up to their house today. The lives of these students really reminded me of how the family in this book lived in their everyday lives.
Besides just terms from chapter 8, this book also made me think of the movie Freedom Writers. In this movie a young teachers tries to inspire her class of students from the projects to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school. But, this very naive young teacher soon finds out that the lives of these students are a lot more disorganized than she could have imagined. For these students their more worried about where they’re going to live, their friends or families being shot and killed, or if the police are going to show up to their house today. The lives of these students really reminded me of how the family in this book lived in their everyday lives.
Below are links to two different YouTube clips. One shows a scene from freedom Writers and what occurred for one of the characters in their home life, the other clips shows us a tour of the Chicago Projects:
First of all, freedom writers is one of the best examples you could have used for this topic. That movie was inspiring how it showed a teacher that started of having no support of her students and with a lot of work and not giving up on them she taught them so much about life and they eventually at the end of the movie ended up respecting her.
ReplyDeleteThe projects are more than you can even imagine. I dont know first hand. However i have a close friend that works across the trump tower downtown everyday. She consistently walks the same route from the train station to her work everday. Eventually she met a homeless man who lives across the street from her building and she eventually started saying hi to him and months later would have long talks. He told her that he has kids that want nothing to do with him and that he was trying to save money to go back to where his family is from so he can try to build his life back up. For most people, they would think he was lying. But his stories about life and the tragic things hes been through while being homeless cant help but make you feel bad for him. Over a year later he still is the nicest man and doesnt ask for money, most of the time he wants a blanket to be warm in, a bottle of water to sip on for a week, and if you offer money-he respectfully takes it no matter the dollar amount. Im telling this story because for some people they cant get out of the projects. They cant get a job because they dont have a address, a home, a phone, identification. This brings me to Herbert Gans' point on how its hard for people to move out of the ghetto. Sometimes there arent jobs or a affordable place for them to go. Section 8 has such long waiting lists and most of the time you have to fullfil all the requirements. Its hard to "fix" the projects when there are people who have to break the behavior they were born into from their family members. Due to this the problems keep increasing.
You had a really well written blog post. You defined some of the critical points of these chapters. Good Job!
I thought this blog hit some great key points in defining what it actually looks like to live in the conditions of those in the book. I also, thought it was great how you tied the movie, Freedom Writers as a comparison of how cycle of deprivation was shown through the teacher in the movie trying to make sure the young kids made it out the ghetto and exceed just high school to get higher education.
ReplyDeleteOne of the points you mentioned in particular was about moving out which is easier said then done. As a child growing up in those conditions, especially a man you never want to have to see your people struggling so in regards to the cycle being past on to those down the line in generations I believe that is a stigma that is put out there. I fully understand the struggle but in my eyes I feel as a person those struggles drive us to be become better people. We seek other ways to start to put a end to our struggle. Sometimes even with the lack of resources we tend to create opportunity for our self to find a way out the struggle and for those that don't make it out it is usually because the system has failed them and the cycle continues.