There Are No Children Here
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Alex Kotlowitzs book, There are No Children Here, is a story about two boys, Pharaoh
and Lafeyette Rivers growing in the late 1980s 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 gunfire there. They live in an overcrowded apartment with leaky facets, heating problems and animal carcasses in the basement. The boys mother, LaJoe, tries to keep them away from gangs and violence since her eldest children fell to the harsh reality of the neighborhood. The children constantly have to protect themselves from danger and quickly lost their childhood along the way. LaJoe even has to purchase burial insurance for her children because she fears the worst due to the severity of Horner.
The boys find it difficult to have friends because most of the other children are involved in drugs and gangs. Pharaoh
desperately tries to cling to his innocence and is very conscientious in his studies. Unfortunately, Lafeyette made friends with a mischievous boy named Rickey and was lured into a gang.
There are many problems in the neighborhood and even with LaJoes positive and upbeat attitude, she cannot move her family out of the projects. Luckily, Kotlowitz is able to fund the boys education to attend a private school. Even though this helps them receive a better education, they are still faced with other problems.
The Ecological Theory is strongly related to the theme of family in violence in this novel. This theory examines how children develop based on the environment that his/her family resides. The development of a child is based on the interactions between their biology, family and community. To fully understand the development of Pharaoh
and Lafeyette, we have to understand the context in which they live: both their family environment and their global environment. By keeping them away from the violent subculture as much as she could, the less they were able to conform to the norm and resort to violence.
According to this theory, external forces can influence the development of emotions. A child can mature a lot quicker when they are placed in an environment where they have to take care of themselves to survive. “When tragedy struck, Pharaoh
didnt want to know. He continued to tell his mother he was too young to comprehend it all, as if he were trying to prolong his childhood” (Kotlowitz 216). Both boys did recognized at an early age that death occurs frequently in their neighborhood. They had several friends die and they were reminded of this every time gunfire went off outside the apartment. Pharaoh
tried to maintain his childhood the best he could and excelled in school as a coping mechanism. Lafeyette, at thirteen, acted as a parent to fill his mothers role when she was out.
The government makes one of the biggest contributions to the welfare of the family by providing financial safety. The problem is that the government fails to show any concern for these families unless it is brought to their attention, and even then nothing is changed. The lack of interest by the housing authorities leads to the neglect of Horner for over fifteen years. “The rotting carcasses explained the putrid odor rising from the Riverses toilet. It wasnt aborted fetuses, as LaJoe had though. It was dead animals, the stench of rotting flesh rising through the pipes” (Kotlowitz 241). The government leaves the projects to fend for themselves, which increased the communities turmoil. If the government and the people worked together, more problems could be solved.
The family is the closest, most stable element in the boys life. LaJoe tries hard to make sure the boys are surrounded with positive influences so that they will grow up secure. This theory is based on the individual and the environment that the family lives in, we can see how LaJoe has tried to steer her family away from this environment. “There are many things you can do and get away with at Horner, because people, fearful that retaliation may spiral out of control, keep their anger and fury to themselves. But when it comes to family, particularly mothers, nothing, no one, is beyond revenge.” (Kotlowitz 233). Since Horner is such a difficult place to live, residents have to take measures to insure that they protect their family. Terrance was lost to the neighborhood and LaJoe feared the worst, reminding the boys that they need to do well in school and not to become involved in what the other kids do in the neighborhood. This positive enforcement in the family helped the boys to segregate themselves from the chaotic world, even if that meant not having many friends, in order to stay alive.
On the other hand, there are many negative influences in the boys home environment that impacts them as well. Besides their mother, they had little in-house role models because their dad was a drug addict and an alcoholic. He did find work from time to time but he could not seem to keep a steady job. The boys began to realize that because of drugs his father was going no where in life. “He knew no song would hit his father over a lost dog. It was the drugs. They had destroyed his relationship with LaJoe and now with his son” (Kotlowitz 278). Having your father addicted to drugs can tremendously impact a childs development according to the ecological theory. Fortunately, LaJoe could provide that important adult interaction the boys needed to keep them away from the deviant behavior their father was portraying to them.
The Culture of Violence Theory argues that violence is more prevalent in lower socioeconomic areas creating an imbalance in our society. Wolfgang (1967) proposed that “There is a subculture of violence, in which there is a a potent theme of violence current in the cluster of values that make up the life-style, the socialization process, the interpersonal relationships of individuals living in similar conditions”