Explain how a particular theme is developed in the novel
The free will seems to be one predominant theme of the novel “All Souls: A Family’s Story from Southie”, written by Michael Patrick McDonald. The story focuses on a Boston ghetto that gathers the largest population of impoverished Whites in Unites States and presents the everyday life of a community, with the troubles that people face (drugs, organized crimes, suicides), but also points out the large sense of community, the unity and shared ghetto values, strengthen by the shared struggle. In a world like this, becoming a victim of drugs, getting involved in the actions from “the streets”, losing the sense of decency or of judging is a natural reaction of the environment and of the entourage’s influence. Like in a bucket with apples where one apple is altered, all the other apples will also alter. Nevertheless, humans have something special, that apples don’t: the free will.
“All Souls: A Family’s Story from Southie” tells the autobiographic story of Michael Patrick McDonald, who has chosen to talk. McDonald was raised in the Boston ghetto mentioned above, and he was a part of a big family (had 11 siblings), a protective and caring mother and a Nana. The author focuses less on the father – figure, as his mother had more husbands, and they were “irrelevant to the story” (“Book Discussion”). McDonald observed all the patterns of his community, but did not directly got involved into them. He observed that people would not talk about their problems, either because they did not want to ruin the sense of community, either because they were afraid to, because of the repercussions (the mob could react). Nevertheless, he chose to speak, in his own manner, using his own language and style for communicating the reality of his neighborhood’s everyday living.
Through his characters: his mother, his siblings and their friends, and friends of the family or influential individuals from the community, he artistically transmitted the life of his ghetto, caught between loss and desperation on one part and the silent desire to “get out” and accomplish something, on the other part. As such, through his characters he expresses antagonistic situations and outcomes. While four of his siblings attempted or committed suicide, were victims of drugs, desperation, ghetto crimes, others got out of the ghetto and went to universities, and further to Navy Seals, Air Force or medicine school. This is an indication of how free will acts.
Davey killed himself, jumping out of the roof at 24 years old. John became a lieutenant in the Navy Seals. Joe joined the Air Force and got his mother out of the ghetto. Mary became a nurse at the Boston City Hospital. Franky, a boxer, died in a gangster riot, where he got involved for the first time and was killed. Kathy was more involved in “the street” actions, abused drugs and was pushed off the ruff of their house by her boyfriend, as they were fighting over drugs - she remained brain damaged and currently taken care of by her mother, in Colorado. Kevin hanged himself in his prison cell; he was also much involved in the actions from the streets of his ghetto. Michael, the author got straight As all his life and became a writer, telling a story of a Southern community that nobody wanted to talk about.
There is one step from being an observer to being a direct participant in the action, and McDonald realizes this in his writing. He explores how people can let themselves carried away by the waves of a life that promises protection, happiness, unity, when in fact they brings riots and violent outbursts, depression and desperation, fights, allegations and end up with jail, drug dependence, death or suicides.
Observing the reality in which one lives, although everybody avoids an open discussion about it, can have an opposite effect to the one of letting oneself getting carried away. It can influence people to think for themselves, stimulating them to overcome their condition. In the end, it is about perspective and objectives. Just as Kevin and Cathy let themselves absorbed by the community they lived in, John, Joe or Mary understood who they are and what they wanted to achieve. Implicitly, they understood that they could not obtain what they desired if they would have remained in the ghetto, nor could they have helped their family and friends in any way should they have stayed.
“You’re on your own”, these are the words that Joe screamed to one of his colleagues, a “black kid”, when they were followed by the mobs, while running out of Charlestown towards downtown Boston (McDonald 177). He and his black colleague were threaten by a local Charlestown gang with a beaten after school and Joe decided to follow his own way and not look back. Although he regretted his action, he knew that this was survival. And survival was also knowing to make the right decision. Getting involved, versus not getting involved was an existential issue in the Southern ghetto, one that would determine the following phases in life. Knowing who to hang up with was strategically necessary, in order to avoid being beaten or to avoid being considered just another dropout from a lost generation.
“After that day, he started making friends with some of the townies, and made sure that he joined some of the boycotts and sit – ins happenings over there. He still attended Charlestown High, even though he said it was getting harder and harder not to become ‘another dropout from Southie’” (McDonalds 117 – 118).
This indicates the complexity of living in the ghetto, where nobody gives the residents any chance for succeeding. This comes with a positive or a negative effect: strengthening or weakening the resilience, the self – esteem and the self – efficacy. While many of the inhabitants of the Southie ghetto let themselves becoming victims of their entourage and of the environment they live in, others become more ambitious every day, more determined to follow their goals with every obstacle they come across to. This is how Michael McDonald’s made it through school and university, although having to face his brothers’ suicidal or death and his sister’s paralysis. Being transferred to another school because of the absences he gathered while he was going to visit his sister was another obstacle he had to face.
“I remembered how I spent my teenage years, on welfare, making sure I too had the best clothes from those department stores, whether stolen or bought with an entire check from the summer jobs program” (McDonald’s 7). Poverty is not an aspect to be neglected in the community, as it can greatly influence the socio – psychological development of people. For instance, people living in this Boston neighborhood do not want to admit, do not even want to be aware of the fact that they are poor, just as they do not want to be aware of the problems they are facing, about the fact that they are living among criminals and drug dealers.
As it reveals from McDonald’s novel, the free will implies abilities to realize the surroundings, to analyze the environment and to take a stand, to be aware of what is happening and to understand where an individual stands and what s/he can do differently. The free will also implies abilities and desire to overcome one’s condition, to gain self – esteem and self – actualization, to be driven by ambition and to be able to not only see things as they are, but also to talk about them.
Works Cited
Book Discussion on All Souls: A Family Story from the Southie. Accessed on 10 February 2012 from http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/154106-1. N.d. Web.
MacDonald, Michael, Patrick, All Souls: A Family Story from Southie. Boston: Beacon Press, 1999. Print.
