Reflection of My Day
The America of LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman does not seem the same as the America we know today. Their America seems to be that of despair and poverty. The America that is described in Jones’s and Newman’s Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago is an America that not many of us are familiar with. We would have probably never known about the significance of the struggles of these two young boys if they had not been courageous enough to write about their in the Wells Housing Project in ghetto of Chicago. This book is an eye opener. Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago shows paints a picture of Chicago that was once crime ridden and perhaps still is. Those who have no clue what a despair and poverty is will be quite touched by this story. Underlying problems that are faced by our
My childhood, and perhaps the childhood of many other Americans was not the same as that of LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman and maybe that is why we might have a hard time relating to their past life. The book is a narration of the problems that they faced while living in the crime ridden neighborhoods of Chicago. By reading this book, I learned how the problems of society are passed down from one generation to the other. I learned that children who are born into the communities in areas such as these experience many difficulties and disadvantages. Ghetto areas such as the one LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman were born into exist all around the country. Unfortunately, the government and society just sweeps them under the rug, and people like us are just not able to know America for what it really is. After reading Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago, I feel that every one of us can and should make a worthwhile contribution to society, so that the greatest assets of America are not dispelled.
Works Cited
Newman, Lloyd, and LeAlan Jones. Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago. Scribner, 1998. Print.
