Well, for one he is becoming a teenager, a difficult process for anyone. Secondly, his step father died, the man who kept him in check, sent him to sunday school, and made sure his grades were immaculate at school. The death of the main pillar in the Jordan-McBride household crushed Ruth, and the family fell into disrepair, the children were tough, but they couldn't survive without their two parent figures. James started to go out, partly, i think, to forget about the misery in his home and partly because he just could, nobody was there to tell him not to. He was the oldest kid in his house so he was finally the boss now. There were no other older siblings to notice his behavior and a lack of affection from his mother prompted a search fro affection elsewhere. Drugs, alcahol, and other illegal activities provided an easy escape. James was also dealing with the shame of being a "mixed" child, he was confused about what family really meant to him, and whether having a white mother made him "different." All these things could have led to James's fall from grace.
being a teenager is obviously tough for him. i think that there are a lot of reasons he is rebelling. one could be it runs in the family. his mom slowly rebelled. a few of his siblings rebelled. its in his blood. another reason is his house. he had a very difficult childhood. it seemed impossible to live. his siblings tortured him and he was very pour. the last thing could be he doesn't have a father. his mom can barley support her children. its hard to live when you lost 2 of your fathers. one last thing that i just thought of is that he is a teenager. i agree with zoya. its true becoming a teenager is tough especially with one parent. its really hard for him to get through.
GOing through the phase of adolencence is very hard for anyone. James was in a state were he was confused and dind't deal with his problem in the best ways. He felt misserable and the only way he could seem to get rid of his missery was to drink, do drugs, party, sexual behavior and other illiagal behavior/activities. He feels rebelious and like no one can stop him. One of the reasonds of this is because he is the oldest sibling in the house hold and the second is becuase his mother didn't didn't give him as much atterntion as he wished. (WHich was hard becuase he had many siblings.) He decides to blow off school and start having fun like any young and rebelious individdual would like to. James also never met his real father and complicates things for him eventhough he considers Mr. Hunter as his fahter. "Daddy" thought that it was very important that his childern-- including the ones that weren't geneticly related-- would thrive academicly/ flourish in school. With his death he wasn't getting enough guadance from mommy because she worked most of the time and she had to attend various children. Daddy's death also afected James mentaly.
when going through puberty is really when people become rebellious, plus he never really was able to vent and talk about his problems seeing race. He always kept his feeling to himself plus he was ashamed of his mother and to escape and run from what he saw his mother as and to get away from the confusion he started up drugs, alcohol and hanging around with the wrong crowd was his escape. the mother rebels by running, this is his way of rebelling, i think when he learns on the Corner really hits him i think that's what sets him in a new track. this is kevin
I agree with Zoya that both James' adolescence and his family life were what started him down the wrong path. James was just begininng to start making choices for himself, and most of them were foolish choices that he made, simply to avoid school and to have more fun. When his stepfather died, the whole family fell apart. Even though Ruth was still physically there, she was no longer mentally with her family. After Hunter's death Ruth nearly just gave up on her family and no longer looked out for and after as much as she did before. James was also the oldest in the house, and so he had no older siblings to steer him away from drugs, cigarettes, etc. and also there was no one to help bring Ruth back into a mentally strong state. The responsibility of looking after Ruth would have fallen to James, but he was to busy doing his own thing to forget about his family, so he had no time to try and support it.
James is living a difficult life. His step father just passed away. James looked up to his step father and loved him dearly.James states in the first chapter "I always thought of him as Daddy." Loosing him brought great sadness over the McBride family. the death was a burden on the family, even though it was hard for the parents to support their children with the father; It will be even more difficult. James' sorrow is one of the many things causing his rebellious acts. Because he is one of the younger siblings, he looks up to the rest of his siblings. Some of them have gotten into trouble, and James might follow in their footsteps. Also, James may feel that he does not get enough love and affection from his mother. Although she works her hardest for them and loves them all, it is hard for her to epress her feelings towards all of her children because there are soo many. In the beginning of the book james says that the only time he remembered time with his mother alone was when she took him to school. I agree with everyone else with the fact that puberty is a hard time for anybody. Puberty brings mood swings and changes mentally and physicly. It is hard for James especially the conditions that he is living under at the time.
becoming and adolesant has taken a tole on him. he is used to living on his own and no longer wants to live with his mothers pain all around him. he has stoped caring about school because he is ashamed of his mom and she wants him to go. he is your avrage rebelious teenager. every summer, he goes to a place called "the corner." he gets drunk to hide and surpress the sadness. the drunks at the corner are not typical. they are respectable and live by a strict code. he learns to live with them instead of his family. to him his old family is just people he lives with. his real family is his friends.
I tottaly agree with Zoya. Becoming a teenager is difficult for anyone. when i turned 13 i had to take so much more responsibility and i could no longer get away with "kid mistakes". the most sad part for me was when James' stepfather dies. at this time we can see that James has a tough life.
as a child james had everything he needed to survive. not saying that it was all good, but he sustained himself and was able to becom acustumed to his way of life. him step father died, and ofcoarce this is a bad thing but to make it worse he saw him as hisown flesh and blood. this didn't deliberetly tramatise him but he was shock. then his mom had to deal with this. she saw him as a lover, not as a father, and this actualy made it woarse for he. she had already suffored the loss of her first husband and though trying to get back on the saddle she sufered the loss of her second husband. she will probobly never full recovor form this she becomes a nervous reck. with the loss of his mentor james also startes to break down. he becomes ashamed of his mom and does badly in school.
Becoming an African American teenager amidst the black power movement, living with 12 brothers and sisters, having a white mother and having your step father die all in a short period time is very traumatic for a young teen. With no paternal figure in James' life, he befriends the wrong people and partakes in shameful and illegal activities like skipping school and doing drugs. Though rebellion in some kind of way is natural for many teens, James' took it to an extreme. "James' fall from grace" was destined to happen. It was hard on his mother, because he was no help in his house and he distanced himself his fall was a bit more severe.
i also strongly agree Zoya as well. The death of James' step father was definitely what set off the bomb waiting to explode for James. This completely set James off onto the wrong direction. james felt that drugs, alcohol and illegal activities would be able to help his problem, but they only made his problems even harder to deal with. With the constant thought of the police doing something to him and his friends, James had to be extremely carful or else he could suffer the most Severe consequences. I agree with Lucas that James had the responsibility of looking after Ruth as well as his younger siblings, but James was too busy doing his own activities away from the house.
I think that what prompts James to change was his desire to get away from all that was saddening him in his home life and with the family. He is also becoming a teenager (oh, what a joyous time) and thus he feels an urge to rebel. He uses alcohol, drugs, and other stupid things that older teenagers do. Another thing that is heavy on his mind is the fact that hiss step father died, and has James stated in the very first chapter, he felt that his step father was his biological father. James also is going through a process that everyone goes through at some point in there life, no matter how old you are. He is going through a process of mind. In which the mind plays tricks, and does not let you know who your real, true family is.
when his step father died he felt like he had to escape from that sad house. as he said he was doing his own kind of running. he felt like he had to leave the house. he was drinking smoking stealing and dropping out of school. he was rebelling to grieve for his father. his step father was the one who had a handle on his life and his school. when he was sick and dying his mother sort of lost control; she didn't care anymore. after he died she tried to get a grip on the family but she was so overcome by grief that she couldn't do it.
I agree that becoming a teenager was hard for James. Ever since his step father died, he was in his own control. Ruth was in her own sorrow world after her husband died and did not really watch after James and what he was doing. James started skipping school and smoking. His good student reputation started going away as he started failing his classes more and more.
His step father dying was also a big hit for James. Even though they never really said "I love you" they did care for each other. His step father's death had a big impact on his life.
James being a teenager made these changes. His stepfathers death too. But mostly him being a teenager, because when your a teenager you try new things, and begin to have habits. It's not like James wanted to be this kid who smokes and wants to fail his classes. His life started falling apart instantly because of lack of support.He had a tough teenage life especially that there was no one there to help him get through it. Life started changing for him, life also got worst. If he had the support he needed to comfort him when he needed it most, he probably wouldn't have went through his bad habits.
I agree with others that the death of James' stepfather was a big part up of his rebellion. Before, his step father was someone who kept him in place, mostly caring about his grades and if he went to church. But I also believe that James being the oldest one living in his house, without his stepfather was a big part of it. He got a sense of power and freedom which could not be handled. It seemed he did not know what to do and began to not have control over himself. As his life style became full of skipping school, drinking and smoking, it seemed to make him feel it was the only path he could choose. Also the absence of his mothers power, after his step fathers death gave extra to his freedom. Having someone who plays a big role in your life be idle and despondent did not help him in his life.
When James becomes a teenager he is faced with many things in his life. When he is faced with them at first he doesn't know how to react. He has many new emotions going through him very similar to his mother's. After his step fathers death, he feels a lot of rebellion inside himself. BEcause of this rebellion he decides to change how he feels about his family. After the death, his mother isn't able to pay as much attention to James. He starts to choose what he is going to do for himself and he gets led into the path of experimentation. When he is rebelling against his family he feels a slight exhilaration that he enjoys. As he evolves he gets involved in behavior his mother would not abide to. Because of his change in character he starts to be faced with new things. I feel that eventually he will even out again after he does some self reflection.
As James' gets older he follows the wrong examples. He blames life for all the tough times he went through as a child. He changes dramatically after his step father passed away. He looked up to his stepfather. He considered him to be his real father. He always was inspired by him to do good. After this he started to get bad grades and just ran away from his problems instead of facing them. He used drugs, alcohol, and stealing to make him feel better about himself. His mother tried her best to help him change, but she got fed up and sent him to Kentucky in the summers to Jack, his sister. He learned some very valuable lessons down there, but he was still violent and tried to be rebellious. As we (kids) change and grow older we get confused about life and who we truly are and this played a role with James' situation. It all mainly started with the death of his step father the only father figure he had; which he actually looked up to and listened to.
His stepfathers death was the first stone that fell off and trigged the avalanche James life. Then he dropped out of school, and stated smoking, and doing drugs. After this the whole landslide happened. He didn't go to school any more, and the whole mountain fell off.
He got drunk, stole purses, and had a dark teenage past. In attempt to help him and his alcohol problems, Ruth send James to his aunt. He dose not find it dreary, and on the contrary loves it. He spend much of his summers on "the corner", learning and as he put it "getting his real street eduation". James sees many things, and get to know many new people. This one man, Chicken Man, really strikes him. He appears as an old drunk man, but behind the sketchy face there was a smart and thoughful man, that James ended up idolizing.
The teen years are usually hard for any one who is passing though them, but james has those issues and so much more. The was experimenting new things, and since he was the oldest sibling, there was no one top stop him, no one to guide him. He made lots of bad decisions, and thus resulted in his alcohol problems.
I agree with the people before me, in saying that teen years are difficult. Also, many people rebel in these years. Even Ruth says that when she was a teen she felt rebelious. Being a teen is difficult and confusing in itself; but James had to deal with grief as well. Life at home was falling apart, and he did not want to stay and feel the burden and help. He wanted to get away from the sorrow and sadness, he wanted to get away from his mother when she needed him. Being young and having the responsability for your family is something that he could not deal with, it's something that anyone would not want to deal with. The timing was very bad for him. He wanted to be free, he did not want to feel pulled back into his mother's sadness. He could not cope with seeing his mother the way she was after her husband, his stepfather, died. Because he could not cope with this, he felt that he had to stay away. Built up emotions were starting to take control.
After James stepfather dies, his mother is a wreck and so there is nobody to make sure he goes to school and gets good grades. He was also in a sort if denial from the pain of losing his stepfather. His stepfather had been the father figure in James' life, always looking out for him an dmaking sure that he would onedayb be sucessful (by making him have perfect grades). Drugs and alcochol seem like and easy way out a difficlut homelife for James. Also, he enjoys his newfound musical interests with his band "Black Ice". He was never allowed to be in a band before. I believe that because he was so sad, James was an easy target to fall into the wrong set of people and hten be influneced by them to smoke and drink. Smoking and drinking were two thingds that James' mother detested, and James was never allowed to do either. James took advantage of the fact that no one was supervising him and decided to let everything slip. This was a rather selfish act, as it would have been better for the rest of the family if James had remained a good student and spent more time at home. He also had a tought time being a teenager. When becoming a teenager, you must find out who you truly are. Because of the undiscussed question of race in his family, Finding himslef was difficult for James. Many different aspects build up to become the reason why James ley his grades and church going slip. Then again, there is still hope for James because sometimes you must lose yourself to find yourself.
James fell from grace and fell i have to say pretty dang far. One of the main reasons he fell was because he lost his step father. Another after his father died he described not being able to watch his mother cry. The way he solved his problems was by using drugs and turning from a straight A student to a drop out. After loosing his father it seemed to him that nothing was important. This is the way many people solve their problems. This is definitely a teenager thing to do when they have lost all hope. I think that it is sad to see someone so great to fall. It is like in the Dark Knight, the joker wanted to prove that even the best people could fall. Only in this case there isn't a villain. In this situation the only villain is yourself.
Aspects in James's life change from simple ways to complicated lifestyles. Not only did he not have a father figure to look up to from the beginning of his childhood, but when a father figure finally does enter his life, his step father dies and James, once again, is left to live solely with his mother. His mother does not have the patience and time to offer James individual time alone, so when Mr. Hunter Jordan, or "daddy" became a part of his life, James finally had someone who realized if something were wrong or if he wanted to spend time together.His daddy taught him valuable lessons such as the act of love, kindness, and protection. His dad taught him the desire of protection and a healty life for ones they loved. For example, his dad really showed that he cared about Ruth when he told James that he had bought land and saved money for their family, this act of kindness showed James his father's love for his mother. Another big change was that he became the "alpha male." The eldest in the house meant power and control over the younger siblings. But James realized that being in this all powerful state was not as glorious as it may have looked when his older siblings were the eldest in the house. I also believe that the household and just his surroundings in general caused James to feel as if he had the right to just drop put of school and begin to sell and abuse drugs while also stealing. You could see how much was changing about James, you could see that he was distancing himself farther and father away from his family and his relatives. he was evolving and coming of age, transforming into a whole new person along the way to "manhood." he was becoming insensitive, and oblivious to the world around him. he was cutting off his family and his academic life while he was replacing it with weed and wine, both things that he had stolen." i was numb. i felt i was getting back at the world for injustices i had suffered,but if you sat me down and asked me which injustices I was talking about, I wouldn't have been able to name them if my life depended on them."(Mcbride 142) I thought this qpute was powerful becuase he never realized that his life was wrong and screwed up because he had made it that way. and that from the start he never had any true necessities but that wasn't something to want to get revenge for, it was due to his mother's lack of money. but lack of money did not mean that she would have cared any less if they did have money. In truth, James's life was as good as Ruth could have made it as a single parent, but wrong because of his poor decision making as an adolescent. He was unruffled by the fact that he was snatching women's purses from their hands, not remembering back when he was a small child watching his mother's purse get taken from her. He didn't see the connection between a white man robbing a black women and a black man robbing a black women. but eventually he realized that as his guilt accumulated,so did his addiction to drugs.
James is having a hard time growing up with a poor family so deals with it in rebellion. This causes him to drop out of life. I think chicken man's words will inspire him to bounce back.
This chapter, I think James started to get emotionally overloaded. Its a time where you just get really stressed out because of mixed feelings about homelife and you cant really talk about it so you just break out. All of this challenges displayed in his school work. Challenges such as, the death of his step father,the anexity of his mothers depressions, being exposed to violence, drugs and alchohol. What really woke him up was "Chicken Man" the neighborhood hoodlum. He was an example of what James could turn out to be. Looking at him, and listening to the Chicken Man say himself that education and the ambition will get you ahead in life. That made James realize, that he was able to talk to others, and things are always going to get rough. Getrting into dangerous activities wasnt going to solve anything. He was in the mist of finding out, how he could still carry on his fathers strive to do well and his mothers will for creating a better future to him. I think the message of both of his parents will begin to come clearer throughout the book.
James goes through his teenage years in these chapters. It is normal for a teenager to experience change, but the change in his life was very drastic. For example, when his "father" died and he saw his mother cry, it completely changed the power structure in the house. The father was gone and the mother showed weakness. So James home life changed. There was no more structure in the house. Rachel couldn't pay bills because the little money they had was sent to her sons and daughters in college. James no longer had structure in his life. He didn't have a father or a "strong" mother, he was the oldest sibling in the house so no other sibling was there to be in control. So his life became chaotic and out of control because he had no barriers or rules. His mother was preoccupied with the mourning of her husband. There were no older siblings to tell James not to do drugs and drink, so he did it. Also his mother was not focusing on James education a much as she used to so he didn't have any expectations to go to school and be a grade A student anymore because everything and everyone around him was different.
I think that James started to change because his stepfather died. I think that his stepfather was the one who brought order to the family even though he didnt live with them full-time. As James even said, his stepfather cared a lot about neatness. I think that this could also be used as a metaphor to describe how he approched his life and his family. They always needed order and direction. This worked for everyone. Everyone had to do their work, be home by certain times, and just overall behave and listen to their mom. I think that when Jordan died, so did the "neatness" and the order. Since he wasn't there to hold up the mother, the mother wasn't there to support the children. This newfound freedom mixed with his new teenage hormones led to him to begin to fall. First his grades began to fall, then his school life all together, and at last he was pretty much broken.
In chapters 11-14, James begins to explore a new side of being a teenager. He learns of more age appropriate forms of rebellion. However, these act become more and more dangerous and start to fall on the wrong side of the law. There are multiple reasons for James' sudden revolutionary nature. The most pivotal point in James' mental behavior can be seen as the death of his father. However, it is not the act of death, but the impact death had on Ruth, James' mother. When Hunter Jordan sr. died, Ruth went into a state of unreachable sadness and despair. Ruth's sudden lack of caring spurred James to go out on the streets and be independent from the law of his house, and at times, the law of the state. Also, what James went through can also be seen as a cry for attention. At the time, he had just become the oldest kid in the house. With that title should have some attention, but instead it only brought lack of care.
I do agree with many people before me, that becoming a teenager is challenging by trying to find out who are in the world and finding out that there is more out there in the world than just your front door. I think a crucial influence on James' sudden change of character, was the death of James' stepfather. He was the man who kept the family as one, although he wasn't perfect but he was their father. To James, Hunter was his father because his biological father passed away before he was born. When Hunter died this affected the entire family especially Ruth. I say this because, to the children she seemed as though, "Mommy walked around the house as if she were blind, staggering through the motions of life." Sadly, James' way of expressing grief was to turn to drugs, alcohol and other criminal acts. He did this because he knew that the rest of his family were so blinded with grief as well that they paid no attention to him and also because he was no the oldest sibling of the family now. Later on, when his mother found out that he flunking school she sent him to live with his sister Jack. This experience basically gave him a chance be a different person because in Kentucky no one knew of his mixed life at home, even though he didn't completely recreate himself. Then when Chicken Man tried to talk some sense into him about how he shouldn't be wasting his life, the words that were said didn't affect James at the time because of the pain he was feeling. All of the aspects in these three chapters affected James to fall from grace.
I agree with zoya and other people. He was trying to hide his feelings from his family. The bad choices that his makes are in away a place for him to run away just lik the mother rides her bike. He his also trying to figure out the different races between him and his mother. That is also why he my make bad dicesion.
At this point, he has just entered the age of junior adulthood. The age of 14 is the transition between middle and high school, an age that requires meticulous decisions to be made. James suddenly turned to unacceptable behavior in his family. I think this is due to his emotional shock. When he was born, he did not experience the death of someone he loved, or closed to. However, when his stepfather died, he realized how much it meant to him. The family loses control immediately, the elder losing his mind, the younger losing leadership. The course of family was fractured. He was distressed, but also could not stand his mother's abnormalities, so he decided to run away from his stress, run away from difficulties. However, he can never run from reality.
James's whole life is a hard one. He is growing up in a small house with many siblings and he does not receive the attention he deserves as a kid. He doesn't get a lot of food and often gets into many fights with his siblings. At school he faces racism and prejudice and he feels alone. This can mess someone up who is coming through adolescence especially when your hormones are going mad. On top of all this, the man he respected and called father died. This put him in shock and put him in a state of utter confusion. He wasn't immediately affected by it because he still didn't feel the impact of it. He said that "I was numb" this is in the sense that he didn't realize how much he loved his dad. After his stepfathers death his mother couldn't take car of herself. The all seeing hawk had gone blind from sadness. She turned to Jesus and Christianity and he didn't want any of that. The family grew farther apart and start to break. The monarchy of the McBride family was ending. He turned to drugs, alcohol, and crime. He thought his crime wasn't wrong and in a sense he justified it in his mind and it gave him a place to be. He changed and through puberty he was quite conservative.
I think the death of James' stepfather started his rebellion. After his death James starts to do drugs and starts to drink liquor. The death of the only predominant male figure in his life causes his life to spiral downwards. Putting even more pressure on him was his stepfather telling him that "he was the man of the house". -David
A funny thing to this story is the amazing similarity between the lives of the mother and the son who both seem to be in very different situations. The mother in her own life went into a downward spiral about the same time he did. I find this so sad and ironic. But to furthermore reinforce this statement, both of them also turn to God for the answer and their aid to their problems.
His stepfather just died and he had alot of pressures in school. when stepfather died he changed so drastically because his stepfather was the one that kept him from getting into trouble and going to subday school.
The death of the stepfather really turns James into a different person. He doesn't act like himself and starts to do stupid things. In these chapters we start to see the dark side of James and his fall.
39 comments:
Well, for one he is becoming a teenager, a difficult process for anyone. Secondly, his step father died, the man who kept him in check, sent him to sunday school, and made sure his grades were immaculate at school. The death of the main pillar in the Jordan-McBride household crushed Ruth, and the family fell into disrepair, the children were tough, but they couldn't survive without their two parent figures. James started to go out, partly, i think, to forget about the misery in his home and partly because he just could, nobody was there to tell him not to. He was the oldest kid in his house so he was finally the boss now. There were no other older siblings to notice his behavior and a lack of affection from his mother prompted a search fro affection elsewhere. Drugs, alcahol, and other illegal activities provided an easy escape. James was also dealing with the shame of being a "mixed" child, he was confused about what family really meant to him, and whether having a white mother made him "different." All these things could have led to James's fall from grace.
being a teenager is obviously tough for him. i think that there are a lot of reasons he is rebelling. one could be it runs in the family. his mom slowly rebelled. a few of his siblings rebelled. its in his blood. another reason is his house. he had a very difficult childhood. it seemed impossible to live. his siblings tortured him and he was very pour. the last thing could be he doesn't have a father. his mom can barley support her children. its hard to live when you lost 2 of your fathers. one last thing that i just thought of is that he is a teenager. i agree with zoya. its true becoming a teenager is tough especially with one parent. its really hard for him to get through.
GOing through the phase of adolencence is very hard for anyone. James was in a state were he was confused and dind't deal with his problem in the best ways. He felt misserable and the only way he could seem to get rid of his missery was to drink, do drugs, party, sexual behavior and other illiagal behavior/activities. He feels rebelious and like no one can stop him. One of the reasonds of this is because he is the oldest sibling in the house hold and the second is becuase his mother didn't didn't give him as much atterntion as he wished. (WHich was hard becuase he had many siblings.) He decides to blow off school and start having fun like any young and rebelious individdual would like to. James also never met his real father and complicates things for him eventhough he considers Mr. Hunter as his fahter. "Daddy" thought that it was very important that his childern-- including the ones that weren't geneticly related-- would thrive academicly/ flourish in school. With his death he wasn't getting enough guadance from mommy because she worked most of the time and she had to attend various children. Daddy's death also afected James mentaly.
when going through puberty is really when people become rebellious, plus he never really was able to vent and talk about his problems seeing race. He always kept his feeling to himself plus he was ashamed of his mother and to escape and run from what he saw his mother as and to get away from the confusion he started up drugs, alcohol and hanging around with the wrong crowd was his escape. the mother rebels by running, this is his way of rebelling, i think when he learns on the Corner really hits him i think that's what sets him in a new track.
this is kevin
I agree with Zoya that both James' adolescence and his family life were what started him down the wrong path. James was just begininng to start making choices for himself, and most of them were foolish choices that he made, simply to avoid school and to have more fun. When his stepfather died, the whole family fell apart. Even though Ruth was still physically there, she was no longer mentally with her family. After Hunter's death Ruth nearly just gave up on her family and no longer looked out for and after as much as she did before. James was also the oldest in the house, and so he had no older siblings to steer him away from drugs, cigarettes, etc. and also there was no one to help bring Ruth back into a mentally strong state. The responsibility of looking after Ruth would have fallen to James, but he was to busy doing his own thing to forget about his family, so he had no time to try and support it.
James is living a difficult life. His step father just passed away. James looked up to his step father and loved him dearly.James states in the first chapter "I always thought of him as Daddy." Loosing him brought great sadness over the McBride family. the death was a burden on the family, even though it was hard for the parents to support their children with the father; It will be even more difficult. James' sorrow is one of the many things causing his rebellious acts. Because he is one of the younger siblings, he looks up to the rest of his siblings. Some of them have gotten into trouble, and James might follow in their footsteps. Also, James may feel that he does not get enough love and affection from his mother. Although she works her hardest for them and loves them all, it is hard for her to epress her feelings towards all of her children because there are soo many. In the beginning of the book james says that the only time he remembered time with his mother alone was when she took him to school. I agree with everyone else with the fact that puberty is a hard time for anybody. Puberty brings mood swings and changes mentally and physicly. It is hard for James especially the conditions that he is living under at the time.
becoming and adolesant has taken a tole on him. he is used to living on his own and no longer wants to live with his mothers pain all around him. he has stoped caring about school because he is ashamed of his mom and she wants him to go. he is your avrage rebelious teenager. every summer, he goes to a place called "the corner." he gets drunk to hide and surpress the sadness. the drunks at the corner are not typical. they are respectable and live by a strict code. he learns to live with them instead of his family. to him his old family is just people he lives with. his real family is his friends.
I tottaly agree with Zoya. Becoming a teenager is difficult for anyone. when i turned 13 i had to take so much more responsibility and i could no longer get away with "kid mistakes". the most sad part for me was when James' stepfather dies. at this time we can see that James has a tough life.
as a child james had everything he needed to survive. not saying that it was all good, but he sustained himself and was able to becom acustumed to his way of life. him step father died, and ofcoarce this is a bad thing but to make it worse he saw him as hisown flesh and blood. this didn't deliberetly tramatise him but he was shock. then his mom had to deal with this. she saw him as a lover, not as a father, and this actualy made it woarse for he. she had already suffored the loss of her first husband and though trying to get back on the saddle she sufered the loss of her second husband. she will probobly never full recovor form this she becomes a nervous reck. with the loss of his mentor james also startes to break down. he becomes ashamed of his mom and does badly in school.
Becoming an African American teenager amidst the black power movement, living with 12 brothers and sisters, having a white mother and having your step father die all in a short period time is very traumatic for a young teen. With no paternal figure in James' life, he befriends the wrong people and partakes in shameful and illegal activities like skipping school and doing drugs. Though rebellion in some kind of way is natural for many teens, James' took it to an extreme. "James' fall from grace" was destined to happen. It was hard on his mother, because he was no help in his house and he distanced himself his fall was a bit more severe.
i also strongly agree Zoya as well. The death of James' step father was definitely what set off the bomb waiting to explode for James. This completely set James off onto the wrong direction. james felt that drugs, alcohol and illegal activities would be able to help his problem, but they only made his problems even harder to deal with. With the constant thought of the police doing something to him and his friends, James had to be extremely carful or else he could suffer the most Severe consequences. I agree with Lucas that James had the responsibility of looking after Ruth as well as his younger siblings, but James was too busy doing his own activities away from the house.
I think that what prompts James to change was his desire to get away from all that was saddening him in his home life and with the family. He is also becoming a teenager (oh, what a joyous time) and thus he feels an urge to rebel. He uses alcohol, drugs, and other stupid things that older teenagers do. Another thing that is heavy on his mind is the fact that hiss step father died, and has James stated in the very first chapter, he felt that his step father was his biological father. James also is going through a process that everyone goes through at some point in there life, no matter how old you are. He is going through a process of mind. In which the mind plays tricks, and does not let you know who your real, true family is.
when his step father died he felt like he had to escape from that sad house. as he said he was doing his own kind of running. he felt like he had to leave the house. he was drinking smoking stealing and dropping out of school. he was rebelling to grieve for his father. his step father was the one who had a handle on his life and his school. when he was sick and dying his mother sort of lost control; she didn't care anymore. after he died she tried to get a grip on the family but she was so overcome by grief that she couldn't do it.
I agree that becoming a teenager was hard for James. Ever since his step father died, he was in his own control. Ruth was in her own sorrow world after her husband died and did not really watch after James and what he was doing. James started skipping school and smoking. His good student reputation started going away as he started failing his classes more and more.
His step father dying was also a big hit for James. Even though they never really said "I love you" they did care for each other. His step father's death had a big impact on his life.
James being a teenager made these changes. His stepfathers death too. But mostly him being a teenager, because when your a teenager you try new things, and begin to have habits. It's not like James wanted to be this kid who smokes and wants to fail his classes. His life started falling apart instantly because of lack of support.He had a tough teenage life especially that there was no one there to help him get through it. Life started changing for him, life also got worst. If he had the support he needed to comfort him when he needed it most, he probably wouldn't have went through his bad habits.
I agree with others that the death of James' stepfather was a big part up of his rebellion. Before, his step father was someone who kept him in place, mostly caring about his grades and if he went to church. But I also believe that James being the oldest one living in his house, without his stepfather was a big part of it. He got a sense of power and freedom which could not be handled. It seemed he did not know what to do and began to not have control over himself. As his life style became full of skipping school, drinking and smoking, it seemed to make him feel it was the only path he could choose. Also the absence of his mothers power, after his step fathers death gave extra to his freedom. Having someone who plays a big role in your life be idle and despondent did not help him in his life.
When James becomes a teenager he is faced with many things in his life. When he is faced with them at first he doesn't know how to react. He has many new emotions going through him very similar to his mother's. After his step fathers death, he feels a lot of rebellion inside himself. BEcause of this rebellion he decides to change how he feels about his family. After the death, his mother isn't able to pay as much attention to James. He starts to choose what he is going to do for himself and he gets led into the path of experimentation. When he is rebelling against his family he feels a slight exhilaration that he enjoys. As he evolves he gets involved in behavior his mother would not abide to. Because of his change in character he starts to be faced with new things. I feel that eventually he will even out again after he does some self reflection.
As James' gets older he follows the wrong examples. He blames life for all the tough times he went through as a child. He changes dramatically after his step father passed away. He looked up to his stepfather. He considered him to be his real father. He always was inspired by him to do good. After this he started to get bad grades and just ran away from his problems instead of facing them. He used drugs, alcohol, and stealing to make him feel better about himself. His mother tried her best to help him change, but she got fed up and sent him to Kentucky in the summers to Jack, his sister. He learned some very valuable lessons down there, but he was still violent and tried to be rebellious. As we (kids) change and grow older we get confused about life and who we truly are and this played a role with James' situation. It all mainly started with the death of his step father the only father figure he had; which he actually looked up to and listened to.
His stepfathers death was the first stone that fell off and trigged the avalanche James life. Then he dropped out of school, and stated smoking, and doing drugs. After this the whole landslide happened. He didn't go to school any more, and the whole mountain fell off.
He got drunk, stole purses, and had a dark teenage past. In attempt to help him and his alcohol problems, Ruth send James to his aunt. He dose not find it dreary, and on the contrary loves it. He spend much of his summers on "the corner", learning and as he put it "getting his real street eduation". James sees many things, and get to know many new people. This one man, Chicken Man, really strikes him. He appears as an old drunk man, but behind the sketchy face there was a smart and thoughful man, that James ended up idolizing.
The teen years are usually hard for any one who is passing though them, but james has those issues and so much more. The was experimenting new things, and since he was the oldest sibling, there was no one top stop him, no one to guide him. He made lots of bad decisions, and thus resulted in his alcohol problems.
I agree with the people before me, in saying that teen years are difficult. Also, many people rebel in these years. Even Ruth says that when she was a teen she felt rebelious. Being a teen is difficult and confusing in itself; but James had to deal with grief as well. Life at home was falling apart, and he did not want to stay and feel the burden and help. He wanted to get away from the sorrow and sadness, he wanted to get away from his mother when she needed him. Being young and having the responsability for your family is something that he could not deal with, it's something that anyone would not want to deal with. The timing was very bad for him. He wanted to be free, he did not want to feel pulled back into his mother's sadness. He could not cope with seeing his mother the way she was after her husband, his stepfather, died. Because he could not cope with this, he felt that he had to stay away. Built up emotions were starting to take control.
After James stepfather dies, his mother is a wreck and so there is nobody to make sure he goes to school and gets good grades. He was also in a sort if denial from the pain of losing his stepfather. His stepfather had been the father figure in James' life, always looking out for him an dmaking sure that he would onedayb be sucessful (by making him have perfect grades). Drugs and alcochol seem like and easy way out a difficlut homelife for James. Also, he enjoys his newfound musical interests with his band "Black Ice". He was never allowed to be in a band before. I believe that because he was so sad, James was an easy target to fall into the wrong set of people and hten be influneced by them to smoke and drink. Smoking and drinking were two thingds that James' mother detested, and James was never allowed to do either. James took advantage of the fact that no one was supervising him and decided to let everything slip. This was a rather selfish act, as it would have been better for the rest of the family if James had remained a good student and spent more time at home. He also had a tought time being a teenager. When becoming a teenager, you must find out who you truly are. Because of the undiscussed question of race in his family, Finding himslef was difficult for James. Many different aspects build up to become the reason why James ley his grades and church going slip. Then again, there is still hope for James because sometimes you must lose yourself to find yourself.
James fell from grace and fell i have to say pretty dang far. One of the main reasons he fell was because he lost his step father. Another after his father died he described not being able to watch his mother cry. The way he solved his problems was by using drugs and turning from a straight A student to a drop out. After loosing his father it seemed to him that nothing was important. This is the way many people solve their problems. This is definitely a teenager thing to do when they have lost all hope. I think that it is sad to see someone so great to fall. It is like in the Dark Knight, the joker wanted to prove that even the best people could fall. Only in this case there isn't a villain. In this situation the only villain is yourself.
Aspects in James's life change from simple ways to complicated lifestyles. Not only did he not have a father figure to look up to from the beginning of his childhood, but when a father figure finally does enter his life, his step father dies and James, once again, is left to live solely with his mother. His mother does not have the patience and time to offer James individual time alone, so when Mr. Hunter Jordan, or "daddy" became a part of his life, James finally had someone who realized if something were wrong or if he wanted to spend time together.His daddy taught him valuable lessons such as the act of love, kindness, and protection. His dad taught him the desire of protection and a healty life for ones they loved. For example, his dad really showed that he cared about Ruth when he told James that he had bought land and saved money for their family, this act of kindness showed James his father's love for his mother. Another big change was that he became the "alpha male." The eldest in the house meant power and control over the younger siblings. But James realized that being in this all powerful state was not as glorious as it may have looked when his older siblings were the eldest in the house. I also believe that the household and just his surroundings in general caused James to feel as if he had the right to just drop put of school and begin to sell and abuse drugs while also stealing. You could see how much was changing about James, you could see that he was distancing himself farther and father away from his family and his relatives. he was evolving and coming of age, transforming into a whole new person along the way to "manhood." he was becoming insensitive, and oblivious to the world around him. he was cutting off his family and his academic life while he was replacing it with weed and wine, both things that he had stolen." i was numb. i felt i was getting back at the world for injustices i had suffered,but if you sat me down and asked me which injustices I was talking about, I wouldn't have been able to name them if my life depended on them."(Mcbride 142) I thought this qpute was powerful becuase he never realized that his life was wrong and screwed up because he had made it that way. and that from the start he never had any true necessities but that wasn't something to want to get revenge for, it was due to his mother's lack of money. but lack of money did not mean that she would have cared any less if they did have money. In truth, James's life was as good as Ruth could have made it as a single parent, but wrong because of his poor decision making as an adolescent. He was unruffled by the fact that he was snatching women's purses from their hands, not remembering back when he was a small child watching his mother's purse get taken from her. He didn't see the connection between a white man robbing a black women and a black man robbing a black women. but eventually he realized that as his guilt accumulated,so did his addiction to drugs.
James is having a hard time growing up with a poor family so deals with it in rebellion. This causes him to drop out of life. I think chicken man's words will inspire him to bounce back.
This chapter, I think James started to get emotionally overloaded. Its a time where you just get really stressed out because of mixed feelings about homelife and you cant really talk about it so you just break out. All of this challenges displayed in his school work. Challenges such as, the death of his step father,the anexity of his mothers depressions, being exposed to violence, drugs and alchohol.
What really woke him up was "Chicken Man" the neighborhood hoodlum. He was an example of what James could turn out to be. Looking at him, and listening to the Chicken Man say himself that education and the ambition will get you ahead in life. That made James realize, that he was able to talk to others, and things are always going to get rough. Getrting into dangerous activities wasnt going to solve anything. He was in the mist of finding out, how he could still carry on his fathers strive to do well and his mothers will for creating a better future to him. I think the message of both of his parents will begin to come clearer throughout the book.
James goes through his teenage years in these chapters. It is normal for a teenager to experience change, but the change in his life was very drastic. For example, when his "father" died and he saw his mother cry, it completely changed the power structure in the house. The father was gone and the mother showed weakness. So James home life changed. There was no more structure in the house. Rachel couldn't pay bills because the little money they had was sent to her sons and daughters in college. James no longer had structure in his life. He didn't have a father or a "strong" mother, he was the oldest sibling in the house so no other sibling was there to be in control. So his life became chaotic and out of control because he had no barriers or rules. His mother was preoccupied with the mourning of her husband. There were no older siblings to tell James not to do drugs and drink, so he did it. Also his mother was not focusing on James education a much as she used to so he didn't have any expectations to go to school and be a grade A student anymore because everything and everyone around him was different.
I think that James started to change because his stepfather died. I think that his stepfather was the one who brought order to the family even though he didnt live with them full-time. As James even said, his stepfather cared a lot about neatness. I think that this could also be used as a metaphor to describe how he approched his life and his family. They always needed order and direction. This worked for everyone. Everyone had to do their work, be home by certain times, and just overall behave and listen to their mom. I think that when Jordan died, so did the "neatness" and the order. Since he wasn't there to hold up the mother, the mother wasn't there to support the children. This newfound freedom mixed with his new teenage hormones led to him to begin to fall. First his grades began to fall, then his school life all together, and at last he was pretty much broken.
In chapters 11-14, James begins to explore a new side of being a teenager. He learns of more age appropriate forms of rebellion. However, these act become more and more dangerous and start to fall on the wrong side of the law. There are multiple reasons for James' sudden revolutionary nature. The most pivotal point in James' mental behavior can be seen as the death of his father. However, it is not the act of death, but the impact death had on Ruth, James' mother. When Hunter Jordan sr. died, Ruth went into a state of unreachable sadness and despair. Ruth's sudden lack of caring spurred James to go out on the streets and be independent from the law of his house, and at times, the law of the state. Also, what James went through can also be seen as a cry for attention. At the time, he had just become the oldest kid in the house. With that title should have some attention, but instead it only brought lack of care.
I do agree with many people before me, that becoming a teenager is challenging by trying to find out who are in the world and finding out that there is more out there in the world than just your front door. I think a crucial influence on James' sudden change of character, was the death of James' stepfather. He was the man who kept the family as one, although he wasn't perfect but he was their father. To James, Hunter was his father because his biological father passed away before he was born. When Hunter died this affected the entire family especially Ruth. I say this because, to the children she seemed as though, "Mommy walked around the house as if she were blind, staggering through the motions of life." Sadly, James' way of expressing grief was to turn to drugs, alcohol and other criminal acts. He did this because he knew that the rest of his family were so blinded with grief as well that they paid no attention to him and also because he was no the oldest sibling of the family now. Later on, when his mother found out that he flunking school she sent him to live with his sister Jack. This experience basically gave him a chance be a different person because in Kentucky no one knew of his mixed life at home, even though he didn't completely recreate himself. Then when Chicken Man tried to talk some sense into him about how he shouldn't be wasting his life, the words that were said didn't affect James at the time because of the pain he was feeling. All of the aspects in these three chapters affected James to fall from grace.
I agree with zoya and other people. He was trying to hide his feelings from his family. The bad choices that his makes are in away a place for him to run away just lik the mother rides her bike. He his also trying to figure out the different races between him and his mother. That is also why he my make bad dicesion.
At this point, he has just entered the age of junior adulthood. The age of 14 is the transition between middle and high school, an age that requires meticulous decisions to be made.
James suddenly turned to unacceptable behavior in his family. I think this is due to his emotional shock. When he was born, he did not experience the death of someone he loved, or closed to. However, when his stepfather died, he realized how much it meant to him. The family loses control immediately, the elder losing his mind, the younger losing leadership. The course of family was fractured. He was distressed, but also could not stand his mother's abnormalities, so he decided to run away from his stress, run away from difficulties. However, he can never run from reality.
James's whole life is a hard one. He is growing up in a small house with many siblings and he does not receive the attention he deserves as a kid. He doesn't get a lot of food and often gets into many fights with his siblings. At school he faces racism and prejudice and he feels alone. This can mess someone up who is coming through adolescence especially when your hormones are going mad. On top of all this, the man he respected and called father died. This put him in shock and put him in a state of utter confusion. He wasn't immediately affected by it because he still didn't feel the impact of it. He said that "I was numb" this is in the sense that he didn't realize how much he loved his dad. After his stepfathers death his mother couldn't take car of herself. The all seeing hawk had gone blind from sadness. She turned to Jesus and Christianity and he didn't want any of that. The family grew farther apart and start to break. The monarchy of the McBride family was ending. He turned to drugs, alcohol, and crime. He thought his crime wasn't wrong and in a sense he justified it in his mind and it gave him a place to be. He changed and through puberty he was quite conservative.
-This is pablo
I think the death of James' stepfather started his rebellion. After his death James starts to do drugs and starts to drink liquor. The death of the only predominant male figure in his life causes his life to spiral downwards. Putting even more pressure on him was his stepfather telling him that "he was the man of the house".
-David
A funny thing to this story is the amazing similarity between the lives of the mother and the son who both seem to be in very different situations. The mother in her own life went into a downward spiral about the same time he did. I find this so sad and ironic. But to furthermore reinforce this statement, both of them also turn to God for the answer and their aid to their problems.
His stepfather just died and he had alot of pressures in school. when stepfather died he changed so drastically because his stepfather was the one that kept him from getting into trouble and going to subday school.
The death of the stepfather really turns James into a different person. He doesn't act like himself and starts to do stupid things. In these chapters we start to see the dark side of James and his fall.
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