Amazing Grace By John Kozol Essay Research — страница 2

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says that there is little hope for the victims of society. Kozol is so intent on helping the children and bringing focus to their needs that he talked to the Children s Express News Team. In this discussion he talked about the racism and neglect of the city kids. The children that he follows are mostly black or hispanic and are the subject of racial neglect, according to Kozol. Kozol said in the discussion with the Children s Express New York Bureau, Most black kids in America grow up and don t know any white people. (Children s News Express Bureau) Kozol stated in that same discussion that New York City, which is one of the most racist cities in world, has dumped all its toxic industries in the neighborhoods where poor black and Latino children live. The rich and powerful white

folks in New York City need a place to put a big sewage plant. (Children s News Express Bureau) As he is discussing the underprivileged youths, Kozol mentions that the children of the South Bronx are very religious. He feels that, the young and poor often have more faith than those who have material power. He is quoted in the article saying The children raise questions of good and evil more often than most children I ve met in the United States. I think that when people know hunger and homelessness and sadness and depression they re more open to religious thoughts. Kozol has been quoted saying that he has become more religious since his interviews in the city. He says I long to believe there is a heaven because it seems unbearable that the children I met won t have something

wonderful for them after they die. (Manning 1) Barbara Ehrnreich also comments on the spirituality of the book. She writes Kozol reminds us that, with each casualty, part of the beauty of the world is extinguished, because these are the children of intelligence and humor, of poetic insight and luminous faith. Amazing Grace is written in a gentle and measured tone, but you will wonder at the end, with Kozol, why the God of love does not return to earth with his avenging sword in hand(EhrneicH2) Kozol lists some of the youths and their tragic endings which are unthinkable to most readers. He gives them names and families so that they stick in the reader s mind and don t become a faceless mass to be forgotten. One example of this is Ebony Williams, a little girl who is incinerated

in a pampers box near the Bruckner Expressway. Most readers could not even begin to imagine how or why that occurred. The surprise does not sit with the reader long as they continue and learn of the Dukes brothers. Judson and Steven Dukes both die in one year. One brother falls off a roof and the other dies of illness because of the unsanitary living conditions of the city. He doesn t stop after describing them, he artfully describes their mother and how hard it was for her. That helps to insert a picture into the reader s mind. These monstrosities are in addition to the countless youths who are shot to death or killed in various fires, which are all too familiar to the occupants of the South Bronx. The city and its officials are set in the role of the villain, just as they are

with many of the poor citizens who feel neglected. This is a unique tool because often in literature and entertainment, the city is seen as a helpful friend to the people. In one instance in the story, there is a little boy who is playing in a hallway and leans against an elevator shaft. The shaft doors open and the boy falls to his death. The building had not been inspected recently and the building management did little to repair the door. The city on the other hand blamed the parents for letting their child play around in a hazardous area. To this Kozol writes, Going outside for youngsters in the building, means going in to the hallway, since the real outside, where they could get some clean air, is just too dangerous. (Kozol 99) That statement paints a terrifying picture of a

place where a run down hall way with a faulty elevator shaft is the safest place for kids to socialize. Another example is that of Mrs. Washington, a woman who is dying of AIDS. She is forced clean her own hospital room after she checks in. Even the little things that most people take for granted are nonexistent for her and her peers in the Bronx. From there Kozol uses the view point of the poor to assault city hall. He lists the programs that had been cut by Mayor Guliani, including sanitation and inspection services as well as many rehabilitation programs. Also tax cuts in Manhattan, that benefit only the five percent of the population who also have incomes of over $100,000, are of no help to the minorities dying of poverty in the South Bronx. These cuts are funded by laying