Chapter 4 : Marking Territory

Theme: Parallel Biographies

Quote 1: " She felt like she'd been punched in the stomach. She sat down on the bed, unsure of what  to think. She wasn't only upset about the drugs, she was upset about the lying. She didn't even bother looking in the second box; she already knew all she needed to know. Both of her sons were drug dealers." (pg.73)

Analysis 1: This scenery included in chapter 4 was a scene where Wes 2's mom found out that her son was a drug dealer after he had told her that he was a DJ. After she found out about this truth, she was just greatly disappointed with her own son's actions to decide to sell drugs as well as that she trusted him so much and he ends up repaying this trust of her with a hard stab back of selling drugs.

Quote 2: " My academic failures had forced her to go through the stages of grief: denial,anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. She's been stuck in depression for a long time and hadn't quite made it to acceptance, no matter how much I'd hoped she'd get there." (pg76) 

Analysis 2: A similar story to Wes 2, Wes 1 (the narrator) has also disappointed his mother. His mother has done so much for him to be able to attend a well- educated school outside the community but he ends up repaying her with bad grades from school. This also effects the author's mom greatly, because she had such high hopes for her son to do well in school and the fat that he let himself get  such low grades, placed her in a bad and hard stage of coping with this truth. 

Quote 3: "The move to the Bronx had been hard on her. Nikki never fully adjusted to the new social and academic environment; she attended three different high schools in four years." (pg.77)

Analysis 3: This part of Nikki's life in very similar to Wes 1''s as well. Wes himself has a hard time adjusting and balancing his life between his life at his private school and his life with his friends back in his neighborhood. In comparison to Nikki, because Nikki has moved high schools so frequently, she was also never really given the chance to be able to balance out her social life and academic life.

Quote 4: "By the end of the story, I was furious. First, at Shani for not punching Lateshia back, but then at Lateshia, who had the audacity to go after my sister." (pg, 78)

Analysis 4: Although the details are completely different, the sibling relationship between Wes1 and his little sister Shani & the sibling relationship between Wes2 and his brother Tony assemble each other. The older sibling, having the mentality to always on the look out and protecting their younger ones.

Quote 5: "I was a little shaken as we walked back home in the twilight. little things like this had a way of escalating into blood feuds. Big brothers called bigger brothers, who called crews." (pg79)

Analysis 5: Just given of this description, kind of reminds or relates back to of Jusitn's cautious journey he would always have to do while traveling back home.