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Analysis Of Tattoos On The Heart By Gregory Boyle

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Tattoos on the Heart is a novel by Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program. He invites the reader to gain insight into the need for solidarity in our world. His hope is for the reader to develop compassion, to alter the margins, and to gain understanding of unconditional “no matter whatness,” love. The quest for solidarity is ultimately the main focus of this book. Solidarity, according to Boyle, relating to someone on a human level and attempting to understand their individuality. It is an understand of how people have been shaped and limited by life’s experiences.. To gain solidarity a person must have compassion. Compassion and solidarity go hand in hand to change structure and …show more content…

The memoir relays Boyle’s experiences serving as the leader of the Dolores Mission Church in the gang capital of the world, Los Angeles. Boyle, a Jesuit, performed his earliest missionary work in an impoverished Bolivian village. There, Boyle gained two lifelong attributes: an unyielding desire to help the poor and the ability to speak Spanish, both of which would define his later ministry efforts. After returning from his mission to Bolivia, Boyle requested for his next transfer to be to an area where he could continue to directly focus on helping the poor; Boyle’s wish was promptly granted, as in 1986 he was assigned to minister at the Dolores Mission Church, which was located in the poorest parish in Los Angeles. Once there, it did not take Boyle long to see how gang violence was crippling the lives of many in the community, so Boyle made a commitment to himself to make a concerted effort to help change gang members’ lives for the better. To this effect, Boyle would treat them like humans, whereas everyone else seemed to treat them like …show more content…

Boyle started the non-profit organization Homeboy Industries, which helped gang members attain jobs, get tattoos removed, and seek higher education. What started off as small operation soon blossomed into a huge enterprise that helped thousands of gang members find jobs and leave their former lifestyles behind. Tattoos on the Heart is a masterful weaving of numerous anecdotes, all of which were derived from Boyle’s personal experiences while serving as the leader of Dolores Mission Church and Homeboy Industries. The book is full of stories of both redemption and tragedy, but it points the way for a new understanding of gang members as humans no less worthy of God’s love than anyone else. The themes of kinship and compassion run through nearly every page of the work, as Boyle explains that the best way to truly reach the hearts and minds of homies is to show them love, hope, and compassion. In the end, Boyle refuses to say whether or not his efforts to help homies and homegirls have been “successful,” as he is merely following his faith. But certainly there can be no doubt by the end of the book that Boyle has made a huge impact not only on the personal lives of the countless homies he has encountered, but also the communal lives of all who those who have ever lived in his

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