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Black Life In The Bottom: Five-Carat Soul By James Mcbride

785 Words4 Pages

Hunter Marshall English 4-G Mr. Cantello April 5th, 2018 Rock Bottom The Bottom which seems to be very similar to “the hood” is a place where crimes are prevalent, drugs are present, and poverty rates are high. Many people that live here are illiterate and some may be unemployed. Life in The Bottom is very difficult and it is a tough place to leave once you grow up there; however, they have more culture than meets the outside eye. Not all the men are thugs, not all women are single moms, and everyone isn’t sitting around listening to hip-hop while their pants hang too low. Black life is as diverse and remarkable as white life. This is shown in numerous short stories in the book Five-Carat Soul By James McBride. Mr. McBride …show more content…

The first story Buck Boy was about a robbery gone wrong. Mr. Woo, a local chinese restaurant owner, was at work when Buck Boy, the robber, stormed in carrying a knife. Mr. Who was being robbed, but he would fight back. After handing the money over to Buck Boy he shot him causing Buck Boy to die. The town turns into an uproar of anger towards Mr. Woo with the local Reverend pointing blame towards Mr. Woo. The Reverend believed that Mr. Woo shot Buck Boy due to the fact he was black, even with the proof of robbery. Keep in mind Mr. Woo is an Asian immigrant and is a person who worked his way to where they are and was living the ‘American dream’. The town hated Mr. Woo and started protests against him while opening a donation pool for Buck Boys …show more content…

In the story the main character Blub follows Sissy and Butter around, he learns the way of the streets and fits in with their crew. Butter creates a band and picks all the members based on skill and what value they would have for the group; Blub is left out due to lack of musical skill. Blub was a 17-year-old kid looking at good things to come. This creation of the band and the grouping together was the downfall of him and his life ahead. Once Blub was on his own, he met a man named Fingers. Fingers would be the downside to Blub’s future, the two together tied up and murdered two men, for lack of a better reason. The bright young man was set on track to do great things in life; however, he had no friends and got caught up with the wrong person leading him to 40 years to life in prison. The community was heartbroken to hear what happened to Blub as everyone saw only good things for him in the future; “Blub wouldn't hurt a fly. He just follows people around”(67) Sissie said at the trial. This is the dark side of The Bottom; when you grow up around murders, drugs, and gangs it's hard to see life outside the hood and stay focused to make sure you get there. When your parents don’t care about where they are and their parents grew up in the same hood, the world seems small and almost like it's

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