Bodie's Expectations In The Wire

Preston “Bodie” Broadus is a working class African American boy from Baltimore. Bodie was raised by his grandmother since he was 4 years old. His mother died when he was 4 so his grandma had to take over caring for him. The only other family that Bodie had was an older brother who was also a ganster but died when Bodie was younger. Living in the poorer part of Baltimore Bodie is around a lot of gang activity and crime. Bodie is a low-level drug dealer slowly working his way up the ranks. Throughout the 4 seasons of The Wire Bodie finds himself in a lot of trouble but never ends up in a positon he can’t get out of. Even when Bodie was sent to a juvenile detention center for punching Mahon, Bodie just walked on out, stole a car and went back to dealing. As Bodie worked his way up in the

It is expected of Bodie to be a manly man who can take care of himself, protect himself, and show his dominance towards other men. In a place like the underclass part of Baltimore there is an expectation for men to be overly manly. There is a certain expectation for how the men should treat the women in their family (like goddesses, the women in their family are like royalty to them) versus how they treat the women they’re romantically involved with (like belongings, the women they date are theirs, the women belong to them). Bodie is expected to be a big tough guy. Bodie never really looked into any jobs other than his job in the gang. He was loyal and didn’t think about leaving. Maybe he didn’t look into leaving because of the lack of access to other jobs. Maybe it was because being in the gang was an easy, risky, but easy, way for him to make some good money. Maybe it wasn’t about the money or lack of access to a better job and it was just about Bodie’s loyalty to the gang and Stringer Bell but whatever the reason, Bodie just never looked into other job