The book tells the rather bloody story of the author’s life in the infamous gang known as the Crips. The book is very much an autobiographical record of how his life in the gang starts at the very young age of eleven and then culminates with a seven-year prison sentence that was levied due to Shakur assaulting a crack dealer. The book is rife with metaphors to being a “soldier”, the cause and aftermath of the Rodney King verdict in 1992 and many other facets of his life such as when he was suspended very early on as a Crip due to flashing a gang sign for one of the school’s photos. That picture snafu as well as many other parts of the book lay bare just how committed and affixed Shakur was to the gang life. One thing that becomes quite clear …show more content…
Even before he was jumped in, it is clear that Shakur was intoxicated by this loyalty and practice as he was a committed member before he really even started as part of the gang. Once he was in the gang, there was nothing that was “off the table” to Shakur and he even repulsed some of his fellow gang members with his unmitigated brutality and violence. This loyalty and adherence remains in place throughout the book but eventually shifts to the black nationalism movement that Shakur aligns with once he gets out of jail and gets away from the gang movement that got him into so much trouble in his earlier years. He also ascribes a ton of loyalty and love to Tamu, to whom he gets married to after he gets out of jail. In short, Shakur is a very loyal and passionate person and his loyalty knows no bounds and this absolutely included the time of his life when violence and depravity were to be his calling cards. He not only took on the mantle of needing to be violent, he did so with a vigor and dedication that was unmatched by most of his peers. The paradigm shift that occurred within the mind of Shakur is that rather than fighting other Crips or people from other gangs, he chose instead to fight against the perceived oppression and control levied by the United States and other levels of government. The fact that this book was written in the direct aftermath of the Rodney King verdict and the ensuing riots (which Shakur’s gang mates were DIRECTLY involved in), Shakur’s anger and passion shifted from being a gang member fighting on the streets to being a man that fought against a system he perceived to be entirely and wholly focused against,