The Detroit Drug Trade: Getting Ghost By Luke Bergmann

The Detroit Drug Trade
Thesis: The practice of using the home as a drug-spot and the proliferation of gun violence as caused by the drug-trade in the society creates a scenario where the drug-trade shapes the identity of the young people in the society and is the main window through which they see the world around them.
First Paragraph: The use of homes and more importantly family homes as main drug spots combine the private nature of family hood with the public facing drug-trade business. This affects the identity of the young children in the household as they are forced into the drug business. Their identity follows along with their parents and they have a hard time getting themselves away from this mold.
Second Paragraph: The use of private

In this story, we learn of the society surrounding these two young dealers and their daily lives and through that we can see the way that they identify themselves. Like many people, these two characters among others in the book identify themselves through their race, ethnicity, family and the life that they have led. However, in this city especially, the drug-trade takes an important position. As Bergmann states early in the book, the drug trade is one of the most important social institutions because it is “the locus of their senses of identity, politics, and promise in the world…taught them about the nature and power of the state…family…senses for the shifting distinction between childhood and adulthood, the length of natural life, and a timely death” (13). As such in this novel we see that the drug trade and the practices emerging form it such as the use of homes as a drug-spot and the proliferation of gun violence as caused by the drug-trade in the society creates a scenario where the drug-trade shapes the identity of the young people in the society and is the main window through which they see the world around

This also relates to Bergmann’s quote in the beginning of this essay, as this ongoing drug trade changes how the young people in the society view the length of natural life and timely death. Gun violence directly cuts off the future life and aspirations for the criminal and the victim, as one’s life is cut short by death while the other’s is cut short by life in jail. This endemic gun violence and the early deaths and prison sentences create a scenario where as Bergmann describes “there are few living models of the drug-hustling adult to which young drug dealers turn in Detroit.” This is also present in Dude’s own life as his own brother’s life is cut short by his life long prison sentence as a direct cause of the drug trade. This instead causes him to take part in this same trade. This situation creates a cyclical behavior where the people who we normally consider to be the bread-winners are not capable of providing help to their families, which in turn pushes on this role to the younger generation, increasing the proliferation of the drug trade among the young people in