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The Short And Tragic Life Of Robert Peace Summary

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In The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League, Jeff Hobbs develops two big themes. The first theme he establishes is race. In the first chapter, Hobbs describes Newark, the city Peace grows up in, as predominately black. Robert was always aware of the racism around him. From a young age, Peace realizes that race plays a big role in his life. When his father is arrested for murder, he was held in jail for 3 years waiting for trial. Furthermore, 9 white police officers testified against him. Although the jury had 8 blacks and 4 whites (page 50), Hobbs mentioned this might have been something the jury could not disregard. As we can see in critical race theory, the law continually oppressed …show more content…

It shows how race and other social factors can have a huge impact on your life. Using a real life example was more beneficial than reading from textbooks. It shows readers that these things do happen and also gives them a chance to visualize it. The only issue I had with his writing and telling of the story was when Hobbs refers to himself as an “honorary black man” (page 130). I found it a bit problematic because he has privilege that black people are not afforded. He should not be calling himself that because he does not know what it is like to be a black man nor will he ever understand. On the other hand, he does acknowledge his privilege. In one part, he feels guilty for not being able to comprehend the struggles that Robert goes through (page 152). Jeff Hobbs did a great job researching Robert’s life. He went back to Jackie Peace, Robert’s mother, as well as his many friends over the years. His findings were backed by actual events and conversations that happened. Hobbs admitted he did not know much about Robert, but he took the time to start at the beginning of his life how everything played out. I imagine it was hard to write about what Robert felt because he was the only person who knew how he actually did. This was the best way to go about writing this novel because Hobbs went back to the people who knew Robert

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