The story There are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz focuses on Western Chicago that has become veritable minefields resting on volatile issues like race, human values, responsibilities of the community. The subject is the urban underclass. There is a rampant crime; society is tearing at the seams relying on welfare, drug peddling, gang warfare, and above all unemployment. Manufacturing units have nearly all shut down.
The author highlights the situation through the lives of two brothers who are in their pre-teens LaFayette and his younger brother Pharaoh. They struggle to survive keeping their identity and not becoming just another statistical figure of tragedy. They live in Henry Horner Homes – an apartment complex for poor Blacks.
Their family comprises of their mother Lajoie, their drug-abusing alcoholic father, elder siblings who are jailbirds and prostitutes and younger triplets whose burial insurance has already been purchased. It is a ghetto replete with the stench of rubbish piled up for fifteen years, dead animals, and rotting aborted fetuses.
Narrative review
Henry Horner Homes is the home to the characters in the story. It is a public housing project for the low-income group in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The narration starts from the summer of 1987 and runs through till the end of September 1989. The setting is the poverty-ridden streets of Chicago and a realistic peep into the lives of the two brothers Lafeyette and Pharaoh. With jobs gone following the shutting down of industry, the city has become a hell hole of despair. There are no banks or libraries but only drugs and crime. The infant mortality rate is worse than in some of the developing world. This is another America.
Nine-year-old pharaoh and twelve-year-old Lafeyette are visiting the rail tracks for the first time on a warm weekend afternoon early in June. They see the downtown sordid area where they live and also note fluttering butterflies and dancing blooms growing along the rails. They are accompanied by their cousin Porkchop and friend James Howard. Armed with crowbars they are out to hunt snakes and knick-knacks from a stack. They recall the death of another friend – a victim of an accidental shooting. To them, it is nothing uncommon for trespassers to be shot.
The home of the children is a dark hole with broken mailboxes and no exterior lights. The people carry their flashlights. Shooting is common and Lafeyette being the eldest train the children to hold their heads down. In the melee, Lafeyette loses precious dollars he had got for his birthday. The constant figure in their lives is LaJoe their mother – warm and generous despite the toll the neighborhood has taken on her children. The scene here is of an extended family where women age early taking care of the children and grandchildren of past and present boyfriends. Lajoie nourishes a feeling of having been let down by her children. The three of her eldest have visited the jail, one is a prostitute and another at the age of seventeen is peddling drugs. She has 8 children fathered by one man but love has gone and he comes home only occasionally. Lajoie clings to slim hopes but is realistic enough to pay $80 per month for burial insurance for the youngest five of her brood.
Pharaoh is different and tries to protect his childhood and daydreams. Lafeyette treats him as brother-cum-friend. But there is a tug of war with gangs trying to enlist new members. The living conditions are horrendous – overflowing garbage, cockroaches, exposed pipe, running faucets, and above all the stench of rotting meat from illegal abortions. To pick the bones from this living hell enter drug barons who sometimes pose as Robin Hoods but ultimately they have brought nothing but more despair.
Bird Leg is also a good friend of Lafeyette but his life ends in tragedy. Bird Leg befriended stray dogs but he got entangled with the law trying to keep his dogs cozy. One thing led to another and he transferred his love for dogs to gang friends. He became violent and staged pit bullfights. His mother tried to keep him away from the area but failed; a bullet brought about his end.
There are two gentle characters in the lives of the Rivers – Pharaoh and Rochelle. Rochelle assists LaJoe to face problems. Pharaoh brings back a smile to all. In chapter 8 Rickey enters the scene as the guardian and then later a friend of Pharaoh. It better unfolds the depth of Pharaoh’s character – who struggles not to become just another statistical figure on the tragic list. Terence is the elder brother of Lafeyette and Pharaoh is examined. He contributes to the tension of being a victim of the times. There are no honest jobs to be had and the only route for money to come is through crime.
The tenth chapter underlines the poverty of Horner Homes – including the death of the spirit of its inmates. None care to bother and shootings are accepted as an everyday occurrence. The eleventh chapter introduces the reader through the experience of Terence. Cook County Jail is overcrowded and sets free annually 25,000 prisoners because of lack of space. Slowly the youth are beginning to understand the injustice of the judicial system that victimizes the poor who are the Blacks. This next chapter is heart-rending. Despite hard preparation, Pharaoh finds his stutter coming in the way of his entry into the world of learning. In chapter 13 Lajoie is happy because Craig Davis, a charming 18-year-old has organized a musical function for the residents of Horner. This he repeats right through summer. He wants to be a DJ Lafeyette is influenced by him. The next chapter is important because for the first time a person comes forward to testify against the gangs; the person happens to be a child. Secondly, it exposes the clay feet of drug barons as the punishment is meted out by the judge.
The story proceeds poignantly as the chapters flow on. A simple trip to the grocery store by Lajoie and Rochelle highlights the simple pleasures of buying essentials amid poverty. Here food is highlighted as luxury. Meanwhile, a slow but steady change is noted in Lafeyette as he comes closer to Rickey who is involved in many smash-and-grab incidents. The nearby stadium brings in earnings to the residents of Homer. The youngsters watch visitors’ cars for a few meager bucks. But the owners of the stadium want to pull down Horner to accommodate a parking lot. During the games, the area is thick with police brought over to protect the Whites.
In summer it is stifling hot in the poorly ventilated apartment of the Rivers. In winter it is despair as LJoe fails to have enough funds to buy bunk beds. But in the midst of it all, she snatches some joy by going window shopping. The local club gives them some release for their pent-up emotions. Soon there is a sense of deep loss as Craig Davis dies tragically. Lafeyette, Ricky, and four others started as a part of a gang, the Four Corner Hustlers. They have their sign – four displayed fingers and menacing facial makeup. (Kotlowitz 272)
A new manager of the house braves it down below only to vomit overcome by the stench coming from a dumping ground kept untouched for fifteen years – including rotting animals. Meanwhile, LaJoe plans a birthday bash for Pharaoh. The bunk beds have been paid off and she has even managed to buy a table and chair. But the party is interrupted with the reality of alarm shouts from outside.
Hope arrives in the form of Vincent Lane the new chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority. He is furious seeing the mess about which he was intentionally kept in the dark to facilitate some vested interests. But once more gloom descends in the life of Lajoie with Lafeyette being arrested for breaking into a car – a crime he denies.
Life flows on. Two pitbull puppies enter the lives of the brothers. But one day one pup is missing and Lafeyette suspects his father for having sold it for drug money. It leads to hot exchanges and despair. Pharaoh keeps up with school but soon gets entangled in fights; his stuttering returns. But Pharaoh is still young enough to keep dreaming. Lafeyette’s hearing date arrives. The public defender is overworked but still retains her sensitivity when it comes to juvenile cases. Once more an innocent black youth has to face circumstances that were not his making. He gets probation and is ordered to give one hundred hours of community service.
Assessment of major character
The two main characters in the book, There are No Children Here, are Lafayette Rivers and his brother Pharaoh. The setting is in 1987 downtown Chicago where they live in a public housing project. The author takes the reader into the interior world of “the other America“. He notes their hopes, joys, and despair as they interact with each other. It is another image of America that very few know about or choose to ignore.
America has been divided into war zones. The children are brought up generally by the mother alone; if the father is there it is only to be a nuisance and impediment to their battle for survival. Gang warfare is the order of the day. Food is a luxury. There is a minimum of state support. The future is a blank. The rest of the country is hiding its head in the sand and pretending that everything is okay and nothing will happen. But the author has shown that it is a time bomb ticking. Poverty and racism is the dominant background against which the main characters are sketched.
Lafayette Rivers is confused. On the one hand, he is protective towards his brother but on the other, he is tempted by the lure of the gangs – drug groups that often swallow his friends leaving an emptiness in his young heart. He is drawn to this mother and tries but fails to live up to her values. His father triggers off his anger as he tries to take away from the family whatever he can – even if it is a pet dog. Ironically it is he who has brought the puppies.
Lafayette is shown up as a good friend and even though he does not join his friend Bird Leg in enlisting with the gang he remembers him fondly and all that he was taught by him about dogs. LaFayette is born in poverty and lives in squalor surrounded by ruthless violence. There are no banks, libraries, or movie halls. Drug lords shop around for recruits in the damp dark buildings of despair. Shooting is an everyday affair. The police are afraid to enter.
The book covers two years of the lives of the brothers and through them introduces the reader to their family and friends. They battle through schools, resist the temptation of the gangs, mourn the deaths of near ones and still try to retain their inner peace and hope. The mother LaJoe has no time to enter the job market saddled with innumerable children. She loves to gamble although wins are rare.
Pharaoh Rivers is younger than Lafayette and under the protection of his elder sibling, Pharaoh can afford to be sensitive and responsive to the positive side of life like fluttering butterflies and blooming flowers asserting their existence amidst the cold hard rail tracks. But the contradiction of the violence of his surroundings and his yearnings to study and excel in school leads to his acquiring a stutter. But ultimately he pushes through and the book ends on a note of hope with the author personally stepping in to help the brothers.
Jimmie Lee is the head of a gang dealing in illegal activities – the prime one being drug peddling. He leads the Vice Lords. Finally, the law catches up with him and he is sentenced to thirty years behind bars. Jimmy Lee is portrayed as a 5′ 7” man with a barrel chest. He lords over Henry Horner’s complex of apartments and children have been warned to keep away from him. Lee moves around in two cars full of his men. His gang is known as the Conservative Vice Lords. His gang controls each and everything that happens here with the focus being on drugs. Below him is an ‘enforcer’ whose prime job is to obey orders and either kill or maim those who oppose Jimmie. Jimmie Lee has a positive side and this gives him another power to rule other than fear. He stays away from drugs and drinks modestly. He helps many needy families with food and keeps the pre-teens out of his group. Lee has his share of trouble with the police but he is adept at getting out with bail and return to his business. He survived with impunity for a long time but finally, he got a term of 30 years behind bars.
Bird Leg or Calvin Robinson is a young man with a passion for dogs and this brings him close to Lafayette. They hunt for dogs and care for them in abandoned garages. Bird Leg combs through rubbish to get leftovers from Kentucky Fried Chicken. One night while sleeping with the dog he lights a fire to keep warm. This sets ablaze the garage. It turned out to be the first of his many brushes with the law. As he grew he became part of the Vice Lords and this distanced him from Lafayette. Bird Leg sought love from the gang in the same way he hungered for it from his dogs. He engaged in rearing pit bulls for fighting, got hit by a truck, and then got involved accidentally in a shoot-out that left him injured. Ultimately it is gang war that claimed his life although his mother had tried but failed to take him away from the violent neighborhood. Gang war often claimed the friends of the brothers. It is strange but true that even in such surroundings they had tears to mourn loved ones. These tears are the hopes for the future.
Trend/issue
The book There are No Children Here is about two Black boys growing up in the ghettos of America – downtrodden and forgotten by the mainstream. The book starts with two poems by Langston Hughes and H. W. Longfellow. The poems point to the main theme of the book where childhood is lost with the dreams of the children destroyed. The situation has all the ingredients of a time bomb that is ticking fast. Why has such a thing been allowed to happen? The children are becoming adults mentally long before their times; even their bodies are being twisted and warped to ripen quickly. The poets as well as Alex Kotlowitz the author of the books attempts to awaken the feeling of outrage that it is the children who are suffering and paying the price for the follies of the socio-economic system.
The setting is in downtown Chicago running for two years from 1987 to 1989 in an apartment complex named Henry Horner Homes. The focus is on two pre-teen boys Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers who live with their mother Lajoie and many other siblings. With factories having shut down there is very little scope for finding work. With no alternative from an early age, the children gravitate towards drug barons and gangs. The living conditions are horrendous with dark damp ill-ventilated, ill-lit, and cramped quarters stinking of everything from trash to dead dogs, rats, cats, and human fetuses.
Shootings, killings, and maiming have become the order of the day. Nearby is a stadium and here the poor earn a pittance guarding vehicles. On match days droves of whites descend accompanied by strong forces of police personnel to give them protection. Plans are afoot to pull down the housing complex to make way for a car park. There are neither banks nor libraries in the locality. Governmental support is minimum allowing free sprouting of crime and criminals.
In the middle of this stench, the two boys want to hold on to their childhood. It is more so with the younger boy Pharoah because he is given protection by his elder brother Lafeyette – older by only a year or two. Remarkably, such brotherly love survives such conditions as society is tearing apart at the seams. Lajoie is the mother disappointed with her children. The youngest are triplets. She has already taken insurance for their burial. The elder ones are either prostitutes or jailbirds. Lafeyette and Pharoah are in the middle. While hunting for snakes amidst the rail tracks Pharoah notices the blooms and the butterflies fluttering in the wind bravely overcoming the environment like them. The brothers have warmth enough in their hearts to make friends, love, and protect dogs; there are even tears left in their hearts for dead or maimed friends. Lafeyette tries not to get involved in drug gangs and also fiercely protects his younger brother.
Some of the gang leaders are Robin Hoods. Not all administrators are bad – some have ideals that they want to put into practice. The justice system is overburdened and unjust to the Blacks but even here some are aware of what is going on – the death of childhood. Thus behind the dark clouds, there are glimmers of hope that not all the children will be lost; there will be some left alive for the future.
The social picture depicted is heart-rending. Society or whatever remains of it has gone back to the basic wild stage of the mother and child. Fathers come and go without taking responsibility – more like tomcats prowling around. The mother LaJoe is weary with too many pregnancies. There are many like her. The mother cannot desert her children; not only that – she nurses dreams in her heart. She makes small attempts to realize these dreams by arranging a birthday party for Pharoah. But things go awry when shooting breaks out. Ugly gun sounds drown the merriment.
Winter is cold while summer is stuffy and hot. Even then LaJoe somehow manages to buy bunk beds so that each child can sleep on their cot. She even squeezes in a table and chair. To make the best of life she goes out on window shopping outings with a child or two. Food to them is a luxury.
Love has gone out of the life of Lajoie but she still allows entry to the father of her children. He drops in and out sometimes with a gift like two puppies. Soon he vanishes with one pup responding to his urge for drugs. Lajoie sometimes gambles. She has no proper employment but scrounges around. Yet she has dreams. She has still a heart to cry when the children either go to jail or become a prostitute.
In the middle of this hell Lafeyette together with his friend Bird Leg start on a crusade saving and sheltering stray dogs – a very human side to their character. They comb through trash bins for leftovers of chicken pieces. But an accidental fire Bird Leg had lit to keep them and the animals warm turned into a blaze. This placed Bird Leg on the wrong side of the law. He lost some of his finer qualities and started using dogs for staged fights. His mother tried to take him away from the area but once more fate struck and he got accidentally shot. The character of the gang-lord Jim Lee also shows how humane values continued to survive in inhuman conditions. He deals in drugs and controls all operations in the area. But he does not touch drugs. His drinking is also modest. Neither does he rope in pre-teen boys into his gang. Lee also helped the needy in many ways.
Conclusion
The story does not end on a note of despair. The two boys manage to overcome the hurdles and pursue their studies with hope backed by faint hopes of an administration waking up to the realities of nursing a volatile deprived youth. The author directly enters the scene and lends a supporting hand. This is a story of fighting against odds by directly facing evil. This is a story that fills the heart and ignites the fire of a better future even among overwhelming odds.
Works Cited/Bibliography
Kotlowitz, Alex. Here Are No Children Here: The Story Of Two Boys Growing Up In The Other America. NY: Doubleday, 1991.