Gang Leader for a Day Book Review - 1413 Words

Gang Leader for a Day Book Review It takes a lot of guts and no small amount of courage and cunning to infiltrate a street gang in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago, but that is what Sudhir Venkatesh did as a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of Chicago. In order to find out first-hand how a gang that earns its money selling crack cocaine functions from the inside, Venkatesh dared to get involved on a superficial basis with the gang. But Venkatesh wasnt seen as person who was just trying to get a handful of quotes and get out because his involvement with the gang lasted for nearly ten years. In the Foreword to the book, written by Stephen J. Dubner, the writer claims that Venkatesh was born with two abnormalities: an overdeveloped curiosity and an underdeveloped sense of fear (Dubner, 2008, xi). That is an exaggeration of course but the truth a reader finds out is that indeed Venkatesh is basically an investigative person and he puts fear aside to enable his entry into a Chicago gang. The book shows, Day by day and dollar by dollar, how the crack dealers, tenant leaders, prostitutes, patents, hustlers, cops, and Venkatesh himself attempt to build a decent life from  ¦substandard materials (Dubner, xii). Part of what Venkateshs book does is attack stereotypes that the public (and much of the media) has about gangs in general. For example, all gang members arent rich and dont have gold chains like some of the hip hop stars on YouTube. InShow MoreRelated The Effect of Gangs in There Are No Children Here Essay949 Words   |  4 PagesThe Effect of Gangs in There Are No Children Here  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚   Throughout There Are No Children Here, a continuous, powerful tension always lurks in the background. The gangs that are rampant in the housing projects of Chicago cause this tension. In the Henry Horner Homes, according to Kotlowitz, one person is beaten, shot, or stabbed due to gangs every three days. In one week during the authors study of the projects, police confiscated 22 guns and 330 grams of cocaine in Horner alone (KotlowitzRead MoreThe Outsiders By S. E. Hinton1718 Words   |  7 PagesMajor Work Review Guide Title: The Outsiders Author: S.E. Hinton Published: 1967 by Viking Press Significant characters and brief statement of function in the work: Name: Function: 1. Pony boy Curtis- The narrator of the story. Ponyboy’s love for literature and academics make him different from the rest of the gang. He’s also the youngest. Because his parents died in a car accident, Ponyboy lives with his brothers. 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