Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
Hope
In the ghetto, I would think the only virtue that you’d want to practice is hope. It’s the only one that would get you by, because nearly all the rest of the virtues involve some kind of sacrifice on the person’s part. In the ghetto, exemplified by the characters in Random Family, life is less about helping others than just trying to survive.
Hope was at first a beneficial force for Jessica, like it always starts out. She had the dream that one day should would be whisked away by her knight in shining armor. Her mother warned against it, yes, but she couldn’t shake away the hope. Hope is one of those things you cant shake off once you have it. Jessica kept on hoping she then met Boy George. Boy George, rich, handsome, a cool car, was abusive to Jessica, who became his main girlfriend. “Main” is a fairly loose term, because he still went out with other women, and that apparently didn’t make him any less abusive, nor did it make Jessica any less hopeful about their relationship. She didn’t leave, she didn’t lose hope when she should have, which is a mind boggling logic because she was clearly in deep anguish. She immersed herself in the tub sometimes to wash off the blood that George drew. But at no point did she stop to think that maybe George didn’t love her, that her hope was now unfounded. It would be insanity to believe such a thing, because this is how she saw her father treat her mother. Her mother and father had to be in love.
Cesar didn't begin to hope until he landed himself in prison, when the future made itself immediate through Mercedes and Nautica. It seems that only the characters who held the future, in any shape or form, in high regard where the ones who hoped. The young Cesar didn't have much planned outside just living the current day. The author never said that his only hope was to see the next day, it can be implied. And this hope was not the beneficial or destructive kind. It was the kind that made him survive. When he landed a spot in prison, his hope to get out and be with his daughters was what kept him going. In the later chapters, his hope to be with Mercedes became his "lifeline" as the author put it.
Hope for Coco seems like the only really positive aspect of her life. Amidst her frequent housing change, her bickering with Frankie and her girls, her episodes when she wound up hitting her girls, she never stopped hopping that in the future there'd be a day where she could support her family to the fullest. In the recent chapters, she has been doing so. Coco has taken up high school again to get her GED and hopefully with it, a stable job. She set up her daughters and even the sickly Pearl for an education, and despite the occasionally enormous dump along the way (like when Coco's car broke), she never, ever said "I give up" to herself or to her daughters. The only time that her hope ever degraded her, however not to a critical state, was her hope that she would give Cesar a son; it would be her ticket to having Cesar forever. But as fate had it, and long story short, Cesar married Giselle. Coco's hope for a better future might even be characterized by how she unselfishly gives people in need of assistance the assistance they need. Especially at Thorpe, she gave away things and funds she needed for the family; the same occurred at Corliss Park, and again when they moved back to the Bronx. It's true that maybe the people themselves didn't have much hope for the future, but Coco did to an extent, or else she wouldn't be giving them anything because she wouldn't care what happened to them. I think that of all the characters, Coco is one of the few who's hope never really brought her down.
Hope was at first a beneficial force for Jessica, like it always starts out. She had the dream that one day should would be whisked away by her knight in shining armor. Her mother warned against it, yes, but she couldn’t shake away the hope. Hope is one of those things you cant shake off once you have it. Jessica kept on hoping she then met Boy George. Boy George, rich, handsome, a cool car, was abusive to Jessica, who became his main girlfriend. “Main” is a fairly loose term, because he still went out with other women, and that apparently didn’t make him any less abusive, nor did it make Jessica any less hopeful about their relationship. She didn’t leave, she didn’t lose hope when she should have, which is a mind boggling logic because she was clearly in deep anguish. She immersed herself in the tub sometimes to wash off the blood that George drew. But at no point did she stop to think that maybe George didn’t love her, that her hope was now unfounded. It would be insanity to believe such a thing, because this is how she saw her father treat her mother. Her mother and father had to be in love.
Cesar didn't begin to hope until he landed himself in prison, when the future made itself immediate through Mercedes and Nautica. It seems that only the characters who held the future, in any shape or form, in high regard where the ones who hoped. The young Cesar didn't have much planned outside just living the current day. The author never said that his only hope was to see the next day, it can be implied. And this hope was not the beneficial or destructive kind. It was the kind that made him survive. When he landed a spot in prison, his hope to get out and be with his daughters was what kept him going. In the later chapters, his hope to be with Mercedes became his "lifeline" as the author put it.
Hope for Coco seems like the only really positive aspect of her life. Amidst her frequent housing change, her bickering with Frankie and her girls, her episodes when she wound up hitting her girls, she never stopped hopping that in the future there'd be a day where she could support her family to the fullest. In the recent chapters, she has been doing so. Coco has taken up high school again to get her GED and hopefully with it, a stable job. She set up her daughters and even the sickly Pearl for an education, and despite the occasionally enormous dump along the way (like when Coco's car broke), she never, ever said "I give up" to herself or to her daughters. The only time that her hope ever degraded her, however not to a critical state, was her hope that she would give Cesar a son; it would be her ticket to having Cesar forever. But as fate had it, and long story short, Cesar married Giselle. Coco's hope for a better future might even be characterized by how she unselfishly gives people in need of assistance the assistance they need. Especially at Thorpe, she gave away things and funds she needed for the family; the same occurred at Corliss Park, and again when they moved back to the Bronx. It's true that maybe the people themselves didn't have much hope for the future, but Coco did to an extent, or else she wouldn't be giving them anything because she wouldn't care what happened to them. I think that of all the characters, Coco is one of the few who's hope never really brought her down.
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