Chapter 6: Hunted

Theme 1: People make drastic life decisions at a young age.

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1.  “The procession of black robes entering the room was replaced by a wave of forest green robes— the students trailed shortly after the faculty. Smiles, waves, cheers, and whistles rang out. Camera flashes blinked over the parade, parents and friends shooting as wildly as paparazzi. Because his last name put him toward the front of the class, Woody was one of the first to enter the gym, walking with a confident strut. He saw his parents, sister, and grandmother, and smiled. He grabbed the edge of his green cap between his thumb and index finger and tipped it to them. A sign of respect, and gratitude.”  

      This quote describes Wes’s childhood friend Woody's high school graduation. This is inherently symbolic of the theme that people make drastic life decisions at a young age because it shows how Woody’s choices allowed him to be successful despite the drugs and crime he grew up around.  The passage goes on to describe Woody's decisions to work hard and face his struggles so that he could finally graduate. This continues to affirm the idea that though peoples’ personal situations differ, all people face struggles, and the outcome of those struggles is determined by personal choices.  For example, Woody’s choice to stay in school was not an easy one, but it ended up proving the better in the end.  

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      2.“[Woody] thought about Daemon, a ninth-grade classmate who didn’t make it to the end of the year. Dae took a month off from school to care for his mother, who was sick with sickle cell. That month turned to two, and finally Dae stopped being a student. Woody thought about White Boy, his boy from the neighborhood, who picked up a job working at a restaurant called Poor Folks. He was tired of school and decided joining the workforce was a better option. Most of all, Woody thought about Wes, who had stopped going to school two years earlier.” 

      

      This passage describes the reasons why many of Wes’s friends made the decision to drop out of high school. Though some would argue that many of these reasons are circumstantial, Woody's thoughts show that is not entirely the case.  Dae, though obviously impacted by terrible circumstances, made the choice to care for his mother, which led him to drop out and change his life. The quote exemplifies how the choices people make can outweigh the influence of circumstance, and how initiative is the most powerful force. Due to many circumstances, people at a young age make drastic life decisions which cause them to lack things like a high school diploma that could have potentially made them successful. 

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      3. “The man began to walk away with his head swiveling, seemingly searching for someone else to get drugs from ... Wes thought about the small change he was turning down ... He couldn’t stop thinking about the money he could make off that sale.” 

      

      This quote clearly shows how one decision can change a person's life. Though Wes’s spiral downward was a part of his collective life choices leading towards crime and the drug trade, the one life choice that landed him in prison was his decision to deal to the man described in this quote.  Our lives are continuous stories, but climactic events always seem to have the most influence. Split second decisions like this one can be the difference between freedom and life behind bars.   

·     4. “My mother had noticed the way I had changed since leaving for military school. My back stood straight, and my sentences now ended with “sir” or “ma’am.” My military garrison cap was intentionally a size too big, forcing me to keep my head up, walking taller with every step.”

      

     This quote shows how Wes's decision to take military school seriously. He was forced to go, but it was his choice to take the initiative to be successful at military school. This quote exemplifies the theme that life choices are made at a young age and impact the rest of a person's life. Wes’s choices impacted both the events of his life and the way that he viewed the rest of the world. His new outlook on life allowed him to turn his life around. This is evidence that  the most significant life choices are the ones that change us as people. 

·     5. “I’d only waded into street life in the Bronx; I never got into its deepest, darkest waters. But I’d been around enough street cats to know the code: they hit you with a knife, you find a gun. And I didn’t have to be a Black Panther to know that nigger was the ultimate fighting word. This was the kind of knowledge we understood, the kind of code that was so deeply fundamental it never had to be fully articulated. But I had to let this one go. I had to look at the bigger picture. My assailant was unknown, unnamed, and in a car. This was not a fair fight, and the best-case scenario was nowhere near as probable as the worst-case scenario.”

     

      This quote shows how life decisions can involve internal conflict with oneself. When Wes was assaulted by the kids in the car, he had to choose which part of his personality he wanted to listen to. Part of him wanted to get revenge, and part of him wanted to follow protocol and simply get back to school safely. This quote shows a turning point in Wes’s personality where he chose what type of person he wanted to be. Life decisions like this one show how at a young age, you can make the choice to change what direction you're going in.