Fist Stick Knife Gun By: A Personal History of Violence is a well written memoir by Geoffrey Canada. Canada informs his readers his story of growing up in the South Bronx, and how violence was a constant fact of life. He explains how violence is instilled in children from a very young age, and he uses this to explain how our culture needs to change so children don't have to experience the things he saw and went through. Throughout his book, Canada describes the combination of the weapons kids have access to and what parents teach their kids about violence as “America’s war against itself.” From his “dangerous” childhood to his teenage years Canada makes it obvious that the environment of which he was raised forever impacted his future and his …show more content…
He states “violence has always been around, usually concentrated among the poor.”(pg23) From his experience of growing up in the ghetto to seeing it now, he argues, popular culture has strongly influenced and supported an ethic of violence. He describes how the different kinds of violence evolved from his childhood to him being an adult. He explains that when he was a kid,when a problem emerged, him and his friends would solve it using their fists and sometimes weapons such as small knives. But as time passed and he got older, he realized that the drug cartel’s influence on violence changed violence forever. Canada explains because of the environment young kids are raised in selling drugs was the only option they had. So when they were caught, guns were the only solution they had. This led “Kids with guns often see no limits on their power.”(Pg100) This changed the history of violence forever because it provided power without the natural checks of violence of size and skill that were previously in …show more content…
One of the lessons was the fact that trust was a major problem for kids in his environment. He explains that kids in the ghetto as well as young kids in general try to solve problems by themselves instead of bringing the problem to an adult. He tries to explain that kids don’t understand that there is a difference between being labeled as a snitch or asking for help. In one scene of the book canada explains “Before Robert left we went over the drill for what you should do when someone might be trying to kill you. The drill was a collection of do’s and don’ts learned over the years by the mistakes others had made, often costing them their lives:…I’ve gone over this drill too many times with too many kids.” (pg 94) Kids at his age should never have discussions like this or worry about being killed. Instead of coming to an adult for help they try to solve problems by themselves. Also the neighborhood canada grew up in kids have access to weapons they should not have. He explains “Kids with guns often see no limits on their power.”(pg100) They see guns as their “safe place” or it gives them confidence that they can do anything they want. So when they see a toy or an item someone has, their solution would be try to fight for it. In other times kids try to fight other kids that are above them so they won't get bullied or pushed around. Canada uses many stories trying
The book Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada is a compelling personal account of growing up in some of the most dangerous areas and how he decided to take what he learned on the streets to create something different for future generations. The first story starts out when Geoffrey was four years old. That is the age he realized violence was a part of life. He tells a story of his brother’s jacket being stolen at the playground. Geoffrey assumed his mother would intervene and help get the jacket back.
The book Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada is a memoir of his early childhood in the slums of south Bronx. Geoffrey’s single mother did the best she could with the little she had to raise him and his four older brothers. She provided them with street knowledge that would later help them survive and not be victims even in the most violent areas of the south Bronx. Geoffrey and his brothers would go on to move from place to place with their mother until they finally settled on Union Avenue, the area where they would spend most of their childhood growing up. Union Avenue became their school of life, there they learned everything they needed to know in order to survive in the ghetto.
The origin of this brutality, as
Another fact Pinker uses to illustrate how the violence started and how we are where we stand today in society is “Forensic archaeology – a kind of “Csi : Paleolithic” can estimate rates of violence from the proportion of skeletons in an ancient site with bashed in skulls, decapitations or arrowheads embedded in bones.” With this evidence from the text the reader may also conclude that not only was the era of primitive society barbaric, but those who committed the crimes didn’t value human life. In contrast to this Pinker’s uses the fact, “On average 15% of people in pre-state eras died violently compared to about 3% of the earliest states”. This evidence from the article illustrates to the readers that before the earliest states were made more than one fifth of people died from violent deaths in the world’s
Violence can become a common aspect of teenagers’ lives. Due to their coming of age, they start to get curious and adventurous about life. However, this does not mean that it is okay to participate in or get involved in this type of violence. Many of us have been thrown into some kind of violence or seen a violent situation. Therefore, the book The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and the short story On The Sidewalk Bleeding by Evan Hunter have a similar theme of violence.
Violence doesn’t always lead to bad things. Fist,Stick,Knife,Gun by Geoffrey Canada is about how violence in South Bronx, New York. It tells us how violence had became more deadly and dangerous in New York and how he had to deal with it. Soon he became aware of it and decided to help make a change in his community. Geoffrey Canada’s main message for the story is that the effects of violence on someone’s life can influence them to make change in their community.
One of the most prominent forms of violence
Distributive Justice Resource: This assignment will examine guns and their involvement in our common good. Guns are said to be important for the common good, mostly when discussing people who are located in the south. “Self defense is a fundamental right,” says the National Rifle Associations Institute for Legislative Action.” —— This phrase is one of many that is referred to when people discuss the good that guns bring to our society.
The Hidden Meanings of Violence Violence is seen every day, all around the world. Be it through verbal communication, or physical, it impacts those involved in great ways. In a way, violence is necessary when in need to communicate a strong message or feeling to others. In Ancient Greece, violence was an aspect of everyday life and a common belief was that it was provoked by the Gods. The slaughter of the suitors and the stool throwings in Homer’s
The article “High-Jinks: Shoot-Out” by Guy Martin, researches the story of several New York High Schools, participating in an end of year activity that is involved with mediocre violence, made for kids to have some fun with their town, and their classmates. These role playing games are very beneficial for students to participate in, because they teach kids that team work, and extraordinary skills are needed to “survive”. Role playing games with simulated violence are diverting for kids, because they teach and allow kids to be boisterous. The game allows the students to plan, organize, and concoct a plan, for a game that involves nearly the whole city and school. As seniors in highschool prepare for graduation and adulthood, this game gives them the freedom to be kids again.
Essay 5 draft 3 The murder rate of Chicago in 2015 is almost four times higher than New York City and more than 2.5 times higher than Los Angeles. Marshall Rosenberg, a psychologist, created the Nonviolent Communication which helps people resolve conflicts and differences in a peaceful way. “All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished” (Rosenberg). Nowadays there are so many ways to get a hold of a gun on the streets illegally.
Life’s what you make it Can you imagine not being able to choose whether or not you want to be a part of a life filled with violence? Some people are just sucked into it because of choices other people make. For instance, Geoffrey Canada’s mom moved him & his three brothers into to the south Bronx where the journey of violence then began. In the memoir Fist Stick Knife Gun the narrator Geoffrey Canada goes through a series of events that eventually influences him to become the man he is today. Geoffrey Continues to reflect on his experiences and shows how he learned from them being that he grew up very poorly compared to an average kid in a rough neighborhood in the south Bronx where he went through a number of life-changing or eye
It is no secret that there is a gun violence issue in Miami-Dade County. Although it has become common nature in our society, statistics show that gun violence has drastically gone down since the 1980’s. The Miami Herald states that in the early 80’s Miami-Dade recorded an average of 500 homicides per year. In contrast, in 2016, there were only 187 shooting homicides. In the United States, gun violence is the cause for about 30,000 deaths and 60,000 injuries every year.
"In 1990, handguns were used to kill approximately 48 people in Japan, 8 in Great Britain, 34 in Switzerland, 52 in Canada, 58 in Israel, 42 in West Germany and 10,728 in the United States”. For many years, America has been regarded as one of the world’s most perilous and ferocious countries in the world. The death rate caused by active gun shooters in the US is extraordinary: “since 1968, more Americans have died from gunfire than died in … all the wars of this country 's history”. Hence why public ownership of guns should be abolished in the USA. Can you imagine to what extent the death rate in America has increased by now?
A. “No Guns Allowed” is a very touching song by rapper Snoop Dogg featuring Cordi B and the talented artist Drake. This song was released on April 4, 2013 as one of his hit singles off of his album Reincarnated LP. No Guns Allowed was produced with labels such as Berhane Sound System, Mad Decent, and RCA Records. Publishing this song was definitely out of the normal as Snoop Dogg is popular for his hip-hop style of rap. B. Thesis Statement: Touching literary devices such as euphemism, allusion, and symbolism, Snoop Dogg’s “No Guns Allowed” establishes a sympathetic atmosphere, but also creates a social annotation on the issue of gun violence of all ages in the American world.