Chapters seven and eight

Chapter seven

In chapter seven the author talks about the food he sees and eats at his friend’s houses and how it compares to the food he eats at home.  He then goes on to discuss his Tuesday afternoon walks with his friends after school, on the way to a sleepover, and the types of foods he sees in gourmet stores along the way.  The vivid colors of the oranges, grapes and pineapples are tantalizing to his third grade pallet and he remembers thinking he’d only seen fruit colors like that in cartoons or on TV.

Conley then goes on to talk about an assignment from school that asks him to go to the supermarket and decide which food groups the family’s purchases go in.  For example rice belonged in the starches column.  It was then he decided the fruits and vegetables did not resemble the ones his friends ate at all “The little bodegas that dotted most corners in my neighborhood seemed to display fresh offerings, but their papayas, plantains, yuccas. And taro roots were not listed on the nutritional posters that lined our classroom” (Conley, 2000, p. 78).  At the age of eight Conley is starting to notice a lot of things are different between his world and his friends’ worlds and he’s starting to feel ashamed and embarrassed about the types of food his family eats.  In fact it’s during this chapter that he starts to equate poverty with the minority Black population and feels conflicted because even though he’s not Black, he’s experiencing poverty unlike his white friends from school.

Chapter eight

In chapter eight Conley steals a comic book and two Reggie Bars from the local luncheonette.  He eats his candy on the playground at the projects while reading his comic books and then goes up to his apartment where his mother is resting with a headache.  For whatever reason she starts to question him asking if he’s had candy and he replied he has.   Then he develops a headache and starts to confess his crime convinced the pain in his head is directly related to the guilt in his heart.  His mom, Ellen, took him down to the luncheonette and made him confess to the couple that owned it.  As a punishment for his behavior, Conley was made to do household chores to pay off the stolen purchases.  Because of this episode he learns the value of money and after he pays off his debts, he negotiates with his parents a set amount of money for chores he can do around the house every week.  The chores he performs gives him about $3.50 a week which satisfies his need for pocket money.

He then takes a job at a local candy shop during his lunch break at school.  He loves the job, makes more money than the household chores and is able to bring his mother home chocolates which she loves.  He is eventually caught and the principal of P.S. 41 calls Ellen letting her know child labor laws prohibit her son from working during school and this behavior must stop immediately.  This sends mixed message to Conley because he thought if you worked, and didn’t steal, he’d be permitted to take that money and purchase what he wanted to.  But in this instance, he’s being told he can’t work to make money so perhaps stealing is the better option “Having been taught not to steal by my mother and the luncheonette woman, I was now being told it was not okay to work for money, either (Conley, 2000, p. 101).