Essay on Amazing Grace

Essay on Amazing Grace

Jonathan Kozol's Amazing Grace is a book about the trials



and tribulations of everyday life for a



group of children who live in the poorest congressional



district of the United States, the South Bronx. Their lives



may seem extraordinary to us, but to them, they are just as



normal as everyone else. What is normal? For the children



of the South Bronx, living with the pollution, the sickness, the



drugs, and the violence is the only way of life many of them



have ever known.



In this book, the children speak openly and honestly about



feeling 'abandoned', 'hidden' or 'forgotten' by our nation, one



that is blind to their problems. Studying the people



themselves would only get us so far in understanding what



their community is really ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...Another



environmental factor that affects the resident's healths has to



do with how most of the buildings in these neighborhoods



are run down and infested with rats. Many of the buildings



have no working elevators. This causes people to have to



walk several flights of stairs each time they want to leave



their apartments. This is very time consuming and tiresome.



Then, when they find that there is so much violence and



drugs in the street, that it is not safe to be out there anyway,



they usually end up staying in their apartments for most of



their free time.



The cultural differences between these people and others of



higher income communities is also a



reason why they may have problems. Racism is very



obvious to the people of the South Bronx, especially



when they go outside of their district. If a woman from this



area goes to a hospital outside of her



district, a hospital that is more than likely wealthier and



cleaner, she is usually turned away and told to go to a



hospital in her own district. Others, who are admitted into



these hospitals, are put on a special floor, mainly for the



lower income or Medicaid patients. (Amazing Grace, p.



176)



Another way the government discriminates against them is



how they are housed. Most of the



residents are living in government housing where the



government pays their rent. When the government



helped the people

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