Term 2 Roar blog

Leonedis Pena

1/6/11

All Souls by Michael Patrick Macdonald

Summary:

            Michael Macdonald grew up in our very own Boston in the 90’s. During those times gangs ran the streets with high murders and drug trade levels. This was around the time when Whitey Bulger, a notorious mobster ran the streets of South Boston. This first part of the story is  when he is going around his neighborhood with a news reporter retelling some landmarks in South Boston that meant a lot to him like for example the St. Augustine’s grammar school, the boys and girls club and Darius court. Michael explained how he became an activist that worked to lessen violence and crimes in neighborhoods such as Roxbury and Dorchester which were “the black places that my neighbors thanked god they didn’t live in” (Macdonald 5). Michael also shares the story of why his mom bought a shotgun because hoodlums that hanged around outside their building kept terrorizing them and that the smaller kids were sent to their grandparents’ house in case something does happen so that they would not get hurt. It is 1976 and riots around Boston were breaking out everywhere. Macdonald does a great job at explaining his perspective, and at how he was getting tired of the news, the police and everyone else who was part of these riots. The same things were happening every time a Black would be attacked by a group of Irish or a White would be attacked by a group of Blacks. Also many vehicles were being turned over like public transportation buses and police cars. He explained the view of “I started to see things fly through the air: pipes, bricks, bats and even a hubcap” (Macdonald 89).  On the September of 1980, Macdonald’s mother gets shot by a stray bullet. Macdonald keeps mentioning a show called Dallas and a phrase that was very popular in those days which was “Who shot J.R.”. When Macdonald was in the ninth grade, a neighbor from three buildings down was holding his family at gun point, he found this out because when he left school he saw that his street was barricaded and that his family was watching a live coverage of the scene. He was a high school dropout because he had missed so many days that they made a deal with him that he would be promoted to the next grade if he left Latin school and went to Madison Park High school In Roxbury. Later on his mom said he was sleeping his life away and convinced him to go back to school to get his GED and take the SAT’s. He got into the University of Massachusetts.

Quote:

            ““These candles burn for my brothers.” I stopped and took a deep breath. Then I spoke up. “Davey, Frankie, Kevin, and Patrick…” And for all souls” (Macdonald 263)

Reaction:

                It is a very emotional quote because he is remembering all of his siblings that have died, that is the hardest thing to do because you are the most close to your brothers and sisters that to anyone else. You can tell it is very hard for him when he states “I stopped and took a deep breath” because it shows how big of an impact this is to him. This is the last sentence of the reading and the last two words are the title of the book, so I believe this book is for his past siblings because those are the souls he talks about.