Andersons Code of the Street Applied to All Gods Children - Essay Example

According to the Cultural/Subcultural theories, groups of people can be found in society who keep certain values that make them train their children to do what is socially wrong. In total, the theories of crime explain that people commit crime because of some social, ecological, cultural, or subcultural factors such as financial and social deprivation, bad living conditions, ill social background, people’s assumption that some illegalities are positive and their teaching to their family.
Forms of Organization/Disorganization in Neighborhood/City

In my perception, every city or neighborhood has some form of organization/disorganization. In my locality, there are very few incidents of delinquency or crime while if I consider the city, there are many forms of disorganization such as theft, mobile snatching, vehicle snatching, murders and many others as no place is perfectly free from crimes. Poverty is the basic reason for making people commit crimes as they are unable to even get their due rights. In our neighborhood, people try to keep an eye on delinquent people or people that are doubted to do wrong so that they can be checked while committing a wrong deed, which is a form of organization. Parents teach their children to follow the law and keep away from the bad company even then, there can be some problems such as children fighting and small disputes between neighbors, etc.
Anderson’s Code of the Street Applied to All God’s Children

Anderson’s code of the street is applicable to the story of Willie Bosket in All God’s Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence because he belongs to a family that can be called street family. While being nourished and brought up in such a family, the protagonist performs such illegal deeds that are previously done by his father and forefather and is unable to consider the aftereffects of his doings. According to Anderson, parents teach children to be aggressive when they try to control their children by punishing them physically or showing violence before them. In Willie Bosket’s life, he has witnessed and listened to the aggressive attitudes of his ancestors due to which, he also considered belligerent behavior appropriate for doing what he wished to do. His mother always felt and informed him that he was just like his father and would prove to be violent same as his father.

According to Anderson, when a person reaches his teenage, till then he internalizes the code of the street and considers the display of violence as a rule and for gaining respect among their companions or mates, display of aggressiveness is essential. Willie as a teenager showed extreme violence by killing two people in New York and indicated that he internalized the code of the streets. Anderson also informs that teenagers after learning aggressive attitude become fearless and are sure of their coming death because of violence after which, they always consider them on verge of death such as Willie Bosket is fearless about his future and knows that he would end up in jail as his father, which is also informed by his mother earlier on. Along with other factors, hopelessness and alienation also pressurize people to do wrong such is the case of Willie Bosket who has no hope for future betterment.  Read More