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ISBN 978-82-02-32681-4
9 788202 326814 www.cappelendamm.no
BLACK AND WHITE
In this edition: • background articles • glossary • comprehension and discussion questions • writing and research tasks
Paul Volponi
Marcus and Eddie are best friends who found the strenght to break through the racial barrier. Marcus is black; Eddie is white. Stars of their school basketball team, they are true leaders who look past the stereotypes and come out on top. They are inseparable, watching each other’s backs, both on and off the basketball court. But one decision – one mistake – will change their friendship, and their lives, forever. Can Marcus and Eddie rise above their differences and save their friendship?
BLACK AND WHITE PAU L VO L PON I
Pedagogisk tilrettelegging ved Siri Hunstadbr책ten
First published in the United States of America by Viking, a member of the Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2005 Reprinted by arrangement with Viking Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright © Paul Volponi, 2005 All rights reserved Norsk utgave © CAPPELEN DAMM AS, Oslo 2010 Materialet i denne publikasjonen er omfattet av åndsverklovens bestemmelser. Uten særskilt avtale med CAPPELEN DAMM AS er enhver eksemplarfremstilling og tilgjengeliggjøring bare tillatt i den utstrekning det er hjemlet i lov eller tillatt gjennom avtale med Kopinor, interesseorgan for rettighetshavere til åndsverk. Utnyttelse i strid med lov eller avtale kan medføre erstatningsansvar og inndragning, og kan straffes med bøter eller fengsel. Omslagsdesign: Inger Sandved Anfinsen, Kobolt Design Kart: John Arne Eidsmo Nynorsk ved Nikolai Nelvik Forlagsredaktør: Birger Nicolaysen Sats: Type-it AS, Trondheim Trykk og innbinding: UAB PRINT-IT, Litauen 2010 Opplag 1 ISBN: 978-82-02-32681-4 www.cappelendamm.no
Contents Black and White: About the Novel
p. 5
The Backdrop of Black and White – Education and Sports p. 8 A Brief Introduction to New York City Black or White – Still an Issue? Understanding the Novel
p. 14
p. 18
p. 28
List of Important Characters p. 33 Black and White p. 35 Questions and Glossary p. 225 Digging Deeper p. 271 Writing Topics p. 276 Search and Present
3
p. 281
Black and White: About the Novel Black and White by Paul Volponi is a novel for young adults set in Queens, New York City. It was first published in 2005 and has won a large number of literary prizes. The main characters are Eddie and Marcus, star players of their high school basketball team. Eddie is white and Marcus is black, but they have risen above racial differences and feel on top of the world. They think nothing is going to stop them from fulfilling their dream – getting a sports scholarship to a prestigious university and going on to play professional basketball. It is the beginning of their final term in high school. School will soon be finished, which of course calls for celebration. There is just one problem: how to find enough money to pay for the trips and the parties coming up. They take the matter into their own hands, but their decision proves to be fatal. Using Eddie’s grandfather’s old gun, they carry out three armed robberies. They are no longer short of money, but 5
suddenly find themselves in trouble with the police. Their friendship is at risk, and so is the bright future they thought was ahead of them. The boys have to take responsibility and grow up – very quickly. In the process Eddie and Marcus realize that when they are up against the criminal justice system the differences between them emerge in an unexpected way. All of a sudden, race and family background do matter and they are made to question who they are and who they want to be. In this respect Black and White is a classic story about losing innocence – what is often referred to as an initiation story. At the same time it is a fast-paced thriller, and you will find yourself turning the pages quickly to find out how the two boys end up. Finally, Black and White is not just about entertainment: it is thought-provoking, too. Paul Volponi wrote the novel because he wanted to shed light on some of the difficulties facing young people in the USA who have got involved in crime. For more information about this aspect of the novel, you should read the article “Black or White – Still an Issue?” For every chapter there is a glossary and some questions to guide your reading. We hope that they will make 6
your reading smooth and that you will want to read more novels in English – from the USA or elsewhere. Maybe you would like to read more novels by Paul Volponi? Start by reading Black and White.
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The Backdrop of Black and White – Education and Sports Black and White is a novel about two star players on the Long Island City High School basketball team. This article presents some of the context of the novel – education and sports in the USA. There is also some more information about basketball, Long Island City High School and St. John’s University.
Education in the USA Unlike in most European countries, there is no national system of education in the USA. Public education (offentlige skoler) is the responsibility of each of the 50 states, and the day-to-day running of schools is delegated to local boards of education. For this reason the ages for compulsory education vary, but children generally start school between the ages of 5 and 7 and leave between 16 and 8
18. Secondary education is divided into two stages. From the age of 11 or 12 students attend junior high school or middle school. Then they go on to senior high school, often referred to simply as high school, graduating at 18. Although some students drop out of school, a large proportion of young people graduate from high school at the age of 18. As there is so much local control, the quality of the schools in different parts of the United States varies a lot. The funding of schools is dependent upon taxes raised by the local community. So to put it bluntly, poor areas tend to have bad school facilities whereas wealthy areas have good schools. About 10% of students in primary and secondary education attend private schools. These schools are funded by tuition (skolepenger) and grants from organizations and private individuals. Most private schools are run by religious institutions and organizations and many of them have a particular educational profile. In general, private schools are much more independent than public schools. For example, religion is taught in private schools, but not in public schools, and private schools may select their students themselves. A typical feature of American daily life is the yellow 9
Black or White – Still an Issue? A piece of literature can work in many ways. The novel you are about to read is without doubt both entertaining and thrilling, and it contains characters you will probably care about and remember long after you have put the book aside. Often, though, an author has more than one motive for writing a book, and in addition to providing entertainment and suspense the author of Black and White clearly wants his readers to become aware of some important issues in American society, first and foremost problems concerning racial discrimination.
I was inspired to write Black and White by several very real experiences in New York City. From 1992 to 1998, I taught adolescents who were awaiting trial on Rikers Island to read and write. The inequites of the criminal law system, including who can afford bail, deem that the overwhelming majority of inmates on Rikers are either black or Hispanic. It’s a truth you can never close your eyes to. – Paul Volponi 18
What follows is not a ready-made analysis of how the topic of racial discrimination is presented and developed in Black and White. That is for you to find out while reading the novel. Instead, we give you some background information on the history of African Americans, and we exemplify their current standing in American society through a look at the legal system, since this is a central theme in the novel.
History The American population consists of immigrants or descendants of immigrants. The only exception is Native Americans, or American Indians, who have been living on the North American continent for about 10,000 years. Immigration started in the 17th century and is still going on, although on a relatively small scale compared to the peak periods in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Europeans, Hispanics and Asians all immigrated because they wanted a better life in the New World. For African Americans immigration was a completely different story. First of all, they did not come voluntarily. They were caught in their native Africa and shipped to 19
The criminal justice system Black and White tells the story of two high school students, one black, the other white, who turn to crime. In the novel we learn about their encounter with the criminal justice system (the police, the legal system and prisons). As readers, we may wonder whether the novel presents a realistic picture of how the system works – which as we saw above is clearly the aim of the author. The novel certainly makes powerful accusations against the system, and there are in fact statistics that seem to support claims that African Americans are more likely to be arrested, brought to trial and sent to prison than other ethnic groups. In the novel, the black youths X and Moses say that white people are able to escape imprisonment by pulling strings and knowing influential people. There is a tendency for the criminal justice system to work in favor of white people, but the reasons why are complex. One reason is probably that more white people than black people can afford to hire their own lawyers. In the USA, everybody has the right to have a lawyer represent them. Those who cannot afford to hire a lawyer themselves will get a publicly appointed defender. This may sound fair enough, but such public defenders are paid 23
little for each case. Therefore they have to take on a lot of cases and devote little time to each particular one. Poor people may end up not getting the assistance they need and, for this reason, risk unfair trials. Private lawyers, on the other hand, ask a high price from their clients and limit their attention to only a few cases at a time. They are able to focus on each case and work hard to convince the court that their clients are not guilty. So we see that even though all Americans are equal before the law, the legal system works in favor of those who are well-off. The consequences of unfair trials can be seen in the prisons. On Rikers Island Marcus notices: “It’s black people, wall to wall. There are some Spanish inmates too. But everybody else is black.” In court Eddie hears people comment upon the fact that he is a white boy. “Tell me a white boy came back from seeing the judge and is going to the Island, one guy said.” These passages reflect the truth about the prison population in the USA, as 70% of the prisoners are non-white. The proportion of black males between the age of 25 and 29 who are in prison is 10.4%. For men from other ethnic groups, such as Hispanics and whites, the percentages are 2.4% and 1.3%. Shockingly, there are now more black men in prisons than enrolled at colleges and universities. 24
The question is whether African Americans commit more crimes than the rest of the population. This is a complex issue that has been, and still is, under a lot of debate. It is difficult to draw a definite conclusion about whether the criminal justice system does discriminate against African Americans or whether the kind of crimes African Americans commit may, at least partly, be to blame. Many black people are charged with drug offenses for example, and these are punished severely. Adding to that is the shortage of African Americans on juries and the fact that a large percentage of blacks have to rely on public defenders. There is general agreement in the USA, however, that something needs to be done about the injustices of the system. What exactly should be done remains to be seen. We should also keep in mind that African Americans are much more likely to become victims of crime than white people, as the crime rate in the USA varies a lot from neighborhood to neighborhood. In poor areas, where a lot of black people live, there is generally a much higher crime rate than in wealthy ones. The harsh realities of everyday life are reflected in the increasing tension we see in the novel as Marcus gradually discovers just how important the little differences 25
between himself and Eddie really are. At the end of the novel Marcus thinks about how race has always been there in his friendship with Eddie.
There was nothing between us now, except for the line that separates black and white. Only I couldn’t tell if it had been there from the beginning. Maybe it sneaked its way through when we were too worried about saving our asses to see. I didn’t know if it could ever get erased, or if we could find a way around it. I only knew that I wanted to try. (p. 223)
Marcus no longer has his innocent belief in friendship and equality. What events have changed his outlook on life so dramatically? Read the novel and find out!
While reading, try to keep some of these contrasts and characters in mind:
•
Marcus – Eddie (attitudes towards each other – do these attitudes change?)
•
Marcus’s family – Eddie’s family (housing, income, family members, attitudes)
•
How the two families react to the arrests 26
•
Coach Casey – Principal Randolph (reactions and attitudes)
•
The lunatic on the subway
•
Jason Taylor
•
Connelly and Jefferson
•
How Marcus and Eddie are treated when arrested and placed in custody
•
Marcus’s lawyer – Eddie’s lawyer
•
Rikers Island
•
Attitudes towards the legal system expressed by Moses, X, Eddie and Marcus
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Understanding the Novel When reading and talking about a literary work it is often a good idea to study carefully the literary tools that the writer has used. Read the following introduction to some basic literary tools and then try to keep some of this in mind as you read Black and White. In the text we ask you to think about some questions and make notes while reading the novel. After the last chapter there are further literary analysis tasks (p. 271). Working in this way will probably help you to get a better and deeper understanding of this novel.
Point of view Everything in fiction is created by an author (forfatter). In a fictional world we meet imaginary characters who are involved in a story in a made-up setting. There are several ways of telling a story. The author of 28
a literary text does not write directly to the reader. He or she creates a narrator (forteller). As we read the story, it is the voice of the narrator that we hear, not that of the author. We see the events from the narrator's point of view (synsvinkel). Narrators are divided into two broad categories: firstperson
narrators
(“I”)
and
third-person
narrators
(“he/she”). First-person narrators are directly involved in the stories they tell, whereas third-person narrators are not actively involved in the stories. What kind of narrator tells the story in Black and White? How a story is told and what a story is about go hand in hand. Black and White is a novel full of dilemmas and choices. The different characters have to decide who to believe in and who to support. While reading, consider whose version of the story we get in Black and White.
Setting The setting of a literary text is the time and place where it occurs. The place where a character lives greatly affects the way he or she develops. Black and White is set in 29
Queens, New York City, at the present time. Quite a lot of the action takes place on different basketball courts, at school and in the characters’ homes. As the story unfolds, think about how the characters in Black and White are influenced by their surroundings.
Characters Fictional characters are created in two ways: either the narrator tells us directly what sort of person we are dealing with (“he was an unpleasant and unreliable man …”) or we are left to draw our own conclusions based on the way a person behaves or is spoken about by others. We can call these two methods direct and indirect characterization, and we often find that writers mix both methods. A very important thing for anyone who reads a novel is whether the characters are believable. Does what they do seem plausible in the world they live in? Do they change and develop? We have to learn something about the reasons why the characters act the way they do, and about their relations with the other characters. Are the characters in Black and White characterized directly or indirectly? Do any characters change or develop 30
in the course of the novel? Do you believe in them? Think about this while reading.
Plot The plot is what makes a story interesting to read. It is the way the writer organizes the events in his or her story. When we study the plot, we look into why something happens and not just at what happens. In other words, the plot is what makes the story develop. The plot often revolves around a major conflict. When the conflict has been introduced, the tension rises, the action reaches a climax and the story ends with some sort of resolution. Make a note of the conflicts you encounter while reading the novel and try to find out what the main conflict is.
Theme By the theme of a story we mean what a story says, directly or indirectly, about the world outside the work itself. It seldom means a “message” – most writers do not write 31
to “teach us things� – but rather the ideas, dilemmas or conflicts that a story focuses on. What ideas and dilemmas are important in Black and White? What are the themes of the novel? Make notes while reading.
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BLACK AND WHITE
THIS NOVEL IS DEDICATED to the loving memory of my father.
He showed me the angles on a basketball court and how to look inside them.
Special thanks to my mother, wife, and daughter, who kept a place in their hearts warm for me while I was busy with this work.
Thanks to the people who helped me along the way to write: Anthony Cipollone April Volponi Bob Fierro Jim Cocoros Lenny Shulman Rosemary Stimola Jill Davis
BLACK I admit it. I’ve been scared shitless lots of times. But I was never as shook as when the gun in Eddie’s hand went off. It thundered inside that car like the whole world was coming to an end. I never expected Eddie to pull the trigger, by accident or any other way. I guess that was a big part of it, too. In all the time Eddie had that gun, we never shot it off once. It was just for show, so we could get our hands on some quick money. That’s all. We never flashed it around in front of our friends or anything. It was just for us to know about. I was more scared for that man we shot than anything else. I didn’t even know he got clipped in the head until Eddie told me later. The gun went off and I closed my eyes. I shut them so tight, I thought my eyelids would squeeze them right out of their sockets. I only opened them again to find the handle on the door, so I could get out of that car and take off running. That damn sound was ringing in my ears. There was 37
no way to outrun that. I couldn’t hear the air pumping in and out of my lungs, or the sound of my feet hitting against the concrete. And I didn’t know that Eddie wasn’t right behind me until I was halfway home, and peeked back over my shoulder. Then I looked back for him again, even though I knew he wasn’t there. I ran to my crib on instinct, and I guessed Eddie did the same. But I wished he was right there with me to explain what happened. I had to know right then. My brain was going twice as fast as my feet. I didn’t know how to slow it down or what to think about first. I just needed to tell Eddie I had seen that man someplace before. I could still see his round, black face in front of me, like he was somebody I passed on the streets a hundred times. And I was praying to God with every breath I took that the man wasn’t dead.
My name is Marcus Brown, but almost everybody outside my family calls me “Black.” That’s because they’re used to seeing me all the time with my boy, Eddie Russo. Eddie is white. Kids who are different colors don’t get to be that tight in my neighborhood. But we got past all that racial crap, until we were almost like real blood brothers. So somebody came up with the tag “Black 38
and White” for us, and it stuck. It got more hype because we played basketball and football for Long Island City High School. We were two of the best players they ever had. Everybody who goes there knows about us. We even made the newspapers for winning big games a couple of times. Scouts from lots of colleges came to see us play. Some of them wanted to sign up the both of us, and keep what we had going. But that’s all finished with now. I don’t remember if the idea of robbing people came up before Eddie snuck out his dead grandfather’s gun or not. But once the two of those things were square in front of us, they fit together right. We weren’t trying to get rich off it. We were just looking for enough money to keep up. Lots of kids we knew either hustled drugs for their loot or pulled little stickups on the street. But drug dealers and ballplayers usually hold down opposite ends of the park, shooting looks at each other over who runs the place. That’s how it was for Eddie and me with them. The football team always had two or three posses that ripped people off. They would wave their dough around at parties and latch on to the best girls. Some of them even bought rides with their money, while Eddie and 39
me wore out the bottoms of our good kicks walking. And whenever those dudes went out to celebrate after a big win, we were like two charity cases. Then word started getting out among the right females that Black and White were strictly welfare. Eddie’s family has more money than mine. They live two blocks down and across the street from the Ravenswood Houses, in a private house with a front porch. Eddie has a mother and a father, and they both work. Eddie gets an allowance that’s only a little bigger than what I get to go to school with every week. But if Eddie ever needed twenty bucks for something, he could put his hand out and probably get it. My mother has always been tight like that. The only money coming in is from her sewing jobs, and what the state sends her every month to take care of me and my little sister. Senior dues were $150, and the end of February was the deadline. You either paid it or missed out on everything good that went along with graduating, like the class trips to Bear Mountain and Six Flags. It took me almost three months to save that kind of money. Eddie put a lock on his wallet, too, and we were just about there. Then around the middle of January, Nike came out with the new Marauders. Everybody on the basketball 40
team was buying a pair because they came in maroon and powder blue, the same as our school colors. We were the main attraction on that squad. There was no way we were getting caught behind the times like that. So we spent most of our dough on new basketball kicks. That left us with just over a month to get the money we needed for dues. We didn’t know how we’d do it. But we made a pact that either both of us would come up with the cash, or we’d miss out on everything together. Teenagers can get a job easy in some place like McDonald’s or Burger King. It’s honest, but it’s low-rent, too. Kids at school and around our way already treated us like stars. And we were going to be even bigger one day. First in college, and then the pros. So we decided Black and White shouldn’t be serving up fries in those stupid hats for everybody to see. Besides, there was almost no way to juggle going to practice every day and having a job. That’s when Eddie first snuck out the gun, thinking we could sell it. We knew a kid who paid almost $300 for a .38 caliber just like it. But Eddie’s father knew where the gun was supposed to be and might go looking for it one day. Eddie couldn’t blame something like that on his sister. His father would have known it was him, straight 41
off. So we figured that we could borrow the gun anytime, then put it back. That’s how we came to do stickups. We kicked it around a lot first and knew everything we could lose. But it was only going to be a problem if we got caught. Eddie and me weren’t going to be that dumb. We were just going to pull enough stickups to get the money for dues. Then we’d call it quits. Eddie was sold on the idea before I was. “It’ll be too easy,” he said. “And whatever we can take, we deserve.” That hit something inside, and pushed me over the line. We knew enough not to rob other kids. They could get stupid right in the middle of it, or might have a posse of their own and come back after us. We were looking for a payday, not a war. Adults are just easier. Most of them don’t want any trouble. They’re scared of kids they don’t know. And unless you get unlucky and try to heist an off-duty cop or corrections officer, you’re usually home free. We even thought about taking the bullets out of the gun, just to play it safe. But we stressed, thinking we might have to shoot it off in the air, if there was ever any real drama. Growing up, kids all around my way would boost little things from stores, like candy and soda. If you got caught, the owners would beat your ass good before 42
they’d even think about calling the cops. But I was more worried about what my mother would do to me, and how it would make her feel to know her only son was a thief. It wasn’t worth it to me back then. I would rather watch everyone else getting over than turn my own mother against me. But things were different now. I was already seventeen. I had to start pulling my own weight, until playing ball paid off in cash. It was the same for Eddie. He was my best friend, and the only one I would ever trust on something like this. We practiced coming up on people, over and over. Eddie said we should watch how they did it on TV, because they copied things like that from the way it really goes down. So we worked on it, like any play we ever ran in a game. Then we scouted out a good-sized parking lot just off the end of Steinway Street, where people shopping might have some real cheese on them. The lot was laid out in front of a P.C. Richards electronics store, and always deep with rows of cars. There was a big hardware store on one side of it, a movie theater on the other, and a pizza restaurant across the street. There was a sign that read, PARKING FOR P.C. RICHARDS CUSTOMERS ONLY! But we watched, and 43
everyone going into those other places used that lot, too. In between everything, there was a little park without a basketball hoop. It just had kiddie things in it, like a seesaw and a jungle-gym set. It was empty during the day because of the cold, and we knew it would be the same at night. So we used it as a sort of base to look things over. Our first time out, it took almost an hour before we moved. We sat on the swings going back and forth, figuring out if we had the nerve to pull it off or not. Lots of people walked by alone, but we just watched them all. Then we started dissing each other about who was going to chicken out first. When all that ran dry, we got quiet and moved closer to the gate. We picked out a white lady carrying a shopping bag. She walked real slow. That was good for us because we wanted to keep our timing right. Eddie and me were walking even with each other, maybe twenty feet apart. And if that lady had turned around, she never would have thought we were together. We waited until she got all the way to her car. Then Eddie came up from behind and showed her the gun. She got hysterical right away and started to cry. I took the package out of her hand so she could open her 44
pocketbook. Her wallet was sitting right on top. She was so scared, she couldn’t pull it out. Finally, Eddie reached in and grabbed it. Then we got our asses out of there quick. I didn’t want to throw the lady’s package down in the street and have somebody take a second look at us. So I just held on to it tight, and dropped my face down behind it. We weren’t even a block away when she started screaming for help. I hated the way she sounded. It was like we did something really terrible to her. After that, Eddie and me decided we’d never rob another woman. “It’s like if somebody did that to your mother,” Eddie said. “How would you feel?” I was just happy we got away with it. We were so nervous that almost a half hour went by before we looked in her wallet. There was $92 inside. So we did a little victory dance, and gave each other high fives out behind my building. We looked at the picture on her driver’s license for a second, but neither one of us wanted to know her name. Then we walked a couple of blocks and threw her wallet into a big trash bin behind a supermarket, credit cards and all. There was a brand-new Walkman in the package. 45
Eddie said he wanted me to keep it for acting so smart and holding on to it. I scratched up the cover so it wouldn’t look like it was right out of the box. Then I gave it to my little sister, Sabrina, and told my mother I found it outside of school. Sabrina had the earphones plugged into her head for a week straight. And every time I saw her with it, I thought about what Eddie and me had done. Two weeks after that, we robbed an old white man just before the stores closed that night. We were about to step to him when somebody passed by out of nowhere. Eddie and me just froze for five or six seconds. When I looked up again the man was already halfway into his car. I was surprised when Eddie went ahead and pulled the gun on him anyway. Eddie’s face turned mean-looking. He made the man slide over, and got into the driver’s seat next to him. Then Eddie unlocked the back door, and I got in, too. He screamed at the man to empty all his pockets. I didn’t see much because my eyes were glued to the side window, watching for trouble. But after the man took out his money, he had his eyes shut tight. When we bounced, Eddie grabbed the man’s car keys and left them on his back bumper. 46
“The cops probably won’t even find them back there,” Eddie said. And we walked away fast with confidence, like we were professionals now. That job got us $129 in folding money, almost $3 in loose change and a token to drive across the Triboro Bridge. I remember, we stopped at the McDonald’s underneath the train tracks on Broadway and each had two Quarter-Pounders with Cheese. Then we left the token on the table like a tip for anybody who wanted it. Between our loot and what we had saved, there was enough for dues. We held on to the money over the weekend just to look at it some more. But when we went to pay that Monday, the school secretary got bent out of shape because it was March first already. Eddie knows how to fast-talk most people good, and he didn’t waste a second after the last word left her mouth. He told her I was busy celebrating Black History Month. That he thought it was a leap year, and February had the one extra day to it. She smiled at all of that nonsense and made us each out a receipt. We were happy the way everything turned out, but were flat broke again. It all went down too easy to just 47
walk away. And neither one of us mentioned quitting the stickup business. Our last stickup was on the next Friday night, after basketball practice. Before we left, Coach Casey called everyone over to the bleachers and gave his usual speech for the weekend. “Gentlemen, I know the city never sleeps, but try not to get into anything stupid over the next couple of days,” Casey told the team. “Don’t get into fights and don’t get locked up. Do your families a favor – stay home at night and study. I want to see everybody back here on Monday the way we left.” Eddie and me would always smile at each other while Casey talked like that. Not because we didn’t appreciate it, but because we knew his rap inside out. We heard him make that same speech every Friday for almost four years. But Casey was solid with us. And we knew he meant it. On our way up to Steinway Street, Eddie asked me if I wanted to be the one to hold the gun this time. It felt good in my hand the couple of times I played around with it. But I didn’t have any real practice pulling it out on somebody. Eddie had been perfect twice already. I didn’t want to screw things up, so I took a pass. 48
It was freezing out that night. We started to shiver, waiting in the back of the parking lot, across from the park. We had our eyes locked onto everything around us, looking for somebody easy. We even passed on a man with a cane because it didn’t feel right, and the wind came up strong against us. Eddie said that holding the gun was like squeezing a piece of ice, and his fingers were going numb. So I let him have my gloves. After a while, I started blowing into my hands to keep them warm. I could see my breath coming out between my fingers, and anybody who saw us there probably thought we were smoking weed. The man was just a shadow to me when he first came out of that hardware store. It was really dark, and he had his coat buttoned all the way up around his neck. Eddie gave me a nod, and I nodded right back. I didn’t even know the man was black until we walked up to him, and Eddie told him it was a stickup.
49
WHITE By the time I made it home, the sweat was pouring off of me. I was breathing harder than ever. Every part of my body was on fire. I couldn’t go inside, or everyone would know something was wrong. My right hand was in my coat pocket, still wrapped around the gun. I could smell that it had just been fired. But I wouldn’t pull it out again. I bit down hard on the tip of a finger, and pulled Marcus’s glove off of my other hand with my teeth. I wiped the sweat from my face with it, and stuffed the glove into the empty coat pocket. I turned the knob on the front door and opened it. Gotti jumped up and hit me in the stomach with both paws. But I pushed him down with one hand and scratched him behind the ear. My sister was lying on the floor watching TV. “Isn’t Marcus with you?” she asked. I wasn’t sure what would come out of my mouth. So I just shook my head. 50
My folks were in the kitchen. I heard my mom call out something to me about dinner, but I went right upstairs, and locked the bathroom door behind me. When I turned back around, I was staring straight into the mirror. The sweat was starting down my forehead again. The skin was stretched tight across my face, and my eyes were bulging out. I could have been looking at a murderer. I took the gun out of my pocket and put it in the sink. I heard my sister coming up the stairs, talking on the phone. That’s when I felt a bang! Like I had shot that man all over again. Only I could feel the trigger slip between my finger and Marcus’s glove this time. I could feel myself jerk backwards, and could see the blood. I listened until I heard my sister’s bedroom door shut. Then I peeled off the other glove and grabbed the gun. I opened the door just wide enough to check the hall, and when I saw that it was clear, I bolted for the attic. My mom hadn’t changed a thing up there since my grandpa died in his sleep last year. Sometimes, it almost felt like he still lived with us. The pictures of him with my grandma were on the table next to his bed. My mom dusted them almost every day. In all the times I took his gun, it never bothered me. But now I felt sick to my stomach. 51
I reached up to the top shelf of his closet and took down the brown shoe box. There were a dozen rubber bands wrapped around it. They were old and stiff. But I undid them all without any of them snapping. I had left a brick in its place. So I put the gun back inside, and hid the brick on the closet floor under some old magazines. Then I slipped the rubber bands back around the box, and put it away. I got out of there and grabbed a basketball from my room. Halfway down the stairs, I held the ball out in front of me to stop any questions about where I was headed. My mom saw me at the bottom step and called out my name. Then my dad turned around to look at me. I lifted the ball up in front of my face and said, “I’m going out to find Marcus.” The wind ran through my wet clothes. I tried to dribble the ball to keep warm. But it would hardly come back up off the ground. It was just too cold. I knew that Marcus would be either in his house or at the courts in the Circle. I turned in between the first two buildings of the projects and could hear a game going on. I turned the next corner and the wind dropped off behind the big buildings. Moses and X were playing oneon-one at the basket under the light. Marcus was sitting 52
by himself on a bench next to the court. His hands were in his pockets, and his face was down into his coat. X yelled, “Now we can play some two-man.” When I heard that, I knew that he hadn’t told them what happened. It was the first time I could remember that me and Marcus didn’t give each other a pound or a slap on the back. We just looked at each other. “It just went off,” I said to him in a low voice. I flipped Marcus the ball and he cradled it in his fingertips. He made an excuse to Moses and X about not playing, and we headed out of the other end of the park together. “Look at them go! They’re so scared!” Moses echoed through the Circle. “They’re feeling the pressure, big time,” hooted X. “They know it could have been the end of Black and White tonight.” And they both laughed. When we got out of earshot, Marcus asked me, “Do you think he’s dead?” I told him that I didn’t think so. That the bullet just grazed him, and there was blood on the back of his head and neck. I knew the window next to him got shattered. But, I wasn’t really sure about anything. 53
“Oh God, not in the head!” Marcus cried out loud. Then he jumped up and smacked a street sign with the basketball. The sound rattled down the block and I turned around to see if anybody was watching. We talked about going back there to see what was going on. Maybe there was police tape around the car already and a bunch of cops asking people about what they had seen. We thought we could find out if the man was still alive that way. But in the end, we decided against it. “What if he’s still in the car, and nobody’s found him yet?” Marcus asked. “Do we call an ambulance? Do we leave him there?” “I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t think straight.” So we just kept walking in circles around the projects. Then Marcus said, “I thought I recognized that man from somewhere.” I told him that he was just imagining things. But he said how that could have been the father of some kid he knew, and his eyes started to tear. “I know I fucked this up for us, and got that man shot. I shoulda took the gun when you asked. I punked out!” Marcus said. I didn’t want to hear any more, so I started to walk off. Marcus grabbed my shoulder to turn me back around. 54
Questions and Glossary
Chapter 1 – Black (p. 37) Comprehension questions 1) Who is Marcus Brown? 2) Who is Eddie and what has he done? 3) Why are Marcus and Eddie called Black and White? 4) In what ways are their families different? 5) Why do Marcus and Eddie start robbing people? 6) How do they prepare for their first robbery?
Discuss Marcus tells us that it is quite common for kids in their neighborhood to be involved in crime. Why do you think he does that?
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Glossary to pull the trigger:
å skyte
to flash:
å vifte med
he got clipped in the head:
han ble truffet i hodet / han vart treft i hovudet
socket:
øyehule/augehole
to outrun:
å løpe fra / å springe frå
concrete:
betong
to peek:
å kikke
crib:
hus, hjem / hus, heim
neighborhood:
nabolag
tag:
merkelapp, kallenavn / merkelapp, kallenamn
hype:
oppmerksomhet/oppmerksemd
scout:
talentspeider/talentspeidar
college:
høgskole
Long Island:
øy i New York State, like øst for Manhattan / øy i New York State, like aust for Manhattan
to sign up:
å tilby kontrakt om å spille på et lag / å tilby kontrakt om å spele på eit lag
to sneak:
å snike seg
to hustle drugs for
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their loot:
å selge narkotika for å skaffe seg penger / å selje narkotika for å skaffe seg pengar
to pull a stickup:
å rane
posse:
(her) gjeng med ungdommer som driver med kriminalitet / gjeng med ungdommar som driv med kriminalitet
to rip off:
å snyte, stjele / å snyte, stele
dough:
penger/pengar
to latch on to:
å klenge seg på / å klengje seg på
ride:
skyss, kjøretur
kicks:
basketballsko
charity case:
fattig
strictly welfare:
helt blakke / heilt blakke
Ravenswood Houses:
kommunalt boligkompleks i Queens / kommunalt bustadkompleks i Queens
block:
kvartal
allowance:
lommepenger/lommepengar
senior dues:
avgift for avgangselever / avgift for avgangselevar
to graduate:
å ta avsluttende eksamen på high school / å ta avsluttande eksamen på high school
Bear Mountain State Park:
utfluktsmål vest for New York
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Six Flags:
fornøyelsespark-kjede
Nike Marauders:
en type basketballsko / ein type basketballsko
maroon:
kastanjebrun
powder blue:
koboltblå
squad:
lag
to get caught behind the times:
å ligge etter / å liggje etter
basketball kicks:
basketballsko
low-rent:
dårlig betalt / dårleg betalt
pros:
profesjonell serie
to call it quits:
å slutte
to heist:
å stjele fra / å stele frå
off-duty cop:
politimann som ikke er på jobb / politimann som ikkje er på jobb
corrections officer:
fengselsbetjent
to be home free:
å være i havn, være sikret / å vere i hamn, vere sikra
to boost:
å naske, rappe
to pull one’s own weight: å forsørge seg selv / å forsørgje seg sjølv to come up on people:
å angripe folk
to scout out:
å finne
cheese:
penger/pengar
basketball hoop:
kurv øverst på basketballstativ / korg øvst på basketballstativ
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seesaw:
vippehuske
jungle-gym set:
klatrestativ
swing:
huske
to pull it off:
å gjennomføre
to dis each other:
å rakke ned på hverandre / å rakke ned på kvarandre
to chicken out:
å trekke seg, feige ut / å trekkje seg, feige ut
twenty feet:
ca. 6 m
one foot:
ca. 30 cm
mean-looking:
med et ondt ansiktsuttrykk / med eit vondt ansiktsuttrykk
to bounce:
å bykse fram
bumper:
støtfanger/støytfangar
folding money:
sedler/setlar
token:
brikke
Triboro Bridge:
brokompleks bestående av tre broer som forbinder Manhattan, Queens og Bronx / brukompleks med tre bruer som bind saman Manhattan, Queens og Bronx
tip:
tips, drikkepenger / tips, drikkepengar
loot:
fangst, tyvegods / fangst, tjuvegods
bent out of shape:
irritert
to fast-talk:
å manipulere, overbevise / å manipulere, overtyde
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leap year:
skuddår/skotår
receipt:
kvittering
bleacher:
tribunebenk
the city that never sleeps: kallenavn for New York / kallenamn for New York to appreciate:
å sette pris på / å setje pris på
rap:
prat
Steinway Street:
T-banestasjon
to pull out a gun:
å ta fram et våpen fra hylster, lomme eller lignende / å ta fram eit våpen frå hylster, lomme eller liknande
to screw up:
å ødelegge / å øydeleggje
to take a pass:
å trekke seg, feige ut / å trekkje seg, feige ut
locked:
festet, fastlåst / festa, fastlåst
to pass on:
å droppe, kutte ut
cane:
stokk
weed:
marihuana
hardware store:
jernvarehandel
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Chapter 2 – White (p. 50) Comprehension questions 1) How does Eddie feel after the robbery? 2) What does he do with the gun? 3) Why does he go out to play basketball? 4) Why are Eddie and Marcus so worried? 5) What is the problem with Eddie’s coat? What do they do with it? 6) Why do they go to Marcus’s house?
Discuss “What some kids won’t do to get what they want” (p. 55). Marcus’s mother says this when Eddie and Marcus tell her that Eddie’s jacket has been stolen. How does this innocent remark sum up Eddie and Marcus’s situation?
Glossary paw:
labb
to bulge out:
å stå ut (av hodet) / å stå ut (av hovudet)
sink:
vask
to jerk:
å rykke / å rykkje
to peel off:
å skrelle av
to bolt:
å stikke, forte seg
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attic:
loft
closet:
skap
rubber band:
gummistrikk
to snap:
å ryke
project:
kommunal bolig / kommunal bustad
to play one-on-one:
å spille en mot en / å spele ein mot ein
to play two-man:
å spille to mot to / å spele to mot to
to give a pound:
å slå hendene mot hverandre (en måte å hilse på) / å slå hendene mot kvarandre (ein måte å helse på)
to flip:
å vippe
to cradle:
å kjæle med, leke med / å kjæle med, leike med
to graze:
å streife
to get shattered:
å bli knust
to smack:
å slå
to rattle:
å gi gjenlyd
to recognize:
å kjenne igjen
to punk out:
å feige ut
napkin:
serviett
to come off:
å gå av (om flekk)
to ditch:
å kaste
sewer:
kloakk-kum
to trade:
å bytte / å byte
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Digging Deeper For more information about how to analyze a novel, read the article “Understanding the Novel” on pp. 28–32.
Point of view •
Do you identify with Eddie or Marcus? If so, who and why?
•
What would the novel have been like if it had been told only by Eddie or Marcus?
Setting •
How are Eddie and Marcus influenced by their growing up in a big city? Do you think they are typical urban youths? Explain.
•
Eddie and Marcus grow up in different neighborhoods. How do Eddie’s parents use Marcus’s background to explain why he was arrested? 271
•
What do the different places where Eddie and Marcus play basketball mean to the relationship between them and their position at the school? Think of the District of Sanitation, the Circle and LIC.
•
The parking-lot where Eddie fired the gun is an important place in the novel. Why are Eddie and Marcus reluctant to go back there? What does this place represent?
Characters •
“On the way out, I saw the broken glass on the gym floor. The case that held Jason’s jersey got busted open. His uniform top was hanging loose, pinned up by only one shoulder. I reached my hand in through the sharp edges, and hooked it back on right.” Why does Marcus want to put Jason Taylor’s shirt right? Jason is dead, but he still plays an important role in Eddie and Marcus’s lives. Explain.
•
What does Eddie’s father do for him? Find passages in the novel that tell us how Eddie feels about his father. Do you think Eddie’s father handles Eddie’s problems the way he should? Why or why not?
•
Marcus’s father does not live with Marcus, his mother 272
and sister. Still, Marcus often thinks of him. Find passages where we learn about the way he feels about his father and explain what Marcus wants his father to think of him. •
Jefferson is one of the security guards at Long Island City High School. What is his role in Marcus’s life? What does he tell Marcus? What effect does this have on Marcus?
•
Marcus’s mother comes across as a very strong woman. List the most important things she says and does in response to Marcus’s situation. Does Marcus’s relationship with his mother change? If so, why and how?
Plot •
Which scene is the climax of the novel? Give reasons for your opinion.
Theme •
Friendship is a central theme in Black and White. What are the opportunities and challenges involved in the friendship between Eddie and Marcus? What do we 273
learn about friendship in general? Who do you think proves to be the better friend – Eddie or Marcus? Give reasons to support your opinions. •
The title Black and White gives meaning and focus to the novel. What is the connection between the title and the theme of Black and White? As the novel develops, is it still a story about Black and White – or rather a story about Black or White?
Beginnings and endings •
Read the opening paragraph of Black and White carefully. How does the novel start? How does the narrator feel? Who is Eddie, and what has he done? Why did he have a gun? When you have read the first paragraph, do you feel you want to read on or not? Explain.
•
Black and White ends like this: “We were sitting face-to-face, with the sweat coming down the both of us. The rows of trucks parked outside the sanitation garage were quiet. There was hardly any noise from out in the street, either. And it felt like the only sound in the whole world was from our breathing. There was nothing between us now, except for the 274
line that separates black and white. Only I couldn’t tell if it had been there from the beginning. Maybe it sneaked its way through when we were too worried about saving our asses to see. I didn’t know if it could ever get erased, or if we could find a way around it. I only knew that I wanted to try.» Who is speaking here? How do you interpret the ending – does the novel end on a positive or a negative note? Explain.
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Writing Topics (1) While they are in deep trouble with the law, Eddie and Marcus are asked to write an essay on how they would like other people to remember them. Eddie writes: “I’d like people to remember me as somebody they could depend on. No matter what happens, I’m always right there. I’m not the kind of person who walks away when things get tough. I don’t care if it’s crunch time on the basketball court or the last play of a football game, I’m willing to put myself on the line …” Marcus writes: “In the end, I’d like people to say that I tried to be honest with them. I want them to remember the real Marcus Brown. Not the ballplayer or anybody else. That way they’ll have a clear picture in their head about me, and not have to guess.” Compare what they write about themselves with your impressions of the two boys. Is the picture that they 276
give of themselves in their essays correct? Why or why not?
(2) “I watched Marcus walk away to his next class. He carried the jacket away from his body, like it wasn’t a part of him anymore. I looked at him like he was already somebody different. Somebody I didn’t have a handle on anymore. And I started to worry if this Marcus would ever give me up to the cops and say I was there.” Eddie and Marcus used to be great friends. Explain what was so special about their friendship. How has Eddie’s relationship to Marcus changed? Why is Eddie so worried?
(3) At the end of the novel Eddie and Marcus end up in very different circumstances. Who do you think will manage better in the long run? Give reasons to support your opinions.
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(4) “Up until last month, the Russos were probably patting themselves on the back for showing a black kid without a father how a family was supposed to be. But my mother was standing up taller now than they ever did, even if you stood them up one on top of the other.” Compare how Eddie’s parents and Marcus’s mother deal with the charges brought against their sons. Who do you think provides the best support for their son? Give reasons to support your opinions.
(5) “My mother didn’t even care that Rose was white. But she told me that people were going to keep hammering us for crossing that line. She said that’s when we’d find out how thick our skins really are.” What are the difficulties facing Marcus and Rose’s relationship? Do you think their relationship will last until Marcus is released from prison? Why or why not?
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(6) Explain how the title Black and White gives meaning and focus to the way we read the novel. As the story develops, Eddie and Marcus are made to question their friendship. At the end of the novel, are they still Black and White, or is Black or White a more correct description of their relationship? Give reasons to support your opinions.
(7) Marcus says that he wishes he could apologize to Sidney Parker, the man Eddie shot (“I wanted him to know how sorry I was”). Imagine that Marcus is now in prison and that he writes a letter to Mr. Parker. How will he explain what happened and how he feels about it now? Write the letter from Marcus.
(8) When asked why the novel ends without Marcus and Eddie telling each other how they really feel and without letting us know how their lives will turn out, Paul Volponi has said that he “truly felt the story was finished at that 279
point, and it was time to walk away from them both”. Imagine that he decides to write a bonus chapter set five years ahead in time. Write the new chapter describing what has happened to the two boys since we met them last. Decide whether you want to use Marcus or Eddie as the narrator of the new chapter.
(9) You have just finished reading Black and White. Your local newspaper has asked you to write a book report about it. They want you •
to say a little bit about the author
•
to give a very short summary of the plot
•
to say something about the themes of the novel
•
to state your own opinion of the novel and come up with either a recommendation or a warning to the readers of the newspaper
They also ask for an illustration to go with the article. Feel free to draw a sketch, find a picture or suggest a painting that you feel illustrates your book review.
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Search and Present American sports stars Make a presentation of a famous American sports star. Focus on family background, achievements, income and fame.
The O. J. Simpson murder case The O. J. Simpson murder case from the mid-1990s attracted a lot of attention. Make a presentation of the case. Focus on why it attracted so much attention, how it ended and why you think it ended the way it did.
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African American role models Select a famous African American, for example a sports star, a film star, a pop or rock star, a businessman or -woman, a politician or a civil rights activist. Make a presentation of him or her. Focus on family background and achievements. Do you think he or she is a role model for other African Americans? Explain.
48 Hours in New York City Imagine that you have just landed at John F Kennedy Airport and that you are going to spend 48 hours in New York City. Your budget is $1000. •
Where would you like to stay?
•
What would you like to see and do?
Make a presentation of your stay in New York. Make sure you stay within your budget.
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