A blog devoted to Chae Sweet's ENG073 course at Hudson County Community College. Students will discuss "Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx."
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Group #5 Posting - FL
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Anonymous
said...
Chapter 29 Coco and Frankie are back together but constantly fighting until frankie gets arrested for a crime he did commit. Coco is considering moving back to the Bronx where her problems will be nullified by the problems of others but in a letter Cesar convices her not too. In this letter he berates her which makes her very upset. In her return letter to Cesar she tells him that it was his own fault she cheated on him. Ending the chapter Coco decides on the Depo-Provera shot as her form of birth control but responds badly to it. Chapter 30 Cesar becomes severly depressed and writes to Jessica informing her that Mercedes is the only thing really keeping him from killing himself. In this letter he also tells Jessica about the hardships of his prison time and how noone puts money into his account so he cannot buy anything therefore, he turns back to stealing. He writes letters to his whole family giving them advice on how to live their lives. Soon after he recieves another 4 years for posession of a shank. Jessica files a claim against the prison system for medical neglegence but in reality it is only to get Torres to admit he is the father. With Frankie out of jail His and Coco's relationship starts to deteriorate as they start visiting the bronx much more frequent. Foxy is trying to get Coco married for the 1000$ gift, Coco is reconnecting with Wishman which results with the 2 having sex in a hotel room. Coco's car breaks down which forces her to stay in troy for the rest of the summer. A police officer comes to the door and accuses Mercedes of harrasment because she called an older woman fat and that she was going to send her cousin after her. Coco decides to get her GED and was encouraged by cesar to do so. Frankie got a new job laying concrete its was an off the books job which made the family somewhat happy. Chapter 31 Jessica meets a lesbian inmate named Nilda and they become friends. Miranda now joins DAP with Nilda and Jessica and they all become friendly. An arguement starts between Milagros and Coco on how Serena should be raised. Kevin has started to have sex but is using condoms while Serena is starting to notice boys. Milagros recieves her GED and starts a new job as an in home health aid which means serena has to babysit alot. Coco has moved into a new apartment but when Foxy gets arrested basically everyone who was staying at Foxy's house is now camping out at Coco's. Coco hears about how Cesars wife Giselle is doing well and becomes severly jealous. Chapter 32 The rumors about Giselle were not completely false but not true she was struggling just like the rest of the bronx. Gabriel and Cesar start to connect during the trailer visits playing games while Giselle is asleep. Mercedes and Nautica are supposed to go see Cesar in jail but due to the fact that he was wounded in a prison fight the visit is cancelled. During a visit between Lourdes and Jessica she noticies that Lourdes has been being beat up. Due to all of the other places where Jessica could live on parole being unfit to the courts she asks if she can stay with Lourdes and her offer is joyfully accepted. Chapter 33 Coco is still going to school but the burdens of everything are becoming too much for her. Coco kicks Frankie out of the house and is staying with Foxy. She is also happy that her children get to spend time with their grandmother. During this happening between Coco and Frankie, Frankie is starting to see another girl which make Coco very jealous. Kevin has gotten his girlfriend pregnant at 14 and decides that he will rely on welfare to support his new family. Serena becomes good friends with Kevins girlfriend which Milagros likes because maybe Serena wont take that path. Coco's power is shut off and her house is condemned, For the 2nd time in a year she and her family were homeless. Instead of being supportive Jessica tries some tough love with Coco and tells her to stop giving and start getting. Chapter 34 Lourdes now temporaily has custody of Maria's 2 children. They complain that she does not feed them and locks them in the hallways at night. The 2 children are put into foster care. Elaine has moved to yonkers and Lourdes being denies SSI is only getting 50$ in food stamps a month. The only thing Lourdes had going for her was her cooking which was the only thing that made her happy. Near Christmas Cesar is transferred to a prison that is only 90 miles away. Coco now living between Iris's and Hector's houses and is starting to feel unwelcome. Hector has gotten Frankie a job with him packing fruit at night and Coco has gotten a job slicing meat at Price Chopper for 5.15 an hour. Back in Troy Coco is trying to find an apartment of her own. Cesar now at his new prison has spent 3 months in the box and is declared suicidal getting him his own cell. Coco's family is now coming together with her new apartment and her spending the bulk of her 1st 2 paychecks on christmas gifts for her children. Rocco has sent 400$ to Cesar in jail. Rocco has become bored with everything except for chess and has now gotten together a group of kids with which he starts to rob drug dealers again. After 1 sucessful hit he has boasted from 50 to 150k per person in his group. Chapter 35 Jessica is about the be released from jail and Boy George is becoming very well read in prison. Nilda gives Jessica about how to live her life on the outside. On december 17,1998 Jessica is released from prison. After being released she finds that reality has come back upon her and that noone in the Bronx is doing good. For Christmas the whole family goes to Lourdes apartment where she puts on a feast. Jessica has now moved in with Elaine and is introduced to a new George as a love interest but the same as all the others he is already involved with someone. Chapter 36 Coco gets a new job at a nursing home serving meals to the elderly. She soon quits after pearl gets sick and the house becomes the same as it always is. With noone working arguements start again in the house and Frankie starts to let his customers back into the house. After one arguement with Frankie she lets her children open all their Christmas presents and then worries about how to replace them. Coco becomes pregnant for the 5th time and starts to think about getting an abortion but in the end decides against it. She begins to sleep much more then normal.
I believe that their are 2 themes that are repeated over and over again within these sections of the book. Hope and Dissapointment. Almost every character in this section of the book have small glimmers of hope that just get crushed by what things always end up in. Dissapointment. I'll start with Coco and Frankie. To start off the chapters Frankie gets arrested on false charges, continues to sell drugs, gets a job paying under the table laying concrete and then another job packing fruit with Hector. As in all of Frankies endeavors his jobs he either quits or gets fired from, due to him selling drugs he is letting his customers enter Coco's house which creates a bad enviorment, he is constantly fighting with Coco and getting kicked out and in the end it ends up the way it always does Coco gets pregnant for the 5th time. Coco has the same glimmers of hope by getting a job, reconnecting with wishman, starting school and getting her own apartment. She has to quit both her jobs, due to a problem with her car directly after she reconnects with Wishman she is forced to spend the rest of the summer in Troy, her power is shut off, her apartment condemned and homeless again.
With Jessica she meets new friends in prison and finally gets paroled. But as soon as she gets out she becomes involved with another man named george who is involved with another girl. Cesar has his glimmers of hope in his trailer visits with Giselle and Gabriel but soon after he has been given 4 more years on his sentence, thrown in the hole for 4 months and has been deemed suicial by the doctors at the prison.
In my opinion these are the most common themes in the book because whenever it is looking good for someone (hope) it is not long after everything ends with people becoming injured, imprisoned, homeless or pregnant (dissapointment)
I'm a writing professor at Hudson County Community College. I have been teaching here for about 10 years, and I love working with the eclectic bunch of students I meet each semester.
2 comments:
Chapter 29
Coco and Frankie are back together but constantly fighting until frankie gets arrested for a crime he did commit. Coco is considering moving back to the Bronx where her problems will be nullified by the problems of others but in a letter Cesar convices her not too. In this letter he berates her which makes her very upset. In her return letter to Cesar she tells him that it was his own fault she cheated on him. Ending the chapter Coco decides on the Depo-Provera shot as her form of birth control but responds badly to it.
Chapter 30
Cesar becomes severly depressed and writes to Jessica informing her that Mercedes is the only thing really keeping him from killing himself. In this letter he also tells Jessica about the hardships of his prison time and how noone puts money into his account so he cannot buy anything therefore, he turns back to stealing. He writes letters to his whole family giving them advice on how to live their lives. Soon after he recieves another 4 years for posession of a shank. Jessica files a claim against the prison system for medical neglegence but in reality it is only to get Torres to admit he is the father. With Frankie out of jail His and Coco's relationship starts to deteriorate as they start visiting the bronx much more frequent. Foxy is trying to get Coco married for the 1000$
gift, Coco is reconnecting with Wishman which results with the 2 having sex in a hotel room. Coco's car breaks down which forces her to stay in troy for the rest of the summer. A police officer comes to the door and accuses Mercedes of harrasment because she called an older woman fat and that she was going to send her cousin after her. Coco decides to get her GED and was encouraged by cesar to do so. Frankie got a new job laying concrete its was an off the books job which made the family somewhat happy.
Chapter 31
Jessica meets a lesbian inmate named Nilda and they become friends. Miranda now joins DAP with Nilda and Jessica and they all become friendly. An arguement starts between Milagros and Coco on how Serena should be raised. Kevin has started to have sex but is using condoms while Serena is starting to notice boys. Milagros recieves her GED and starts a new job as an in home health aid which means serena has to babysit alot. Coco has moved into a new apartment but when Foxy gets arrested basically everyone who was staying at Foxy's house is now camping out at Coco's. Coco hears about how Cesars wife Giselle is doing well and becomes severly jealous.
Chapter 32
The rumors about Giselle were not completely false but not true she was struggling just like the rest of the bronx.
Gabriel and Cesar start to connect during the trailer visits playing games while Giselle is asleep. Mercedes and Nautica are supposed to go see Cesar in jail but due to the fact that he was wounded in a prison fight the visit is cancelled. During a visit between Lourdes and Jessica she noticies that Lourdes has been being beat up. Due to all of the other places where Jessica could live on parole being unfit to the courts she asks if she can stay with Lourdes and her offer is joyfully accepted.
Chapter 33
Coco is still going to school but the burdens of everything are becoming too much for her. Coco kicks Frankie out of the house and is staying with Foxy. She is also happy that her children get to spend time with their grandmother. During this happening between Coco and Frankie, Frankie is starting to see another girl which make Coco very jealous. Kevin has gotten his girlfriend pregnant at 14 and decides that he will rely on welfare to support his new family. Serena becomes good friends with Kevins girlfriend which Milagros likes because maybe Serena wont take that path. Coco's power is shut off and her house is condemned, For the 2nd time in a year she and her family were homeless. Instead of being supportive Jessica tries some tough love with Coco and tells her to stop giving and start getting.
Chapter 34
Lourdes now temporaily has custody of Maria's 2 children. They complain that she does not feed them and locks them in the hallways at night. The 2 children are put into foster care. Elaine has moved to yonkers and Lourdes being denies SSI is only getting 50$ in food stamps a month. The only thing Lourdes had going for her was her cooking which was the only thing that made her happy. Near Christmas Cesar is transferred to a prison that is only 90 miles away. Coco now living between Iris's and Hector's houses and is starting to feel unwelcome. Hector has gotten Frankie a job with him packing fruit at night and Coco has gotten a job slicing meat at Price Chopper for 5.15 an hour. Back in Troy Coco is trying to find an apartment of her own. Cesar now at his new prison has spent 3 months in the box and is declared suicidal getting him his own cell. Coco's family is now coming together with her new apartment and her spending the bulk of her 1st 2 paychecks on christmas gifts for her children. Rocco has sent 400$ to Cesar in jail. Rocco has become bored with everything except for chess and has now gotten together a group of kids with which he starts to rob drug dealers again. After 1 sucessful hit he has boasted from 50 to 150k per person in his group.
Chapter 35
Jessica is about the be released from jail and Boy George is becoming very well read in prison. Nilda gives Jessica about how to live her life on the outside. On december 17,1998 Jessica is released from prison. After being released she finds that reality has come back upon her and that noone in the Bronx is doing good. For Christmas the whole family goes to Lourdes apartment where she puts on a feast. Jessica has now moved in with Elaine and is introduced to a new George as a love interest but the same as all the others he is already involved with someone.
Chapter 36
Coco gets a new job at a nursing home serving meals to the elderly. She soon quits after pearl gets sick and the house becomes the same as it always is. With noone working arguements start again in the house and Frankie starts to let his customers back into the house. After one arguement with Frankie she lets her children open all their Christmas presents and then worries about how to replace them. Coco becomes pregnant for the 5th time and starts to think about getting an abortion but in the end decides against it. She begins to sleep much more then normal.
Themes
I believe that their are 2 themes that are repeated over and over again within these sections of the book. Hope and Dissapointment. Almost every character in this section of the book have small glimmers of hope that just get crushed by what things always end up in. Dissapointment. I'll start with Coco and Frankie. To start off the chapters Frankie gets arrested on false charges, continues to sell drugs, gets a job paying under the table laying concrete and then another job packing fruit with Hector. As in all of Frankies endeavors his jobs he either quits or gets fired from, due to him selling drugs he is letting his customers enter Coco's house which creates a bad enviorment, he is constantly fighting with Coco and getting kicked out and in the end it ends up the way it always does Coco gets pregnant for the 5th time. Coco has the same glimmers of hope by getting a job, reconnecting with wishman, starting school and getting her own apartment. She has to quit both her jobs, due to a problem with her car directly after she reconnects with Wishman she is forced to spend the rest of the summer in Troy, her power is shut off, her apartment condemned and homeless again.
With Jessica she meets new friends in prison and finally gets paroled. But as soon as she gets out she becomes involved with another man named george who is involved with another girl. Cesar has his glimmers of hope in his trailer visits with Giselle and Gabriel but soon after he has been given 4 more years on his sentence, thrown in the hole for 4 months and has been deemed suicial by the doctors at the prison.
In my opinion these are the most common themes in the book because whenever it is looking good for someone (hope) it is not long after everything ends with people becoming injured, imprisoned, homeless or pregnant (dissapointment)
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