Exemplification Essay: Lamar's Life

She describes that she hears “brothers talking about spending each day high as hell on malt liquor and Chronic. Don’t sleep. What passes for ‘40 and a blunt’ good times in most of hip-hop is really alcoholism, substance abuse, and chemical dependency” (456). Through these lyrics depicted by rap and hip-hop artists, Morgan points out the fact that the African American community deals with tough situations including a dependency of drugs and alcohol. In addition to drug and alcohol abuse, Morgan explains that conversations between males are often times about killing one another and believing that their life expectancy is low. In this essay, Morgan relates the issue of drug abuse and survival with the life of the Notorious BIG connecting the fact that his life was surrounded by drug and alcohol abuse, jail, relationships, and murder. With the help of these lyrics stated in rap and hip-hop music, Morgan believes that “the seemingly impenetrable wall of sexism in rap music is really the complex mask African Americans often wear both to hide and express the pain” (457). As she describes the issues of the daily lives of African Americans, readers are able to better understand the reason behind the lyrics and the anger of why they perceive women as “bitches” and

Luis was growing up into the life of gang banging, gaining a reputation in San Gabriel by being scouted into bigger gangs in the area. Increasing his involvement in the gang by stealing form stores, to eventually being part of premeditated arson and murders. Luis was well on his way to a life in prison or worse, death. By growing up during a time of racial discrimination, options were limited to becoming a factory worker or gangster. Luis met

      Fifteen hundred miles away, in Portland, Oregon Brandon Roses ten is found guilty of murdering his five-year-old sister because he claimed that she was annoying him. Later investigators found out that Brandon’s father had told him that killing his sister was “OK”, because he was too young to be put in jail. Another investigation is currently under way (Edmonds). In Austin, Texas, two young men Efrain Perez and Raul Villareal were both seventeen in June of 1993. As part of Villareal’s gang initiation, the boys spent the evening in an open field drinking and fighting among

High school is a big time for change in a teenagers life. They go through problems with friends, family, grades, and sports. For Andy Jackson, a 17 year old student at Hazelwood High School, he went through all of those troubles. He plays for the basketball team with his friends Rob Washington, Tyrone Mills, and B.J. Carson. One night after basketball practice, Andy was drinking alcohol and driving which led them to get in a car crash. Andy, Tyrone, and B.J. escaped the car with a few cuts and bruises, but Rob got stuck and burned to death. Rob’s death brought Andy to blame himself. He turns away from his friends, his girlfriend, Keisha, and his family. Andy changes negatively after the car crash; he becomes insecure, he closes up his feelings, and he turns emotionally weak.

Wes making a critical decision in his life, without a voice around to say otherwise entered the drug game. Both Wes Moore’s shared a common thread while growing up. They both grew up in single parent environments, both were raised in inner city neighborhoods, and both had run-ins with the law. As author Wes Moore states in the introduction, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine . . . .

Richard Ramirez’s chances at a normal life were greatly reduced by biology, but his environment certainly did not lead him toward a good future. Julian was a very abusive father and Richard witnessed him beating his older brother on several occasions. In spite of the violence and negativity that he faced every, people in his life thought of him as “a good boy” until he was about ten years old. (Bruno, 2012) Around that time, Richard’s Cousin Michael, a former Green Beret for the United States military, returned to El Paso from Vietnam. Richard and Mike spent most of their time together doing drugs and discussing the violence that Mike experienced during his deployment. Mike told him about the women who he beat, tortured, and raped just for pleasure, and Richard was very intrigued with his gruesome details and photos. At age

He broke into a building ,and beat up the kid who ratted on him. “on page 7 the text states he bragged about the break-in at school. He beat up the boy who turned him in. He is beaten by his father and his parents are both alcoholics.

The odds are stacked upon Luis Rodriguez, an upcoming sixteen year old that has found himself in the world of gangs. Luis is a human, and it is expected that he would make many mistakes in his life, however when given choices, he always seems to choose the wrong one and never learns from his mistakes. The theme of Luis Rodriguez’s autobiography, “Always Running,” is that many people feel like they are alone in the world, and that the world is always against them, but there will always be people that will stand in your corner and help them achieve what they were meant for. He proves this by including examples from his childhood and the mistakes he has made and the supports he has had.

On March 2, 1793 Sam Houston was born on the family plantation in Rockbridge County, Virginia. His father’s name was also Samuel Houston and his mother was Elizabeth Houston. He was of Scotch-Irish decent and the family was Presbyterian. He received a simple education at a school which he only attended for only about six months. When Houston was thirteen his father died. Because of the loss, in the spring of 1807 he and his mother along with his five brothers and three sisters to Maryville in Blount County in Eastern Tennessee were the family established a farm on a tributary of Baker’s Creek. Houston went to a nearby school for the time. In 1809 Houston ran away to the Cherokees in 1809 because he did not want to work on the family farm or the store the family ran. He went across the Tennessee River and lived with the Cherokees for three years with Chief Oolooteka who adopted him and gave him the Indian name Colonneh, which means “the Raven.” Houston viewed him as a father and the tribe as a surrogate family. Because of this he had great sympathy for Native Americans for the rest of his life.

The movie Boyz N the Hood is an illustration of how a group of early adolescents’ lives was affected negatively due to the environment they lived in. These adolescents lived in an environment where drugs, gangs, and shootings were the center of their community. Living in a predominantly African American community these adolescents were faced with many misfortunes. Ricky one of the adolescent characters I have decided to evaluate for this particular paper was faced with adversity.

He’s gotten better in speaking and understanding English, but nowhere in school. Continuously being suspended or kicked out of school, he gave up, being rejected wherever he went came with a hard attitude and a tougher shell which didn’t work out with teachers and his parents. Being so young and already exposed to sex, heartbreaks, drugs, violence, and suicidal thoughts, how could it? Gang after gang he finally stuck to Lomas, going through tough initiations, friends dying, gang wars, and going in and out of jail. Later on, he takes interest to go back to school with the help of adults who knew he could do so much more, even though that process of staying in school would be a bumpy one. Finally, he sticks to Mark Keppel High School, where his life starts to slowly change for the better. He joined a school program for Chicanos called To.H.M.A.S, became the male mascot for the school, and later became the president of To.H.M.A.S. He was doing better than ever, but gang problems still lingered and unfairness to Chicano students at the school caused Luis to take action. There were ups and downs, trying to get the two rival gangs Lomas and Sangra to make amends and have peace wouldn’t last long, and Luis still got into trouble with the police, of course for being Mexican was a big part of it. Back and forth he battled with getting through high school years, but in the end he was able to graduate and win 250 bucks

He talked about his dad getting put into prison when he was a baby. He goes on about the fights he has gotten into. His mother couldn’t take care of him because she was going through her own problems. He and his stepfather didn’t get along so he lived with a lot of family members. He began doing drugs while he was in seventh grade.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is known by many people as the best basketball player ever to play the game. Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls, helping them obtained six championship titles in eight years. Now remembered for being the best and the most popular athlete in the sports world. He had a great influence on the people. "Jordan was just another great legend" (Stein 2). Being a role model on and off the court Jordan showed his abilities to play the game and his kindness towards other people, especially those who admired him the most. "His widespread appeal to fans has helped keep basketball one of the world's most popular spectator sports" (Stein 1).

Growing up in Harlem isn’t easy in the 1980’s. In this era, you were either selling crack or doing it. So far, I was the only boy on my block that was actually going to school. My mama always watched me out the window and yelled “Boy you better hurry up and get your behind to school”. She was on top of me because she didn’t want me to end up like my older brothers. My older brothers, Javon and Tyler, were good people until they hung around the wrong crowd. They took the easier way to get money but then they had a pretty rough downfall. Javon is doing 10 years in jail for murder and Tyler is doing 4 years for getting caught selling drugs. Mama wanted me to be the opposite of those fools and actually go to college and get a good job. My dad

After dropping out of high school in his sophomore year, Steven attempted to get a job, but without a diploma or a license this was just close to impossible for him. In desperate need of a job, to support his growing family, Steven took to the streets and made money the only way he knew how. After several months, he was living the good life, until the day came that changed his life forever. He ended up selling drugs to an undercover police officer and was sent to jail for three years.