145th street is a novel that is based around many themes. Throughout the book we see human struggles and when you think that the story ends horribly, friendship, and love intervene. Their are 10 stories in this novel and I will explain the themes of each.
Big Joe's Funeral
The theme of this chapter is that life can have its funny moments but life is hard and we have to take it seriously. Joe struggles to gain his step daughter's love, but that is why we have to take life seriously because there are always bumps in the road. In the end of this chapter Peaches learns to accept Big Joe as her stepfather. Life has circumstances and eventually we will learn to accept this.
The Baddest Dog in Harlem
This story really shows how violence can change someone's life forever. After the police shot the building and killed the boy it changed his family's life. One moment everything is fine then in a heartbeat the world turns black and someones life changes for the worst. The world can be a heartless place, but we must learn not to be heartless.
Fighter
The theme of this story is that we have to drive ourselves to the highest point to support our family, who we care about. Billy fights though he knows he can be injured for his family to live a good life. The adults tend to struggle for their family and will do anything for the sake of the family's best interest. Adults must drive theirselves to the fullest for their family but, it is the greatest reward to see that the family had everything they needed to live a good life.
Angela's Eyes
The theme of this story is that we are all scared and tend to believe what we are told. Angela is believed to be the source of deaths in Harlem but it is only rumors that cause such a big stir. Mainly when a majority of people says one thing, people tend to believe it when its not really the truth and when things become coincidental this can be a a bad thing. Angela is believed to have eyes that can make death occur, but the people in this story tend to be so scared they start to believe this, though its not true. We must not mistake facts for rumors.
The Streak
This story shows that everyone has their days wheter lucky or terrible, superstition leads Jamie in this story to believe that he has a lucky week after having a bad week. Once again the superstition seems real because of coincidental occurrences of luck. Everything is unexpected, so when you wake up it might be a good day or just a bad one.
Monkeyman
The theme of this story is, when someone is in need help and it is none of your business you should help no matter what trouble your getting your self into. Mack takes this risk to help out his friend Peaches. It is always good to stand up for yourself and when the time comes you will know what to do even if it means getting beat up, you did it for helping someone and that is the greatest satisfaction someone would ever want. Mack knew he had to take the beating, but he knew it was his life and he could lead it the way he wanted not being afraid.
Kitty and Mack: A Love Story
This story is one that represented the change in someones life that occurred in a short moment. Mack loses his legs in a drive by shooting and goes from becoming the nice athletic kid, to become a nonsocial, stubborn kid. He doesn't accept the fact that he is the same on the inside. It also shows that though something is different about you physically, inside your the same person, but you just need to accept that fact. Love is stronger than anything and it can heal wounds in your heart so you are willing to accept this change and willing to live the rest of your life as you were before this incident occurred. Kitty's love for Mack healed his emotional wound.
A Christmas Story
The story's theme is one person can make a huge difference. Mother Fletcher makes a difference by trying to change peoples opinion of Harlem one by one. She starts by forming a bond with police officer O' Brien who calls an ambulance for Mother Fletcher and she tends to make O' Brien interested in their conversations because he takes notes of what she says. Mother Fletcher asks Officer O'Brien to bring his family and stop by her house for Christmas, but he wishes not to go because he believes that Harlem is bad and to go there on a holiday is like work but Mother Fletcher changes his opinion of that. Not everything you hear is true, because there may be a thousand bad people in a city but there is always a good one on every corner.
A Story in Three Parts
This story's theme is, running from your problems is never a solution, just because your not caught now doesn't mean eventually you wont. At the end your true colors will show. The story's character Big Time consumes drugs to get rid of his problems but he doesn't learn that running away wont solve anything. At the end when Big time and Benny are stuck on the roof that is on fire, he thinks if he stayed and died it wouldn't matter but it would and so at the end his true colors showed because he became brave and saved Benny first and at the end he made a new friend.
Block Party- 145 Street Style
This story shows that you should be grateful for having what you have because some people have very little or nothing at all and you need to appreciate these things in life. Peaches hates her stepfather and when she goes to see J.T and his mother they have nothing and his mother is so cold and shriveled, that its sad and J.T begins to get mad and Peaches cries. Peaches learns at the end that she is thankful for her stepfather, for her friends, and for everything she has.
By: Mohamed Hassan
Big Joe's Funeral
The theme of this chapter is that life can have its funny moments but life is hard and we have to take it seriously. Joe struggles to gain his step daughter's love, but that is why we have to take life seriously because there are always bumps in the road. In the end of this chapter Peaches learns to accept Big Joe as her stepfather. Life has circumstances and eventually we will learn to accept this.
The Baddest Dog in Harlem
This story really shows how violence can change someone's life forever. After the police shot the building and killed the boy it changed his family's life. One moment everything is fine then in a heartbeat the world turns black and someones life changes for the worst. The world can be a heartless place, but we must learn not to be heartless.
Fighter
The theme of this story is that we have to drive ourselves to the highest point to support our family, who we care about. Billy fights though he knows he can be injured for his family to live a good life. The adults tend to struggle for their family and will do anything for the sake of the family's best interest. Adults must drive theirselves to the fullest for their family but, it is the greatest reward to see that the family had everything they needed to live a good life.
Angela's Eyes
The theme of this story is that we are all scared and tend to believe what we are told. Angela is believed to be the source of deaths in Harlem but it is only rumors that cause such a big stir. Mainly when a majority of people says one thing, people tend to believe it when its not really the truth and when things become coincidental this can be a a bad thing. Angela is believed to have eyes that can make death occur, but the people in this story tend to be so scared they start to believe this, though its not true. We must not mistake facts for rumors.
The Streak
This story shows that everyone has their days wheter lucky or terrible, superstition leads Jamie in this story to believe that he has a lucky week after having a bad week. Once again the superstition seems real because of coincidental occurrences of luck. Everything is unexpected, so when you wake up it might be a good day or just a bad one.
Monkeyman
The theme of this story is, when someone is in need help and it is none of your business you should help no matter what trouble your getting your self into. Mack takes this risk to help out his friend Peaches. It is always good to stand up for yourself and when the time comes you will know what to do even if it means getting beat up, you did it for helping someone and that is the greatest satisfaction someone would ever want. Mack knew he had to take the beating, but he knew it was his life and he could lead it the way he wanted not being afraid.
Kitty and Mack: A Love Story
This story is one that represented the change in someones life that occurred in a short moment. Mack loses his legs in a drive by shooting and goes from becoming the nice athletic kid, to become a nonsocial, stubborn kid. He doesn't accept the fact that he is the same on the inside. It also shows that though something is different about you physically, inside your the same person, but you just need to accept that fact. Love is stronger than anything and it can heal wounds in your heart so you are willing to accept this change and willing to live the rest of your life as you were before this incident occurred. Kitty's love for Mack healed his emotional wound.
A Christmas Story
The story's theme is one person can make a huge difference. Mother Fletcher makes a difference by trying to change peoples opinion of Harlem one by one. She starts by forming a bond with police officer O' Brien who calls an ambulance for Mother Fletcher and she tends to make O' Brien interested in their conversations because he takes notes of what she says. Mother Fletcher asks Officer O'Brien to bring his family and stop by her house for Christmas, but he wishes not to go because he believes that Harlem is bad and to go there on a holiday is like work but Mother Fletcher changes his opinion of that. Not everything you hear is true, because there may be a thousand bad people in a city but there is always a good one on every corner.
A Story in Three Parts
This story's theme is, running from your problems is never a solution, just because your not caught now doesn't mean eventually you wont. At the end your true colors will show. The story's character Big Time consumes drugs to get rid of his problems but he doesn't learn that running away wont solve anything. At the end when Big time and Benny are stuck on the roof that is on fire, he thinks if he stayed and died it wouldn't matter but it would and so at the end his true colors showed because he became brave and saved Benny first and at the end he made a new friend.
Block Party- 145 Street Style
This story shows that you should be grateful for having what you have because some people have very little or nothing at all and you need to appreciate these things in life. Peaches hates her stepfather and when she goes to see J.T and his mother they have nothing and his mother is so cold and shriveled, that its sad and J.T begins to get mad and Peaches cries. Peaches learns at the end that she is thankful for her stepfather, for her friends, and for everything she has.
By: Mohamed Hassan
