A Brothers Murder
A Brother’s Murder Could you imagine losing your brother or a loved one to violence? In “A Brother’s Murder”, Brent Staples loses his brother due to the street life and hustler image that his brother portrayed upon himself. Staples grew up in Chester, Pennsylvania in a heavily black, poor, and violent industrial city. His brother Blake adapted to the street life and hustler image to prove how manly he was. As Staples grew older he didn’t like the life in a poor and violent neighborhood so he left his hometown for a better life and moved to Chicago. In Chicago Staples went to college to pursue his career in becoming a journalist. When Staples was about to begin to help his Brother Blake’s life in the right path he received a call that his brother had been murdered. When he heard the news that his brother had been murdered he blamed himself for his brother’s death causing him to suffer from sleep issues and depression he questions himself if he would have taken action on the issue, would there have been a better chance of his brother living a different life? Even though it wasn’t his responsibility to help his brother, he tried because of the love he had for his brother, but the street life took over. In other words, the street life is to blame for Blake’s death. A close friend of his who became his enemy due to them being from rival gangs was the man who murdered him. At one point Staple’s states, “The two had once been inseparable friends” (526). Blake and his friend were inseparable until they joined rival gang and became enemies. If he was not involved in gangs and stayed away from all the trouble he would’ve had a greater chance in being alive. It doesn’t matter where you grew up, what counts is who you surround yourself with and who you let in your life. If you hang out with good people you will go on the right path but if you hang out with the wrong people chances will be you
Cited: Staples, Brent. “A Brother’s Murder”. Fawcett, Susan, Ed. Evergreen. 9th ed. Australia: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.