Children who develop low self-esteem will often become gang members to compensate for their feelings of insecurity and helplessness; gang membership offers the false sense of protection, control, and purpose. Participation in such violence demonstrates their toughness and proves their worth in the eyes of their peers” (247). We can learn that being part of a gang provides youth with feeling belong, and violent actions result in recognition and power, which substitute ever longing feelings of alienation and inferiority. But, even though youth with low self-esteem join gangs to compensate for those feelings, they will become even more hopeless and insecure after becoming gang members. For example, in Always Running, Rodriguez describes what he …show more content…
In a later stage of the book, Rodriguez’s describes how his hopelessness, in addition to the habit of substance abuse which he acquired through his gang-members, led him to attempt suicide. Rodriguez remembers his thought prior to the suicide attempt: “Everything lost its value for me: love, life, and women. Death seemed the only door worth opening, the only road toward a future” (125). Rodriguez’s disparity, and his engagement in constant violence, made him feel emotionally numb, as if everything in his life was pointless. Rodriguez feels that he has no reason to continue living life when he feels trapped, where death is the only exit point he can see. Also the former gang-member and writer of the article “A Need for Power and Respect Encourages Gang Behavior”, Isis Sapp-Grant, self-esteem seems to become worse in progressive stages of her gang involvement, even though she became extremely involved in gang-violence, because hurting others caused her to feel noticeable and