Isaiah Willis Studium 004

Was Sharon Flake thinking about Chicago when she wrote her book BANG?
I say this because so many of the events in her book are happening in Chicago today..Young people are being shot and dying on the streets almost every week in their neighborhood, in the parks where they play, on the way to and from school. Some are being shot just because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just like Jason the main character, Mann’s, little brother. Jason was playing outside his house and a man was chasing another one with a gun and Jason was the victim. He was hit by the bullet and died. The first chapter of the books begins with the statement, “They kill people where they live, they shoot them for no real reason”
That is what happened to Jason, he was shot for no real reason. The death of Jason drove his mother almost crazy and his father tried to force
Mann to grow up too soon. He wanted him to be tough and act like a man. Maybe he wanted this because he wanted him to survive living where he lived and not be killed like his brother. Sharon Flake starts her book with the poem, “Boys Ain’t Men…
Not Yet. Did Mann’s father realize that when he took him and his best friend
Keelee on a camping trip. Going camping was not something that they had done before. They were used to hanging out around their house, so when they heard about camping they thought that this would be great. They did not have any idea about his father’s real plan. What does it mean to act like a man? Did he want him to know how to make the right decisions to stay safe? Did he want him to be able to take care of himself and not depend on him. Dad would always tell Mann “Men don’t …..” and Mann would tell him “I ain’t no man” What was Dad’s real plan? Mann and Keelee soon started to see that camping was not so great after all.
They did not like sleeping on the ground in a tent or being bitten by bugs all the time.
Most of all they did not have much to eat. Mann was surprised to find out that

his father brought a gun. Was this what he meant by becoming a man and being tough? Mann didn’t want to shoot it but Keelee didn’t have any problem with shooting it. Keelee was different from Mann, he really was tough. Mann was always telling
Keelee when he was doing wrong, like stealing and smoking weed. Mann seemed to be a decent kid, trying to do the right things and keeping his friend on the right track.
He was a big brother to Jason and he looked up to him. But dad thought that he was not tough enough and wanted him to change. On the night when there was a big thunderstorm. Dad’s plan started. Dad got in his truck and left the boys in the leaking tent. The boys had no idea that they were being left at the camp ground.
They thought that Dad was going to get some supplies because it was raining in their leaky tent, no flashlight, no food. They were really scared and wanted him to hurry back. They waited for hours and no Dad. The next morning still no Dad. They were left with only the gun. Was this being a man, leaving two fourteen old boys with no way to get home? They knew they had to come up with their own plan to get home. They got some help with food from a man and his wife at the camp who fixed them something to eat. The boys did not want to tell them that they were left.
They needed to put a plan to work. They knew now that Dad was not coming back. The boys started walking, stopping only to eat some apples they found in an orchard. They kept walking and ran into some people who tried to hurt them. The more he walked the more Mann began to hate his father for leaving him and
Keelee alone, not knowing how to get home. They saw a diner and tried to call home but help was not coming. They knew that they were on their own. They walked and started to occupy their time drawing pictures. Both Mann and Keelee were good artists but they did not know how good they really were until now. In a few days they got back home but they did not want to go home, especially Mann who hated is dad for leaving them. Things changed for Mann and Keelee, was this what Dad wanted to happen to them? Was this making them men, not wanting to go home? The boys had no other place to go but to Keelee’s Aunt Mary. She lived in a house that had a bad reputation.
Aunt Mary had the boys make deliveries to pay for living there. She gave them a place to stay but really did not care for them. She proved that when the boys were ripped off and did not have the money to take back to Aunt Mary. She started to put them out, until she saw how well they could paint and had them paint peoples’s houses and drew pictures on their walls. Aunt Mary kept most of the money. Living with Keelee’s aunt helped them survive until Keelee got shot and killed by a man whose house they had painted. The man didn’t want to pay what the boys wanted and Keelee got mad and pulled out the gun and the man shot him before Keelee could shoot. Mann really had to grow up now, he had no place to go. He wanted to go home but he could not face his dad. His paintings gave him a way out. A man saw some of his work and gave his a chance to sell them at his shop, this gave Mann a chance to make money and survive. Now he needed a place to stay and thought about the place where his favorite horse ,Journey lived. His dad took him horseback riding when he was little and Journey was his favorite horse. When he got to the stable it was closed down and Journey and another horse were the only ones there. They were real skinny and looked sick. Mann was able to buy food for the horses and save their lives. But something went wrong, he bought hot dogs and other food that horses don’t eat and made them sick before their lives were saved. Mann sees his Dad one day when he went to buy food. When he first saw him he tried to hide, but his Dad saw him. Dad was glad to see him and started to apologize for what he had done. Mann really did not want to hear it. When Dad found out were Mann was staying he went there. He found out what he had given
Journey to eat and helped his save him. Mann slowly started to get used to his Dad again but he was different. He knew how to do things for himself. Dad knew that he was wrong leaving Keelee and Mann alone. Mann was not the same and Dad knew it. Mann he was not a man either, he was still a teenager and needed someone to help show his how to do things. Boys need to depend on Dad’s to show them the way, the right way. Mann’s dad had to learn this the hard way. He was now able to see “ A Boy Ain’t A Man…Not Yet.”