WEEK 9: Black and White

In the book Black and White, Paul Volponi uses many of his personal experiences working with prisoners in his work. Although many critics may argue that Volponi is exploiting these experiences with disadvantaged people, I believe that he is doing just the opposite and is paying tribute to the struggles that some people face. Volponi worked in Rikers Island, where he witnessed that the overwhelming majority of inmates were black or hispanic, and were in poor living conditions. He places Marcus in this area in order to show the unbalance between blacks and white, and to further illustrate the line that separates black and white. In this scene, Volponi is paying tribute to those who were incarcerated, not expoiting them for entertainment in his book. Volponi later uses the experience he had a with a crazy drunk man on a subway train going off on a racial tirade. Volponi uses this experience and has Eddie and Marcus witness this man, and while all of their friends find it funny, it strikes a certain spot in Marcus and Eddie's hearts, thus showing that Volponi is paying tribute to the lessons that he learned from this man's racial ignorance. Finally, Volponi uses his experience as a basketball coach in a game where a fight broke out and a student was killed for no reason to further drive home the seriousness that the lines between black and white has drawn. Volponi uses these experiences in his work to teach lessons about racial divides to students, thus paying tribute to those who took part in these times in his own life.