Amazing Grace Essay Research Paper Within the

about the value of such children to an unsupportive nation. Amazing Grace reveals the

hearts of children who grow up in the SouthBronx–and has produced, perhaps, the most

affecting book in trying to portray the problems faced by poor Americans.

Many people would like to believe in the phrase, NIMBY(Not in My Back Yard),

when thinking of the poor and destitute in America. I believe that in his book Amazing

Grace, Kozol has made the important point that poor children that have no opportunities

for an education and the hope it can give them don’t just live in the ghettos of the inner

city. They can be found in every state, in every city, town and rural area. You don’t have

to go to New York to find them, it is just a matter of paying attention to your own

backyard. As I read this book I thought about all of the creative and brilliant ideas that I

have been expose to over the years and how I would not have the chance to benefit from

them if I were a poor child, not given the chance to properly learn and grow, like those

of Kozol?s book in Mott Haven. As a country, we don’t seem to understand yet that each

person, regardless of who they are or where they came from, has something to teach us. If

the children and adults like those Kozol describes had the chance to write, sing, do

scientific experiments, start businesses, just imagine what we could gain. I was thoroughly

moved by the stories of the people in Amazing Grace. I can see hoe it might be possible

to see this book as manipulating and only telling on part of the story. It could be argued

that this book unfairly blames the government, society and particularly New York Mayor

Guilliani for the problems in the Bronx. There was little discussion about how much of the

situation was owned by the people in the story. Regardless you would still have to feel

badly for the people in the book, especially the children.

The fact remains that the children in this book defy the stereotypes of urban youth

too frequently presented by the media. They are tender, generous and often religiously

devout, they speak with eloquence and honesty about the poverty and racial isolation that

have wounded but not hardened them, such as Anthony did through out the book. The

book does not romanticize or soften the effects of violence and sickness. I believe that

Kozol says at one point something like, one fourth of the child-bearing women in the

neighborhoods, where these children live, test positive for HIV. He also tell us that

Pediatric AIDS, life-consuming fires and gang rivalries take just as high a toll on this

society of Mott Haven. Several children, some 23, die during the year in which this

narrative takes place. I believe that Kozol has written a amazing piece of work here.

Amazing Grace asks questions that are at once political and theological. What is the value

of a child’s life? What exactly do we plan to do with those whom we appear to have

defined as economically and humanly disadvantaged? How cold, how cruel, how tough –

do we dare be? Why do we not seem to be able to fix it?