Down These Mean Streets Essay

There are many different kinds of people who live in NYC. These people have their own perspectives of what life is growing up in the city. Some may think that its the safest place in the world; that the streets arent bad as others, that the crimes are nothing. To them that is their lifestyle and would never change it. Others, well they may have different thoughts on that. They may think that the lifestyle is not the safest and that the streets have a negative effect on their children and they prefer a different lifestyle. In Piri Thomas book, Down These Mean Streets, Piri Thomas expresses the streets of Harlem to us through his own eyes. Piri Thomas writes about the many different things he had to overcome in the streets, his form of survival, and how he made it through every fall. Likewise in Miguel Pineros poem, Bury my Ashes on the Lower East Side, Miguel Pinero expresses the streets through his eyes as well. For the most part both writers have experienced similar struggles in their lives in the streets of NYC; the mean streets of NYC. Growing up in NYC can be pretty rough, and to some the streets become their best friends and can be the only form of survival; sometimes the best friend can turn on you, become mean, and then they arent as beautiful as they first seemed.

Piri Thomas struggled throughout his childhood. He grew up on the mean streets of Harlem. There was a lot of racism going while he was growing up. He didnt know where he would fit in. His family coastally kept moving. Piri Thomas was confused, young and helpless not knowing where to go, who to associate himself with. What he thought was good at the time was the complete opposite. At times when were younger we struggle to fit in, especially when one moves to neighborhoods where one is the complete outcast and for the most the part thats how Piri Thomas felt as a young kid. Not knowing the difference between good and bad he aimed for what he thought and felt was cool and a form to fit in. Piri Thomas didnt really have a good father figure in his life. As we all know his father did not really pay any attention to him and when he did it was because he was in trouble. Having a strong father figure is something important in life. A father for a guy is what makes them; the father teaches the son the difference between good and bad. Likewise same aspects go with Miguel Pinero. His father was never in his life. His father had abandon his family when he was young and generally speaking even though Piri Thomas had a father in his life, his father was more like a body at times and you could say that his father as well abandoned him when he was young as well. Both really had no father figures and this is why they turned to the streets. It was like a call for help, a call for attention; they were screaming for help, for their fathers throughout the whole process. Furthermore, Piri Thomas and Miguel Pinero both had similar family financial struggles but in different predicaments.

Piri Thomas and his family struggled during the great depression. Piri Thomass father had got laid off his job. The family struggled and had to ask the city for help. Afterwards the family managed to pick themselves up after a couple of months. On the contrary, Miguel Pineros family was put into a more serious predicament. Miguel Pineros father as mentioned before had left his family. The family was put into the streets for while and his mother being five months pregnant. The family lived on welfare and this predicament is what led Miguel Pinero to turn to the streets for survival. Miguel Pinero turned to the streets and the streets became his friend, his best friend, and relied on it for the survival of him and his family. Likewise Piri Thomas turned to the streets for survival for himself, not for his family.

Piri Thomas left his house after his family moved to Long Island and chose to live on this own. He started to turn towards drugs to help him ease the pain. As well, he started to sell drugs in order to survive. The mean streets were his best friend, the one person he could turn to and be able to do anything. He turned to whatever possible to survive; even if it meant he had to steal or to kill someone. The streets were what made him, him. The streets were his home and he didnt care what anyone had to say about it. At times he knew that they were bad but he had to what he had to do in order to survive. On the other hand, Miguel Pinero as said before did turn to the streets in forms of survival but for his family. Miguel Pinero would steal in order for his family to survive. He turned to the mean streets not for himself and him knowing what was behind it and what could happen. The streets introduced him to a new set of friends; a gang. Then suddenly he started hustling the streets just as Piri Thomas was doing. Both at first were different, they were turning to the streets for different reasons at the beginning. Then they both caught up to each other, and turned to the streets as their own form of survival for themselves. Eventually their actions caught up to them. Their best friends turned on them, became mean and ugly; they werent as beautiful as they first seemed.

Both Piri Thomas and Miguel Pinero had large impacts in their lives. Both ended up in jail because of their actions on the streets. While Piri Thomas was in jail once, Miguel Pinero was in jail several times. Jail to both was a major turning point for them in their lives. Both wrote while in jail and expressed their feelings while serving their time. Even though both predicaments on why they ended up in jail differ in slight ways the main reason why they ended in there was because of the streets; the streets that they considered their friend. The streets backstabbed them and landed them somewhere where they never expected. Afterwards they both changed their lives for the good.

Piri Thomas got his life together and stopped with the drug abuse. He didnt let the pressure of anyone mess up his mentality. Jail had really got to him and made him think. It made him realize how mean the streets really; that the streets werent the way of survival. On the other hand Miguel Pinero got out of jail and his mother made sure he finished school so that he wouldnt have to live the life on the streets again. Both men became writers expressing what they have had experience. In some ways they were similar and in others they werent. Both took different paths in their lives which differentiates them.

Piri Thomas became a writer and wrote his book Down These Mean Streets. He let us into his life through his eyes in the mean streets of Harlem. Miguel Pinero became a writer and an actor. Writing various books and starring in many different movies and television shows. They both differed in many ways; and they both were similar in their ways.

Growing up on the streets of NYC are not as easy as they may seem. Sometimes people can sugarcoat the reality and make it into a fantasy. Both Piri Thomas and Miguel Pinero have showed us how hard life can be on the streets and why some turn to the streets as forms of survival. Sometimes some do not have it as easy as some others may. They both defiantly painted a bigger picture to everyone who doesnt really know how mean, how harsh the streets can be. Even though they look friendly, they can be mean as well. Then again you will never know what life really is unless you explore but with limits and Piri Thomas and Miguel Pinero show us what the limits are. We all want to see out families happy and we want to be happy but at times happiness turns into something thats not expected. At the end they both overcame their predicaments and changed for the best.