Street Soldier Essay, Research Paper

Street Soldier

Street Soldier, by Joseph Marshall, is a inspiring well written book. The book is about his life and how he started the Omega Boys Club. The Omega Boys Club is a club that helps keep inter city kids off the streets. There is a connection between the author’s life and certain events in the novel. For example his personality traits, his special skills, what he has done for society, and what his day-to-day existence has done for other people, you will also see how his work has greatly effected him.

Joseph has many good personal traits he is ambitious, he is a hard worker, and he doesn’t give up easily. For instance, in the novel he is talking about how he is a teacher and how he devoted all his extracurricular time to his class. For an example take this quote, “I practically lived at that school, devoting most of my extra curricular time to the BSU”(pg. 33). The quote shows how hard he works and how dedicated he is to what he does. Marshall is a teacher at the SFU (San Francisco Unified School District). In the quote above it mentions the BSU (Black Student Union) which is an organization for black students at the University of San Francisco. Marshall is an ambitious person Marshall sees great plans for the future and he is ambitious enough to make them come true. For an example “Jack, we’ve got to do it. We’ve got to do it now” (pg. 46). In the quote he is talking about starting the Omega Boys Club and how he is going to do it. He is going to start the Omega Boys Club, and his attitude is that,” nothing is going to stop me, so are you with me or not?”

These are just some of the characteristics that Marshall has, but his strongest character is that he doesn’t give up. Marshall doesn’t give up he can’t it is not in his nature. For example ‘”Naw,” I shot back. ‘Not Roynell. Can’t be. I’m going to go see him. Just talk to him a bit”‘(pg. 46). This quote is talking about a kid that Marshall spent a lot of time working on just to get back on track, and then he finds out that this kid is out selling drugs on the streets again. Many people would have given up on the kid but not Marshall. Marshall wanted to talk to the kid he wasn’t just going to give up on him he was going to try and fix it, he was going to try to get the kid back on track.

Marshall is skilled in the area of working with people. His whole life revolves around people. With the boys club and being a teacher he is around people all day and he helps them all, whether with their history or with every day life. For example “We required the kids to bring a written definition of a new word to every meeting, emphasizing language and tying it into history”(pg. 58). This quote shows how he was helping the kids academically. Academics weren’t Marshalls main concerns but he wanted to feed them with everything he possibly could. His main concerns were to keep the kids alive and drug free. These are some of the reasons that Marshall started the club, he wanted to get the inter city kids to stop “Gangbangen”.

The lists for what Marshall has done for society are almost endless. Marshall has devoted his whole life to society. He has and is still getting kids to stop “Gangbangen”. For example “We’re about keeping our grades up and staying away from drugs and learning about black history, you have a lot of things to be proud of as a black person”(pg. 50″). This is were it all started. It started with sixteen boys that were willing to give up there inter city lives. Marshall and Jack (Jack is the person that helped Marshall get the boys club under way ) were the ones that guided these boys out of there inter city life, and with the help of the sixteen boys the crowd grew from sixteen to sixty.

Marshall has done more in his life than ten people put together. One way to put it is he has lived more than on life, he has accomplished so much in his da-to-day existence he has saved kids from drugs, he has saved them from selling drugs, and from shootings. Foe example “So I made a decision not to sell drugs any more. I