Lost Boys Essay, Research Paper

Lost Boys

Part 1

The book Lost Boys was written by James Garbarino to show people why there is so much violence with our boys and how some of this can and should be avoided with a little love. This book tells all the reasons why boy turn out the way they do and how it can be stopped.

In the past decade it is know that violence has been highly increase in the large cities and in smaller towns as well In fact ?the period from the 1980?s to the 1990?s when the youth homicide rate increase by 168%?(p.7) people finally started to notice something was wrong. This high increase of violence with in boys is due to the fact the boys everywhere are angrier causing them to be more violent than ever before.

In most of these crimes it is true that African Americans and Hispanic boys are most likely to be involved, but more of this violence is starting to spread to the smaller towns and involving white children. Even though a lot of parents don?t think that any kind of shooting could take place where their children are, the chances are very high that there is a boy at any school that is capable of a shooting. ?Virtually all parents send their kids to school with children who are maltreated rejected ignored or abandon.?(p.ix)

Many people believe that the reason that one boy will go out and kill another boy is just because ?they were on drugs or they were abused or even that they were just brought up in a family of criminals?(p.10) so they will be one as well. All these things do have a great significance and make the chances of a boy to turn to crime, but the reason is actually a lot deeper then that. There is a kind of chain of evens that are illustrated in the book leading up to a boy killing or even becoming a psychopath.

The start to all this killing and violence begins when the boy just a little baby first born. If a baby is not shown the proper love or never feels loved then there is a bond that the baby will be missing while growing up. For instance when a baby is left unattended and crying for hours the child will get more and more angry and that will get stored up inside, which in turn can shut of a baby?s sole. As the child gets older and the same things continue to happen the boys will turn angrier and bitter. Which then they need a way to coop with this anger and ?violence is a way for boys to deal with those problems.?(p.46) They will also do things such as: ?take drugs, steal, gorge themselves on sex, join gangs or cults, and when no one is watching they will hide in a corner and such there thumbs.?(p.158)

The book also goes on about things like child abuse and about a child?s moral values and how when a child is abuse or raised us in families like already described then they really don?t have any moral values to live there life on.

The last part of the book explains why with all this stuff can be stopped. Religion was one of the biggest things. ?Spirituality and love can fill in the holes left in the story of a boy?s life.?(p.155) The other thing was that kids just need a connection to make and fell loved and that will help them be more goal oriented. ?We can save our sons?by connecting them to positive values and relationships.?(P.149)

Part 2

Well because this book was all written by the Authors ideas, every thing that has already been written was what he thought and were his ideas that he had gotten from going around to different boy?s in prison and finding out the stories of there lives.

One of the big things that the author amplified was when a boy had to grow up with out a father it leads the ?boy to be the man of the house.?(p.50) This idea of being a man leads the boy to have to be protective and violent. Also with out a father ?why should a boy listen to there mother, there not scared of her,?(p.57) so a boy?s mother couldn?t stop the boy?s from doing anything.

Another thing that the Author had to stress upon was the fact that even if a boy is brought up bad ?then at least a teacher in school could show them some love and compassion?(p.74) and then at least the boy will have been shown some love. Even being show this little bit of love can change a person. The last be thing the author thought was that by ?loving punishment?(p.87) a boy would learn better what was right from wrong and help them to be more moral in there life choices.

Part 3

As I read this book I started out feeling like these kids are just dirty criminals and should all be killed, but as I read I change my opinion. I learned a lot about why many of these children anywhere from 8 years old to grow men at 35 years old will kill somebody or commit a violent act.

The lay out of this book really helped me grasp the different ideas and chain of events that take place in a boy life to lead them to this life of crime. After reading this book I really don?t see how any one can judge a boy for doing the things he does when they have been raised with no love or with no father and a mother who is never around. There was a saying in the book ? who the hell are they to take a human life??(p.121) but when they have been raised that way then they really don?t know what is right or wrong. ?Cultures and societies set different standers for the morality of killing.?(p.123)

Also I like the way that the author ended the book with the ways to prevent this further violence with in boys, but there was something sad that I realized: As all these boys grow up they will just keep having kids and do the same thing to there kids that was done to them and so on. So incense this epidemic will never stop or go away.