Epilogue Summary and Analysis

By his junior year at Brown, Cedric is indistinguishable from other Brown students. Carrying a B average, the old baggage is falling away, unfamiliar encounters are fewer and less stressful, and the initial confusion of college life and social interactions has virtually dissipated. Few students with Cedric's background make this journey successfully. Certainly, his former Ballou classmates have not. Latisha has quit school and is working for a fundamentalist church. Others who left for college have dropped out, and far more have taken the place of former dealers and criminals on the streets of Southeast D.C.

As for his parents, Cedric completed his drug program successfully and remains drug-free, living with his mother in D.C. Barbara's financial woes continued and she was eventually evicted. She has moved back to the house on 15th Street and is paying off her...