Structure

Ta-Nehisi Coates lays out the memoir of his early years in elementary and high school in basically a chronological order. However, there are passages that are stream-of-consciousness that blend different times of his life and of the black experience. He first writes about being a lost boy who had been lied to a reference to the focus of the nation on the Challenger disaster and the S&L failure instead of on the perpetual suffering of the black community. He discusses the real peril that waited outside their door. The perils to which young black boys were most vulnerable included the crack era that hit the impoverished black streets of the U.S. including Ta-Nehisi’s West Baltimore community and the menacing gangs that preyed upon boys unaffiliated with gangs. The boys and their parents knew the odds – black boys were at great risk than any other...