Black & White

Do I think that Black and White pays tribute to true life experiences, or exploits them? I believe that this book pays tribute to the consequences of crime and the reasoning behind why good kids do bad things. It's easier to swallow the idea of why Eddie and Marcus held up a man at gunpoint if we understand the motive. When we, as readers, can learn the background of a convict, we can then understand why they thought it was reasonable to commit a certain crime. This is not to say that we should accept their crime, or that we should justify it, but it should say that young people react certain ways, sometimes negatively, because something has been done to them to cause that reaction. A lot of young teens who dabble in crime do so for reasons such as nobody cares about them at home, they don't have enough money, they've been pressured into it and want to fit in, they want attention, etc. There are a lot of reasons behind why teens commit crimes; I believe this story pays tribute to it so that we can see what kids this young deal with, and how they decide to respond to it.