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A Hope In The Unseen By Ron Suskind Chapter by chapter summary

posted by jasemonet on 4/21 2:43 PM

A Hope In The Unseen By Ron Suskind Chapter by chapter summary

A Hope In the Unseen is an amazing book; it deals with race and class. I typed up the notes chapter by chapter. There not extremely detailed summaries, but it can be helpful to anyone who needs a review on the chapters of the book.

Chapter 1 - Something to push against

Chapter 2 - Don"'"t let them hurt your children

Chapter 3 - Rise and Shine

Chapter 4 - Skin deep

Chapter 5 - to him who endureth

Chapter 6 - the Pretender

Chapter 7- Good- Bye to Yesterday

Chapter 8 - Fierce intimacies

Chapter 9 - Bill Payer on Parade

Chapter 10 - A Bursting Heart

Chapter 11 - Back home

Chapter 12 - Let the Colors run

Chapter 13- A place up ahead

Chapter 14 - meeting the man

A Hope In The Unseen

By Ron Suskind

Chapter 1 - Something to push against

The chapter title something to push against is significant to what Cedric Jennings has go up against, his problems that he has to face to break free.

Chapter Summary: Students at Frank W. Ballou Senior High in Washington D.C gather together in the school gymnasium to hear a speech form Mayor Marion Barry. Mayor Barry is an African American man whom the teens as will as the citizens in the black community can connect with because he is just like them. The mayor was arrested after being caught in a hotel with some women and narcotics. When he was released the citizens voted him back into office. Ballou is one of the worst schools in Washington. Students are found dead in the school parking lot, and guns are pulled out on students frequently. At the school of Ballou the hierarchy are the gangs who are at the top of the social ladder, then it"'"s the athletes their numbers are scarce since the students must maintain a 2.0 grade point average to play in any sport. At Ballou it doesn"'"t pay to be different. Students that are highly intelligent get beaten up and ridiculed. Names such as cracker and white are common words from the student population used to describe them.

Cedric Lavar Jennings is a very bright young man. He is very poor and lives in the ghetto were he frequently hears gun shoots. His mother Barbara Jennings isn"'"t around a lot, she spends most of her time at work or a church. This leave Cedric to usually fin for him self; he cooks dinner for his mom so when she home for the period of time that she is she can relax. His also in charge of cleaning up the house and making sure that his work is completed. Cedric goes to school early so he can work with his chemistry teacher; Clarence Taylor, who helps him practice for the SAT"'"s. In order to reach out and help the kids at Ballou who want to learn they separate them from the students who don"'"t. Most teachers just hand out work sheets to the students, which really doesn"'"t help Cedric. The assistant principle Reggie Ballard looks at Cedric as '"' nothing but trouble.'"' And says that Cedric is '"' Quick tongue and too proud.'"' After Cedric complains to Mr. Ballard that one of his teachers Mr. Dorosti gave him a B+ on his midterm in computer science when he really desired an A.

The students at Ballou are like a crab in a bucket. The school represents the bucket and the students are the crabs. Every time some one tries to make it out the other students bring them down. Which results in no one really making it out. This is used to demonstrate Ballou students, the popular kids are so mean to students who are smart, that a lot of people would rather fail then show any sign of intelligent. Phillip Atkins use to be friends with Cedric but he decided that going through the ridicule that Cedric faces wasn"'"t worth it and he is now the class clown. One of the biggest things that scared Cedric is when he was sitting at the bus stop and a gang member came out of no where and pointed a gun to someone else"'"s head who also was waiting at the bus stop right in front of Cedric. This scared him to know that he isn"'"t safe that at any time some on can come and point gun to his head.

Chapter 2 - Don"'"t let them hurt your children

The significant about the chapter title is that Barbara has to protect Cedric from all the dangers of living in the ghetto.

Chapter Summary: Barbara Jennings is a single black mother with three children, two girls Nanette, or Neddy and Leslie, and then she has one boy Cedric, each child from a different man. Barbara"'"s family moved from Plumbranch, South Carolina to Washington when Barbara was three. Barbara is the third oldest out of seven siblings; She took on the responsibilities of taking care of the younger children when she was nine. She worked trying to win her parents affection that never came and she was neglected attention and abused by her family. They didn"'"t call it child abuse back then. Her parents were very poor and struggled to take care of seven children. Her father Maurice was a construction worker by day and a janitor by night. Her mother Janey Bell worked an evening shift as a cook. Her parents favored the children and all the boys got off easy.

Barbara looked to men as her comfort to find love. Cedric Gilliam (Cedric Jr. dad) had a very violent father; who had abused him and his mother when he was little. Cedric Sr. grows up robbing banks and selling drugs. On parole Cedric had gotten his bachelors degree in business from the D.C."'"s Federal City College. When Barbara told Cedric Sr. in 1976 that she was pregnant he made her chose between him and the inborn child. When Barbara choice her baby he walked out on her. Barbara had turned to the church for comfort. She