The South Shore of Chicago

The first part of the novel, Claude’s childhood, takes place on the South Shore of Chicago. He describes it as a very segregated place, with his dad’s friends “clustered near mass transportation” and his mom being from the Highlands, “a three-block chunk of South Shore reserved for black doctors, black politicians, black bankers, and black lawyers – all the rich people too dark-skinned for the suburbs, too poor to live downtown” (5). In the South Shore, it seems that movement is constant, with “people always coming and going and waiting and never leaving” (5). The South Shore became increasingly black throughout Claude’s parents’ lives due to white flight and “manicured suburbs” (5).

During Claude’s childhood, a gang called the Redbelters seems to rule the South Shore, recruiting children at Claude’s school to join them in dealing drugs and standing up to the police...