Chapters 19, 20, 21 and 22 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 19 - This chapter begins with the author's encounter with Maria (see Chapters 3 and 8), who is unable to stop using drugs but is still able to call for help in preventing a drug-related murder. The author then develops a careful analysis of how teenagers become addicted to drugs and what happens to them - how drug dealers choose the loneliest children as their targets to increase their clientele, how those children become dealers themselves to pay for their own habits, and how the body and spirit both break down after long-term addiction. The author illustrates his story by referring to the examples of several young people who are either so lost in their addiction that they can see no other way of living, or who attempt to break their addiction but end up returning to it. He also discusses...