Journal 5 : Chapter 17 Alia Eddauod

1.      Clarett's reputation and proving himself as a responsible person are tested during this chapter. He realizes he must step up to the plate and not become like Ashley's dad to help her, by providing financially for both her and their child, but the way he goes about it is the only way he knows how. Since he no longer has football He reverts to hustling. Maurice is familiar with the street-life territory and is better at a life with crime. His name was tarnished and he no longer has any credibility. He felt he let down his mother, Ashley, and her mother by trying to keep his criminal activity a secret, and when everybody found out even the street guys wouldn't make deals with him because they feared he would rob them.

 

     We learn that maurice s thought on what a gangsters life is like should be is similar to that of a soldier at war or a pirate at sea.Nothing is working out for him in the business world or street life. He couldn't figure out how to navigate and where to take the first step.

 2.     The most important event in this chapter is when Maurice admits he had been plotting and planning for weeks to kill off the witnesses testifying against him. When he was in his lawyers office he had seen their address on a subpoena.

 

"I commited their address to memory and put the papers back where they were. I had this address in my mind for a week or two and I was thinking that I was going to try and kill them."(pg 206)

     This shows where Maurices mentality was at the time. He describes himself as being in an extreme survival mode, acting purely animalistic.Lucky for him he got pulled over for making a U-turn while headed to set out on his mission to commit murder. Maurice feels it was a sign that god has a plan for him. Because of being pulled over he was given a second chance while if he would have went throuh with commiting a murder, his life would have been over for him, he states"(pg 207) that it would have been a shame if things went differently and his exsitance as a responsible human on this planet would have be over." This was a divine intervention and a second chance for Maurice Clarett. 

                   3.     While I didn't really relate with the gangster life, I did find a connection to when he  said his life has a better purpose and God has a plan for him. I believe in fate, and there's good in everyone and he proved himself to work for something good by creating the Red Zone, which helps kids in Youngstown and Columbus with similar issues. Maurice now helps people who are so far gone and brings them back. He may never have had this chance to help inner-city children if he did not make the decisions he's made.

                                           The evil side is winning but the good eventually takes over.