Heaven’s_Prisoner

Heaven’s Prisoner In a country that guarantees equal rights and personal freedom to all its citizens, the South Bronx is true evidence that the United States has not lived up to its promises. It is a place of desolation and despair, poverty and self-destruction, tragedy and mourning. As one South Bronx resident appropriately states in the novel Amazing Grace: “you don’t have to be in jail to be in a prison” (37). These people are prisoners in their own lives as they are psychologically, emotionally, and physically separated from surrounding communities as a result of decisions made by outsiders who are oblivious to the life conditions of the Mott Haven residents. A prison is defined in Webster’s dictionary as “a place where persons are confined.” Although the people of Mott Haven and surrounding areas are not required to remain there, they are clearly separated from the world of the white middle-class in New York. The General public is sheltered from reality as scenic murals are painted on the degenerating buildings that the residents call their homes. Social policies have grouped the majority of poor black and Hispanic populations in the South Bronx ghettos where they are not only heavens, prison, people, south, bronx, life, residents, live, freedom, surrounding, social, made, lives, equality, world, without, way, unclean, through, states, separated, result, remain, positive, place, personal, one, mott, inmates, however, haven, ghetto, forced, find, environment, defined