Bad Boy: Protagonist's Archetypal Journey

     I am currently reading Bad Boy, a memoir by Walter Dean Myers, and it is a very interesting book. This book is about the life of Walter Dean Myers as a kid. It includes all the troubles he faced, what his interests were, and how he felt about the world. He is on a loss of innocence journey, so he is growing up. Even as a young kid in elementary school, Walter Dean Myers loves to read, loves to write, and really knows about the world. Walter Dean Myers has already been through a lot, and I have only read two-thirds of the book. He gets in trouble at school for fighting multiple times. He fractures his legs doing something stupid. He suffers and excels through school. He ditches school. He writes about the world. He turns to the street and his books for comfort from all the things around him. He doubts himself and all the values that he always relied on. He suffers from racism. Many things happen to Walter Dean Myers as he grows up, and all these things happen to him because of events and people that he faces. 

       First of all, racism really affects him. Walter Dean Myers already feels inferior to others because of his speech problems. He always thought that he was smart and that he was superior because he was a very good reader, but when people complain about his speech problems he gets really mad. He doesn't even notice that he has speech problems, so that makes it even worse, and it frustrates him. On top of that, he suffers from feeling inferior to others by racism. An example of how he faces racism is when Eric wanted to bring along Walter to a party. Walter wanted to go, but Eddie told Eric that Walter couldn't come because he wasn't white. That really hurt him, but what was worse was racism and class in general. Since Walter grew up in a poor black family, his hope for a successful future diminished as he realized where he was, surrounded by class and racial issues. This is probably the reason why he attends high school less and less. He probably feels like there is no hope even if he attends school and succeeds. Walter started to realize this when he grew older and startes to write about his neighborhood, Harlem. 

       Second of all, Walter's books and his writing positively impacts him the most. Even though there isn't really a person that positively affects him that much, his books and his writing really helps him. There are two reasons why they positively impact him. The first one is because he can escape the horrid world through reading and writing. The world is very mean to him sometimes. On his eighth birthday, which was his first party, his uncle died. That ruined his first birthday party. To make it even worse. his father became depressed from it, making his whole family depressed for almost a year. Other horrible things that he faces in the world is that racism doesn't only affect his education, it also affects his part-time job. Walter gets moved from a decent job to a tiresome and hard job just because he was black. When he writes, he can write about the good things about the world, and he write about what he wants the world to be like. The other way how reading and writing affects Walter is because he can feel that he is superior, and he never has to deal with other people's criticism. He can write without people complaining about his speech problems. He can be like a "white".

     With all these negative and positive things affecting Walter, he definitely changed. He now becomes more independent. He can just ignore the world and do whatever he wants with his writing. Some events and people also affect him negatively. Because of the racism that he suffers from and his class issues, he loses all hope for a successful future. He starts to ditch school, and he just gets really mad. Racism also affects his social life and his part-time job. Walter learns how to deal with all the bad things that are surrounding him, such as racism and class issues. The loss of innocence journey that he is still on doesn't really accomplish much, and actually kind of ruins him, even though it does make him stronger. This journey teaches me that even when you think that there is no hope left, there is always something that can make you feel stronger and help you escape the world.