that people often convey … in order to capture the situational, the personal, and the cultural dimensions of psychic life.”15 I attempted to track the common themes that weave throughout each person’s narratives. The themes I followed were clear at some moments and difficult to detect at others. I aimed to incorporate these tensions into my analysis of the interviews.
My three methods of data analysis—the revised version of “The Listening Guide,” narrative summaries, and the conceptually clustered matrices—helped me to hear the veritable pitch of a given theme as it rises and falls throughout the narratives I follow. They encouraged me to be sensitive to difference, variation, and contradiction while at the same time enabling me to perceive patterns and continuities. Most important, they allowed me to begin to understand and make sense of the masses of data we collected over three years.
These methods, furthermore, helped me meet a central goal of my research; namely, to describe and interpret what the adolescents said and how they said it. Given the lack of knowledge and the stubbornly maintained prejudices about this particular group of adolescents, I wanted to simply listen closely to their stories. I wanted to resist the immediate temptation to explain why they told such stories (although I do provide explanations at times). Explanation, though necessary, involves distancing oneself from the actual words of the participants, and I wanted to stick close to their words. In future studies, I can begin to explain more thoroughly, and these explanations will, by that time, be firmly grounded in the teens’ perceptions.
Part I
INDIVIDUAL LIVES
In this book, I present two case studies of adolescents who were interviewed over the three years of the project. Malcolm and Eva inspired and provoked me. As I listened to their stories, I was compelled to focus on them for my case studies. Malcolm, first interviewed by Mike in the spring of his freshman year, is presented in the first part of the book, and Eva, first interviewed by Helena in the spring of her sophomore year, is presented in the latter part of the book.
In these case studies, I describe what Malcolm and Eva said about themselves, their futures, their relationships to their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, lovers, and role models, their school, and the larger society. In some respects, Malcolm and Eva are similar: both are black and live in the same neighborhood; both go to the same school; both live with their mothers; and both struggled academically at the beginning of high school only to finish on the honor roll. However, they are also different: Malcolm is African American and Eva, though raised in the United States, was born in the West Indies; Malcolm is relatively isolated from his peers while Eva is extremely popular; Malcolm is not involved in any extracurricular activities while Eva takes part in many. Their perspectives on their worlds, furthermore, differ as dramatically as the quality of their relationships.
In presenting these two case studies, I want to remind the reader of the complexity of each individual life. While the focus of this book is on the patterns detected across adolescent lives, it is important to remember that each adolescent had a different story to tell, and a different way of telling his or her story. I also want the reader to hear how the specific patterns I focus on in chapters 4 through 9 are a part of larger stories—the two case studies provide a context for the patterns. And finally, I want the reader to hear the wide-ranging and deeply moving stories that two adolescents told us when we asked them about their lives. Michelle Fine and Lois Weis emphasize the importance of representing the “mundane” or the “rituals of daily living.” They note that as socially responsible researchers we should “recognize how carefully we need not to construct life narratives spiked only with the hot spots … like surfing our data for sex and violence.”1 I present the details of two individual lives, in part, to avoid representing only the patterns, or the “hot spots,” in the data. In these case studies, I want to present the regularity and texture of everyday living.
Throughout the case studies, I frequently provide a verbatim account of Malcolm’s or Eva’s responses to our particular questions. Although I offer interpretations of their responses, my primary aim here is to have the reader hear the details of the lives of these two adolescents. Chapters 4 through 9 are structured around the patterns that I detected among the adolescents and the interpretations I have of these patterns. Consequently, these chapters leave little room for listening freely to their stories. I have chosen, therefore, to present the case studies in a format that is more conducive to open listening—listening that is less constrained by a specific interpretation, that lets itself be guided by the rhythms of the stories. I begin and end this book with a story of a life in progress.
3
Malcolm’s Story
MALCOLM, a tall, lanky, light-skinned African American student walks into the room that has been set aside for interviews. This closetsized, hot and sleepy alcove is the only room in the school where one is guaranteed not to be interrupted by students or teachers wanting to use the space. Formerly a piano practice room, it has the added benefit of being one of the few soundproof rooms in the school—the interview can proceed undisturbed and confidentially. Sporting a flat-top haircut, baggy pants hung low around his hips, a colorful shirt, and untied sneakers, Malcolm looks like a typical urban teenager. Although he has volunteered to be interviewed, he seems shy and self-conscious with Mike, his freshman-year interviewer. He shifts in his seat as his eyes explore the small room. On the room’s lone poster hanging next to him, which offers the only visual distraction from the white cork walls, a Hispanic young man proclaims that becoming a teenage father “isn’t cool.” Malcolm briefly glances at the poster, and without reacting (his gaze indicates that he has seen the poster many times before), turns to Mike. He is ready to begin the interview.1
Malcolm’s Freshman Year
Malcolm lives with his mother, a secretary at a beauty salon, and his younger sister in a part of the city plagued by “a lot of violence” in the streets. He doesn’t belong to a gang but the scars on his face and back (he shows them to Mike) provide evidence of his involvement in street fights where he “backed up” friends who were being attacked. He claims, however, that he has been involved in only two fights and that he generally avoids them altogether. Malcolm has a knife at home for protection, but says that he does not typically carry it on him unless he should “do something stupid like go outside, you know, way late at night in some area I don’t know. You know?” He keeps the knife because he is worried someone will break into his house. He seems more threatened by an intruder at home than in the streets.
Malcolm has no memory of his father, who left the family when he was two years old. His mother’s ex-boyfriend lived with them for a few years when Malcolm was younger but moved out several years ago. Malcolm says his family has moved a lot—they have lived in Florida, California, and in the Northeast—and by moving they have frequently left extended family behind. Unlike many of the other boys in the study, Malcolm claims that his extended family members have played only a minor role in his life.
Mike begins the interview by asking Malcolm about his family relationships:
Tell me about your relationship with your mother.
We get along pretty cool most of the time when we do see each other. She gets home about eight most of the time. And then I’m still probably not in the house. So then when I get in the house, I’m like, “Hi, how you doing? Good night.” And just make sure I’ve done my [house] work. If I ain’t done my work, then I might get fussed at. That’s it.
Malcolm’s relationship with his mother appears to be relatively uncomplicated and not particularly intimate. At home, Malcolm says, he is responsible for taking care of his cat, dog, and bird, cleaning his room, and, generally, keeping the house in order. His mother will ask him about his schoolwork, but she doesn’t