“‘I’m telling you,’ Ventura said. ‘If there’s something I’ve learned in this country, it’s that your address decides everything. You’ve got to get out.’”

In the first chapter, Robbie tells Ray that he should buy a house in the north part of the county where the schools are better. Robbie insists that investing in the children is the best way to go. Robbie’s vision foreshadows the school integration that will bring the Ventura and Gilbert families together. At the same time, this scene begins the contrast in who Robbie was before the drugs and who he became after the drugs. Robbie had all the right intentions for his children when Ray was still alive, but after Ray was killed and Robbie slipped into drug addiction, his intentions shifted; he ends up selling the investment he made for his children to pay for his drug addiction.

“Gee wedged himself between the grown-up bodies to kneel next to his daddy. He felt his mother lifting him away. He fought and kicked to stay close. She lost her grip on him, and he sank nearer to him, the one he loved.”

The death of Ray plays a big role in forming the man Gee/Nelson will become and introduces the theme of Shared Tragedy. It shows the devastation of a young boy losing the only father he ever knew, the only positive male role model he had in his childhood. This moment will come back to Gee in flashes when the parents protesting the transfer of east side children into Central High School use Gee’s own personal tragedy as an excuse to exclude him from the same aspirations Ray was fighting to provide.