Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence

The episode of John’s stolen jacket, in the first chapter of the memoir, illustrates the desperation—and therefore the unpredictability—of life in the Bronx. As Canada states later in the memoir, “The thing about the South Bronx was that you could never relax. Anything might happen at any given time” (57). John’s stolen jacket is an early foreshadowing of this realization, and for Canada, it marks the beginning of an awareness about his circumstances and how he will need to deal with them.

It tells us much about this neighborhood that John’s jacket is stolen off of him at a playground, and by a child just slightly older than he is. At a playground in a more prosperous neighborhood, children might fight over toys or treats; a jacket, however, would be more likely to be lost, rather than fought over. In other words, jackets are items that many children take for granted, as they take for granted their security and safety in general. There is also the likelihood that the boy who steals John’s jacket does so not so much because he desires John’s jacket in particular, or because he lacks a jacket of his own, but simply to establish domination.