There Are No Children Here: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

Rickey and Lafeyette have begun to spend more time together, and Rickey has included him in his group, the Four Corner Hustlers, which is not a real gang because they do not sell drugs but is meant to control their territory: Rickey and Lafeyette’s building. The group, then, appears to be a gang in preparation.

In the meantime, LaJoe has begun to feel more distant from Lafeyette. Her son has started dating a girl but is adamant that he does not want to have children before a long while. LaJoe wants to make sure her son does not get anyone pregnant but, more importantly, is worried about his relationship with Rickey, especially since she has seen the young boy break a car window and steal the driver’s necklace in broad daylight. She is worried that Lafeyette might fall in with the wrong crowd and end up like Terence.

At the same time, even though Rickey is turning into a tough, reckless and seemingly uncontrollable youngster, using a gun to shoot at the Disciples who dare cross the Four Corner Hustlers’ territory, he is also conflicted about his behavior. He tells Lafeyette that he wishes to return to his childhood and make different choices. The two boys enjoy their conversations and, when Rickey talks about dying, he admits that he feels as though he might die at any point and that he is afraid to go to sleep, thinking he might die. Neither boy thinks about the future, focusing instead on the present.

While Lafeyette enjoys Rickey’s company, he does not appreciate his group of friends and hopes that he can be a good influence for Rickey, encouraging him to stay out of trouble. In an environment where adults categorize children early on to figure out who belongs to a gang and who doesn’t, Rickey feels that people expect him to behave badly—and that, as a result, he will behave exactly as they expect him to. Lafeyette, too, has become cynical, trusting that everyone has let him down: school, Public Aid, his older brother, his father, the police, and even himself.

In contrast to his brother, Pharoah becomes interested in politics even though his mother, whose own mother had played an important role in the local management of the Democratic Party, has given up on politics a long time ago, since she has felt abandoned by local representatives, who have not helped improve life at Horner. Pharoah, however, becomes interested in the mayoral elections and begins to dream about becoming a politician.

In the meantime, the violence continues, as usual, continually harming Horner residents. When LaJoe hears running by the apartment, she sees a group of young boys, including Lafeyette, hit an old man who had apparently molested one of the boy’s cousins in a parking lot. Instead of calling the police, the young boys decided to enforce justice themselves, to LaJoe’s consternation.