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<\/a><\/p>\nHomes in \u201cHis Mother\u2019s House\u201d by Median Household Income:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Income inequality data\u00a0show how Joyce\u2019s neighborhood in Northeast was primarily made up of people living below the poverty line. Her new home, in the wealthier\u00a0quadrant of Northwest, would be surrounded by people considered upper class.\u00a0Characters in \u201cHis Mother\u2019s House\u201d repeatedly equate wealth with safety and security, but the most violent moment of the story takes place on the red side of the\u00a0<\/em>map<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n During the 1980s, many low-income Black Americans in Washington D.C. became addicted to crack cocaine as a means of coping with the struggles poverty created (Fenson). High demand for crack made selling lucrative, and\u00a0dealing drugs became a means for young men like Santiago to escape the cycles of poverty they were born into. While many of these young people were successfully able to make money from the crack epidemic\u2014even purchasing homes in wealthier neighborhoods like Joyce\u2019s house on 10th Street\u2014the illegal nature of crack, the large sums of money, and the instability of those addicted made crack dealing a very dangerous job. Many young men trying to escape the dangers of poverty such as hunger and illness were thrust into a much more dangerous world of violence and greed. In \u201cHis Mother\u2019s House\u201d the main characters believe they have made it out of poverty and are ready for a fresh start in a wealthy neighborhood, only to discover that inequality is so embedded in the framework of society that acquisition of wealth only exposes them to more violence and corruption.<\/p>\n Jones uses \u201cHis Mother\u2019s House\u201d to tell a story about money, fate, and home.\u00a0All the characters are fated by society into a life of struggle in Northeast, their geographical home as well as the location of their friends, family, and institutions. When Santiago is given the opportunity to escape his fate, he takes it and his family builds and nourishes a new home, even if glimmers of Northeast are seen through Joyce\u2019s second-hand coffee table. The story shows how, though the family is certainly given an unfair hand by fate,\u00a0they are not immune to the corruption money brings. Santiago replaces all the furniture in the new home except the coffee table, while Joyce seldom visits her mother and pushes to her husband to work even more, all in an effort to erase all traces their previous lives in poverty. The story ends with Santiago shooting his god-brother in front of his expensive new home, severing a final link to his past and demonstrating Santiago\u2019s desperation to escape his fate. As with Lydia\u2019s cab ride in \u201cLost in the City\u201d or the legacy of trying to create a Black homeland in Nicodemus, Kansas, the world of Lost in the City<\/em> is animated by the desire of many of its characters to find something different from the broken system they inhabit, but the book offers them no real way out.<\/p>\n Works Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n Fenson, Jacob. \u201cCrack’s Rapid Rise Brought Chaos To D.C.\u201d\u00a0WAMU<\/i>, American University, 27 Jan. 2014, wamu.org\/story\/14\/01\/27\/crack_1\/.<\/span><\/p>\n Jones, Edward P. “His Mother’s House.”\u00a0Lost in the City: Stories<\/i>. Amistad, 2012.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Edward P.\u00a0Jones\u2019s\u00a0short story \u201cHis Mother\u2019s House\u201d, the characters Joyce and Santiago Moses are able to escape poverty and the Northeast neighborhood of Washington by selling crack cocaine. After becoming rich, the characters leave their… <\/p>\n