Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes Book Review

Throughout the novel, there are many examples and real-life context on why police brutality and racism are still an issue today. In the novel “Ghost Boys.” Jewell Parker Rhodes writes about a boy named Jerome who gets killed by a police officer and views the world as a ghost. Coming of age in the story evolves how Jerome goes through a big change in the novel. His life is turned upside down when a police officer shoots and kills him. He went through bigger change that anyone and now he views the world as a ghost and meets other ghosts who went through similar experiences as him and he learns more about the justice system and racism held in society. In the novel, there are various types of literary conflicts. Ghost Boys focuses on the character. Jerome was a victim of racism and murder. Literary conflict is the struggle of two characters, usually the protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist is Jerome, and the antagonist is the police officer. In the text it says, “I’m making a website. End Racism, Injustice. Did you know that black people are shot by cops two and a half times more than white people?” It also says, “Cops must get scared a lot. But they shouldn’t be scared because someone’s black.” (Rhodes 6 & 8). This evidence helps support the topic sentence because it talks about the injustice and racism for people like Jerome and the many other victims that Jerome gets to learn about and talk to that had been killed because of the color of their skin. This evidence matters because it is important to know what police officers are really doing to people of color and to know about the justice system. This explanation is important because this is based on real life and this really happens. This book is telling the audience what happens in real life and why it is unfair. In conclusion, this novel has shown many ways of why racism and brutality are very much real based on the literary conflicts of the story and what Jerome and others had to endure as a victim of this unfair system and racism.