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The Jack Roller A Delinquent Boy 's Own Story Essay

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The Jack Roller A Delinquent Boy’s Own Story by Clifford Shaw was published in 1930 and it tells the story of a boy named Stanley. Throughout the book, Stanley talks about his life and the injustices that he dealt with. The downfall of his life occurred when he was just four years old when his mother passed away, leaving his father to take care of three children. Soon after the death of his mother, his father becomes an alcoholic and remarries a woman who has seven children of her own. This leads to twelve people sharing four rooms in a basement apartment. Stanley’s father did the best he could to provide a roof over his family’s head and food for them to eat, but he did not provide any love for his children, which in his eyes was all he needed to do. In addition, he was blind to the fact that his new wife was abusive to his children and that she would send Stanley out to steal food. Soon fate would take Stanley’s younger siblings out of their home and place them in a foster home. Unfortunately, Stanley was kept in the abusive and neglectful home. When Stanley decided, he could no longer take the abuse of his stepmother, he decided to escape from her by running away and living out on the street. One must wonder why the social workers did not also place him in a foster home; like they did with his siblings. If Stanley was placed in a foster home, he may have never committed any crimes. A reason why Stanley may not have been put in a foster home at that time was because

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