Just Walk On By

Comprehension:

1. The woman is a "victim" because she is the first person to that he noticed was scared of him and reacted because she was scared of him. 
2. He has the "power to alter people" because of the way that he looked. People got scared when he came into view because of their own judgments of people and their racial profile at first glance. 
3. He walks the streets at night because everybody is scared of him, he says that things can get very "taut".  He also walks the street at night because he is a night walker and he is "suffering a bout of insomnia".  
4. "The making of a young man" - "the consumption of the male romance with the power to intimidate", "perception of themselves as tough guys", "embrace the power to frighten and intimidate", learning to "seize the fighter's edge in work and in play and even in love", "be valiant in the face of hostile forces".  Young, poor, and powerless become thugs because they take all these hints to becoming a young man seriously and end up in trouble.   
5. He attempts to make himself less threatening by moving with care, staying further away from people that seem to be nervous especially when in jeans and not his business attire, he walks by letting people clear the lobby before he returns, he tries to be calm and congenial, and he often whistle's songs from Beethoven and Vivaldi.

Purpose and Audience:

1. "It was in the echo of that terrified woman's footfalls that I first began to know the unwieldy inheritance I'd come into - the ability to alter public space in ugly ways."
2. He uses logic and emotion, which is an appropriate strategy.
3. He seems to assume that his audience is familiar with the concept that black males are often seen as intimidating, but he assumes that his audience is not necessarily aware that not all black men have malicious intent.
4. He succeeded in drawing the reader in, which is what I think his intention for the first sentence was.

Style and Structure:

1. I think he mentions Norman Podhoretz because he needed an example from someone who was not black, in order to get a different perspective.
2. I think his opening strategy is very effective.
3. Staples definitely had enough examples to support his thesis. I think that they are representative. The types of examples that Staples used in his essay were very convincing, because he mentioned in different situations how people acted pretty much the same. He also showed us how the same situations applied to him in different cities.
4. Staples didn't have an exact order that he presented his examples. He did tell us examples that would happen in a city, then he would move on to a year or so later and tell us what happened in that city at that time.
5. Synonyms of "thug": gangster, killer, bully, goon, criminal, hooligan, mobster, troublemaker, delinquent, and gang member. All these words have very similar meanings, implying that people labeled with these words make trouble, commit crimes, and are often violent and part of a gang.

Journal Entry:
I have been in a similar situation as Staples, but I perceived someone else as threatening. I reacted very similar to Staples first example of the women. How she took a few worried glances back and increased her steps until she started running. In my situation, I was with some friends downtown after a concert and my friend said she had noticed a white male following us for a couple blocks. We all acted like nothing was wrong, because we didn't want to show any fear, and hurriedly speed walked to our car. Even today, I would react the same, because you can never be certain of any situation. I always say better safe than sorry.

Writing Workshop:
3. Staples's statement is very accurate. I think he meant that most males strive to be big and powerful from when they are born, but it develops gradually like a romance. Growing up, I noticed many times that the boys I knew always seemed to enjoy playing with toy dinosaurs and monster trucks; things that are known as being big, scary, powerful, and dangerous. That may have been because they were raised to think that men should be bigger, stronger, and more powerful than women.

Combining The Patterns:
Cause and effect is a great way of explaining situations because then the reader can automatically see one of the possible outcomes of the problem.  Examples provide more outcomes possibly and more explanations oftentimes.  We do believe that more examples would have been a better explanation for how a youth becomes a thug.