49 pages • 1 hour read
Philippe BourgoisIn Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
EpiloguesChapter Summaries & Analyses
Epilogue (1994) Summary
When returning to East Harlem in 1994, Bourgois provides an update on many of the individuals he befriended. Primo has stopped selling drugs and no longer sniffs cocaine or drinks alcohol. He has found a temporary job and is trying to get hired full-time. He has also moved out of Maria’s house and has a good relationship with their son, Primo Jr., but Maria lost her subsidized apartment and had to move back in with her mother. She’s still on welfare and food stamps. Caesar doesn’t sell drugs anymore either, although he still spends most of his SSI paycheck on drugs on alcohol. He lives with Carmen and their 3-year-old son, Caesar Jr. Caesar is still violently abusive to his family and was placed on a list for a drug treatment program. He abandoned the program when the wait became too long. His family sent him to live with a relative in Florida to try and keep him off drugs and out of trouble.
Candy doesn’t sell drugs anymore either. She also no longer works and lives with Felix and their kids. Felix doesn’t beat her anymore, having learned his lesson. Their son, Junior, has two children and has been in jail before. He sells drugs. Bourgois details many other people, including Benzie, members of Primo’s family, kids, and Ray. Ray doesn’t live in the neighborhood anymore. The Game Room and the Social Club no longer operate, although small-time drug dealing operations still litter the neighborhood. Despite having lived in El Barrio for some time, Bourgois tells Primo and Caesar that he doesn’t have the ability to look away from suffering, a sentiment brought on when he sees the horrified look on a child’s face as his mother argues with a drug dealer in the wee hours of morning.
Epilogue (2003) Summary
In 2003, Bourgois again details the lives of those he researched, including Primo, Caesar, and Candy. Primo is still drug and alcohol free. He’s been working in contracting, but his boss is incompetent and so he has been trying to make it as an independent contractor. He managed to secure a large job but had to cancel because he couldn’t find honest workers. This setback depressed him, especially because he wanted to use the job as a way to get his son Papo back to New York to work with him. Papo was living wildly in Florida and had been practically disowned by his mother. Caesar is still battling drugs and abuse. He lives with Maria and Primo Jr., along with their children. He was sent to jail for abusing their daughter Diamond, and then sold a bike and a Gameboy that Primo bought for Primo Jr. so that he could get drug money. Ray remains away from El Barrio and is thought to be retired from the drug world. He made a lot of money by buying up tenements and renovating them with drug money, then charging rent. Candy slipped a disk in her back and is now virtually bedridden. She’s also addicted to her painkillers and is angry at the world. Felix continues to work legally and support them, and he doesn’t beat Candy anymore.
Epilogues Analysis
In revisiting his East Harlem "subjects" in both 1994 and later in 2003, Bourgois cements the cycle of poverty and street culture. While Primo, Caesar, and Candy are all initially able to get off drugs, Caesar and Candy succumb to drug abuse by 2003. All of Bourgois's former acquaintances have stopped dealing, including Ray, yet only Primo and Felix are able to maintain legal employment. Others, like Caesar and Maria, are reliant on welfare and SSI. While Caesar is still abusive towards his family, men like Primo and Felix strive for a healthy relationship with their children. Despite their efforts to overcome the "patriarchal models" (214) with which they've been instilled, both Primo and Felix's sons are troubled or now sell drugs themselves. The neighborhood itself is different, but only in that "much of the drug-dealing had moved indoors, out of sight of the police" (xvii). As Bourgois reflects on the time he spent in East Harlem, he acknowledges that he is no longer able to look away from suffering. In documenting the struggles of the poor people of El Barrio, Bourgois strives to both "humanize" (325) those part of the "inner-city street culture" (8) and illustrate how poverty, not drug abuse, propels the "vicious cycle" (70) of social marginalization.
Related Titles
By Philippe Bourgois
