The United States of America is a nation where some young individuals end up finding themselves in some illegal gangs. Some of them end up in such groups willingly while others are forced due to peer pressure. Whichever the case, these young individuals are faced with a lot of problems, which affects not only them but also their friends and their families. The short story, On the sidewalk bleeding by Evan Hunter is a form of literature in the modern world which is used to focus on the issues faced by young individuals in these groups among other problems that such young people introduce to their parents and friends alike. In this more focus, will be on how gangs affect the lives of young individuals, their friends and also their parents.
One of the obvious problems faced by young people who belong to various groups as mentioned by the author in this story is risking their lives. When such teens join the groups, they are guaranteed of safety from other people and possibly, other groups. However, things can go wrong as seen in this story where Andy, a young character is attacked and his left to die in an alley. Once he joined the gang of the Royals, he was somehow aware that he was risking his life due to the conflict of this group and the Guardians. He had been stabbed ten minutes ago, this is a quotation from the story where Andy had been attacked and left helpless in the rain. His life is in danger once he is attacked by the gang of the Guardians, and this confirms the fact that young people are faced with even death due to being members of these groups. I don't want to die, he thought, a point came when the main character starts to realize that he had so much to live for and was afraid of dying.
Other people are also involved in similar problems when young people are participating in different gangs in the society today. In this story, Andy is left to die, where he is injured severely and cannot help himself. His main hope is that someone finds him and offers to help him. A young boy and his girlfriend are the individuals who find Andy and offers to give him assistance, though they recognize that by doing so, they are endangering their lives due to possible involvement in the feud between the two gangs. "We can't leave him here in the rain the young boy tries to convince his girlfriend that they had to help Andy even though they were risking their lives. This leaves them in a dilemma whether to help the young boy or not. The fact that they are skeptical shows that both the friends and the families of young people involved in gangs find themselves in a dilemma, whether to talk such people out of the gangs or to leave them alone. If they try to talk them out of the gangs, they risk their lives as the groups can attack them and end up dead. However, they cannot ignore the situation since they care deeply for their loved ones.
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