[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on A Life for a Life
Ernest Hill’s book A Life for a Life is about how a peace loving African American turns into a fugitive from justice. D'Ray Reid lives with his mother and younger brother in a small town in Louisiana. He's angry that his mother is having a serious affair with a cop and saddened that she dotes on his younger brother, Little Man, while telling him repeatedly that like his father he will get into trouble. The prophecy comes true when D'Ray saves his brother's life from a crack dealer by robbing a store, killing another young black male who tries to stop him, then running away, leaving a trail of deceit, pain, and death in his wake. Yet when he is finally locked away, the father of the young man he killed visits and becomes the father D'Ray never had. Hill describes D'Ray's dismal, violent life in straightforward prose and nearly too clean-cut dialog, narrating the tale from D'Ray's viewpoint but calling on other characters to lend their voices to discussions of racism, poverty, and affirmative action.(Hill 57)
As one of nine black children in a family in rural Louisiana in the 1960s, Ernest Hill grew up in a tiny house on a dirt road with no running water. There was no indoor plumbing but there were books. Lots of books. And a mother and father who had a vision that went far beyond the impoverished environment. Eight of the nine children grew up to graduate from college --- three earned degrees from Yale --- and all succeeded in their chosen fields. (Hill's older brother Kenny not only graduated from Yale, but he also went on to win three Super Bowl rings with the Oakland Raiders and New York Giants.) Early in life, while his brothers and sisters fell in line and made A's, Ernest Hill resisted....
