Fire in the Ashes

In the second half of the book, beginning with Chapter 7, Kozol chronicles the survivors: the children who were able to emerge from their experiences at the Martinique to make their lives meaningful and whole. Some, he notes, were troubled but were able to emerge from their troubles. Others did not encounter trouble but drifted for a while, until they found purpose and their calling. Others are still searching, but Kozol writes that the very fact that they are still searching indicates that they have retained the earnestness of youth. Others yet were able to embrace their schooling with confidence and purpose, though their trajectories are still unfolding. Kozol chronicles the journeys of the survivors in the chapters that follow.

In this chapter, Kozol profiles a boy named Leonardo, whom he met at St. Ann’s when the boy was 7. He took Kozol on a tour of the neighborhood, pointing out dogs he knew and munching on a bag of cookies. He also pointed out a building where, he said, “they’re burning bodies” (148). Though Kozol thought this was a fib, it turned out to be true, as the pastor at St. Ann’s told him that the building was a medical incinerator that sent toxins into the air of a neighborhood of 40,000 people, most of them Latino or Black.