Blake Sarnowski
Sugar Cane Alley
In the Sugar Cane Alley, everybody including the kids do terrible physical labor in the sugar fields, with only one way out: Education. The workers' pay is very hard to live off of, and there is almost no other options for work for them. Only the smartest would go to work in the city.
The overseers are very strict, and they even force pregnant women to work. Even though they aren't slaves anymore, they don't have many opportunities available to them. They sing "The master has now become the boss". They want new jobs outside of the sugar cane alley, but most have no hope of making it out. Only the kids can escape through schooling. They try to get Town Hall jobs, and other jobs in the city. One adult says, "Learning is the key to freedom." Mr Medouze also says, "Men can destroy lives, but not recreate."
He is talking about how they were released from slavery, but now they still don't have lives. All they do is work in the cane fields for little pay, and try to live off it. When Mr. Medouze is dying, he says that when he goes, he will be going back home to Africa. It's a home and heaven to him and where he would like to be. Jose explains this to the townsfolk when Mr. Medouze passes.
Leopold's father doesn't want him hanging around Jose because he is poor. Even though Leopold is a mixed child, he is treated like a white because his father is rich and white. As Leopold's father is dying, the man says that he will not pass his name down to him. He said his name is not for a mulatto. This strips Leopold of everything. After Leopold's father...