Bad Boy: Setting's Importance

I am currently reading the book Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers. It is a book about his life that he lived in Harlem, New York, and places that he traveled to. I will be talking about some important settings that take place in this book that greatly effect the main character, Walter,  by a landmark.

One setting that I think is hugely important is the library. I think the library was important to his life, because look at him now. He's a writer, and books that he read in elementary school and continuing on and on probably encouraged him even more to become a writer. In the book he's always saying how fascinated the books that his teacher gave him and books that he found in the library. He would always say that the books would bring up his imagination, the first book was a Norwegian story that his elementary school teacher gave to him and ever since that occasion he had a love for books. He started to attend a public library close to his house and kept on reading still fascinated by the books given to him. The library really changed his life because as you can see he is a well known writer.

Another setting that is really important too the main character is the neighborhood, specifically the streets in the neighborhood. This is where the character explains as the culture of Harlem, he describes it as many different things such as clothing, colors, games being played and much more. The streets are a place where he learns about new things he likes and ideas that occur and a lot of chatter that goes on in the community. Walter is influenced by the many trends that go on in the streets, he plays new sports because of these trends he learns how to play basketball and baseball. It really affected how his childhood was because of the many neighbors and influences that he had on the street. For instance one time he was encouraged to beat up Jewish boys,, and ever since that moment he has been notorious for having a lot of violence in his elementary school that he went to. It's a really big influence in my opinion.

In conclusion these to settings really affect what his actions,him becoming a writer, and him being violent. It's all influence in my opinion his teacher for an instance got him into reading books, with the Norwegian folktales. His friends and older teenagers got him into being violent by getting him to hit people for the first time.