Preface and Introduction- Personally, I really enjoyed these first two sections of the book. I think they really portrayed what Fr. Gregory is all about and that he wants to make certain things known to us. Had I never read the book, I would never have known about or even had the slightest idea as to what Homeboy Industries is and what they do. I think these first two chapters were the most important. They gave us a background on the author of the book and a quick peek at the people we would be meeting along the way. In these first two chapters, we meet Ramiro. He had a huge, horrible tattoo on his forehead. This is a small example but I think that if Father Gregory could help Ramiro first, fix his forehead, and second, develop a healthier lifestyle, there is hope for all of us going through something difficult.
Chapter 1: God, I guess- To me, I think a theme that really goes well with this chapter is reassurance and trust. I think a story that fits this theme from this chapter, is where Cesar calls Father G at three in the morning, just because he wants reassurance that he is a son worth having and that he is important and wanted. This speaks to me because we might be at difficult times in our lives where we need reasssurance that we are enough and we are wanted, because we may doubt ourselves sometimes.
Chapter 2: Dis-Grace- I think the theme of this chapter is optimism. I say that because my favorite story of the whole book is in here and it deals primarily with optimism. It is where Lula brings G his report card. At this point when I'm reading it I thought Father would be so proud of him because he finally was getting good grades. But no, I was wrong. He brought him his report card to show him not that he had all F's, but to show him he had 0 absences! When your in such a tough position as these characters in the book, you can't just snap your fingers and their whole life is perfect and fixed. You need to take it step by step when trying to help these people. So an example of that would be Lulas optimism and happiness when he got zero absences. That shows he was putting in work and trying to get better. Even though his grades weren't good, he was taking it one step at a time.
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