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"What a Man Do": Coe Booth and the Genesis of Tyrell
ALAN Review, Winter 2007 by Blasingame, James Jr
As I was writing, I started thinking about issues of masculinity and other aspects of Tyrell's life, but I didn't start the story with the idea of illuminating these things. The character just had a story to tell and I had to go with it.
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Tyrell's story had distilled in the author's subconscious over many years from her observations on the job. One of the family issues that Coe dealt with often in ECS was the absence of a father figure living in the home. In this situation, she found that the oldest boy was likely to be forced into the role of provider and protector at a very early age. The obstacles to success in this role would discourage a grown man, let alone a boy, and the effects on the young man included a hardening, a toughness that belied his age. Later, if a father came back or a stepfather entered the picture, a quick return to childhood would be impossible, and a new problem appeared. In a neighborhood where drugs and gang violence prevailed, how could the teenaged head of a family succeed? Often turning to crime, like selling drugs, or other illicit work, was the answer. In some communities, the drug dealers are the ones who have respect, wealth, material possessions and power.
And yet, many young men choose a different path. Coe also saw, and continues to see, young men who forego the immediate temptation of quick respect and money available to them. Coe talks about her students and how many of them walk to her class at Bronx Community College, passing, along the way, their old friends who have chosen another path in life and are out on the street at work. "I think it's amazing that some young men resist that temptation and say, Tm going to get those things later. Right now, I'm going to go to college.' If I were a boy that age, and I was around other guys my age who seemed to have it all, I don't know if I could resist the temptation. I admire my students for this."
In the story, Tyrell has repeated invitations from his best friend, Cal, to join him and his brothers in their family business, drug dealing. They have money, they have expensive cars, they have a nice apartment, they have respect; they have it all. Tyrell has refused this offer for as long as he can remember:
"Cal, I ain't working for you."...
Me and him had this conversation 'bout twenty times already, and he know how I feel ... "I told you, man, I get locked up, Troy gonna end up back in the system. My moms can't take care of him by herself. You know how she is." (62)
What it means to "be a man" is at the heart of this book. At fifteen years of age, Tyrell has made a man's decision. He will forego potential wealth and respect as offered by Cal for the sake of the well-being of his family, especially his little brother, Troy, who is always on the verge of being placed in a foster home due to their mother's negligence.
Masculinity is defined differently, however, according to who is doing the defining. Tyrell's mother thinks he is the man of the family and should provide for them, keep them out of the rat-hole Bennett Motel, take care of their needs, whatever that takes, and fifteen is plenty old enough to do it. In this conversation she makes it clear, the important thing is that the family is taken care of, and the how of that is Tyrell's problem"
