"Geese" and "Ghosts"

"Geese"
I actually found this piece somewhat hard to read. I felt as though there was no hope and the characters would be left in a constant state of deprivation and fight for survival. In her search for a job and the description of the positions available to and occupied by specific ethnicities, I was reminded of my time in Europe last semester. In Spain and many of the other places visited, I noticed that all people considered "black" were very much African. Their skin was very dark, and they were largely confined to the street market sector of business. I could probably count on one hand the number of African Americans or even lighter skinned Africans that I encountered in my time in Spain, so I could understand the description of her foreign status with regards to skin tone. One piece that I found interesting was the description of the attention received from the locals. If it was not a look of confusion or amusement as an exotic foreigner, she was approached by men in with sexual undertones. I was a little confused by the encounter with the roommate holding a knife to her throat in the middle of the night. I wasn't sure about the origin of this outburst but my only guess was some sort of PTSD or mental disturbance.

"Ghosts"
I really enjoyed this reading to the point that I didn't want to take my eyes from my computer screen. The pigeon seemed to be a metaphor that I could not quite understand, but its importance in the beginning of the story line and to the culture of these people kept re-appearing. I found it interesting that a family so removed from the violence and corruption of the gang world could be so intertwined in its workings through the restaurant and his work at the radio station. It seemed as though he had a connection with the members that ran deep on an intellectual and emotional level which is one that is rarely explored when dealing with this subject matter. I found it interesting that the neighborhood was known as Bel Air as that is the name of one of the fanciest neighborhoods in America.