Chapters One–Three

PART 1: GERMINATION

Summary: Chapter One

Mav plays basketball in Rose Park with his cousin, Dre; his best friend, King; and other friends, Shawn, Rico, P-Nut, and Junie.  As they play, Lisa, Mav’s girlfriend, and Keisha and Andreanna, Dre’s fiancée and daughter, watch. As the friends play, Mav reflects on his life, and background information about his gang, the King Lords, is revealed.  There are several levels in the King Lords. Mav and King are “li’l homies,” members who sell only weed and help with initiations. Older members, including Shawn and P-Nut, are known as “big homies” who get to sell harder drugs and fight with their rival gang, the Garden Disciples. During the game, King almost gets into a fight and leaves. With the game over, talk turns to a party later that night. Everyone plans to go except Dre, who has stopped hanging out with the gang, or “set,” since Andreanna’s birth. Mav gives Lisa a custom gold and diamond necklace that spells out “Maverick.” Mav’s mother, Faye, arrives to take Mav to the clinic to see if he is the biological father of King’s three-month-old baby.

Summary: Chapter Two

Mav and Faye meet Iesha, King’s sometimes-girlfriend, and her mother, Ms. Robinson, at the clinic. Mav notes Iesha appears exhausted and tells her that if the baby is his, he’ll help. A nurse hands Iesha the test results: The baby, named King Jr., is his. While everyone processes the news, King Jr. starts to cry. Faye and Mav take the baby into the women’s room to change his diaper. When they emerge, both Iesha and Ms. Robinson are gone.

Summary: Chapter Three

Faye and Mav drive to Ms. Robinson’s house, but no one answers the door, so they take King Jr. home with them. Before Faye leaves for work she reminds Mav that she, his aunt, his grandmother, and their neighbor are only a phone call away, but Mav insists that he won’t need help.As Mav learns how to feed the baby a bottle, he realizes that his life has suddenly changed. Reluctantly, he calls Lisa to tell her that he can’t take her to the party. Later, Dre arrives and addresses Mav’s new situation head-on. He reveals that he knows Mav and King have been selling drugs behind the big homies’ backs and threatens to tell Faye if Mav doesn’t quit it all. Mav points out how it’s almost impossible to leave the gang but ultimately agrees to stop dealing.

Analysis: Chapters One–Three

Thomas establishes the gang’s hierarchy and inner workings in the first chapter as it impacts every member of the gang. The King Lords who gather in Rose Park, a setting that is the first nod to the book’s title, cannot grow and flourish because establishing their rank within the gang takes precedence over their personal goals for the future. The boys in the gang consistently put themselves at risk for some reward, usually status, which creates a sense of identity and security. Mav risks his status in the gang for financial gain so he can be the provider his incarcerated father cannot be.

When Mav gives Lisa an expensive gift, the gesture highlights her importance to him, as well as his boyish desires and self-centeredness. The necklace he chooses for her, which spells out his name rather than hers, shows that he is using a material item to soften the eventual blow of revealing that he is the father of another girl’s child. He is unable to separate the magnitude of the consequences of losing Lisa’s attention versus those of crossing the King Lords, whose members would surely notice such a lavish gift. The fact that he takes this risk nonetheless foreshadows the additional risks that Mav will take as a result of placing his desires above his responsibilities.  
The fact that Mav’s abrupt transition from childhood to adulthood takes place at the free clinic illustrates how economic worries will be at the forefront of Mav’s many new concerns. The clinic is likely the only place where Mav and Iesha’s families can afford medical care, which shows how limited their economic resources are. When Iesha relinquishes parental control to Mav, it suggests that her inability to care for the baby goes beyond her lack of financial security, and her departure foreshadows the various obstacles that Mav will face as a single father. This second abrupt transition also takes place at the free clinic, which reinforces the fact that Mav’s financial situation will continue to dominate his new life.

Faye and Dre emerge as positive examples for Mav, and observing their behavior helps Mav transition to his sudden entrance into adulthood. The emotional support and nurturing guidance that Faye gives Mav establish that she will be there for him despite the poor decisions he has made. When Mav realizes he can’t go to the party, it helps him develop a better understanding of how Dre feels given that he also stopped attending parties once he and Keisha became parents. Because Mav looks up to Dre and would do anything to make him proud, he takes to heart Dre’s assertion that dealing drugs is not the best way to provide for his family. However, the fact that Dre also struggles with leaving the gang dampens his influence over Mav. Dre’s struggles highlight the idea that Mav needs to make money legally so that his baby will have a better role model and a chance to break the cycle of generational gang life. Like Faye, Dre supports Mav and inspires him to be the father his son deserves.