Down These Mean Streets Doubtlessly,

Down These Mean Streets

Doubtlessly, Piri Thomas in Down These Mean Streets walks a difficult and painful path towards his ultimate goal of peace with himself. Specifically where he goes wrong, or what social circumstances result in the sorrowful events of his life are, perhaps, less evident. Poverty, certainly, determines largely the path his life takes; but racism also demands that he behave within certain structural guidelines society places before him. Race plays a major role in both how others see him, and how he sees himself. The most complicated task that Piri encounters is unabashedly recognizing who he is, and not relying upon definitions with reference to others. Essentially, Piri's story is one of self-understanding, as he battles his desire to become a member of mainstream of society.

Piri's tale of self identification begins with his labeling of himself as "poor." His mother tells him, "Bueno hijo, you have people everywhere who, because they have more, don't remember those who have very little. But in Puerto Rico those around you share la pobreza with you and they love you, because only poor people can understand poor people." (Thomas 10). This is an important point within Down These Mean Streets because it illustrates the fact that poverty is a relative term: if everyone is poor, no one notices. Piri, on the other hand, knows that he is poor and feels that he will never have anything of his own unless he takes it. Basically, because Piri defines himself through the eyes of others he recognizes that he is the one who has very little; he is in opposition to those who have more.

Another aspect of Piri's personality demands that he be recognized and accepted. To begin with, he desires to be heard; he wants to make noise in a world that wishes to silence him. His father punishes him for making inadvertent noise -- noise that he made simply by behaving like a human being -- and Piri resents it. The sound is accidental, and yet his father felt that it needed to be silenced with force. This is just the first instance where Piri is punished for forces that, although where technically his fault, could be arguably attributed to external circumstances and not necessarily his own malice. This incident reveals that Piri feels that human beings are designed to make themselves heard, but that people and institutions are in place to silence their natural pleas for solvency.

As for Piri's drive for acceptance, Down These Mean Streets provides numerous examples. In the tough streets of Harlem Piri achieves approval from his peers by demonstrating that he has "heart." The method by which this approval is gained is particularly brutal, but Piri's will pulls him through a myriad of bumps, bruises, cuts, and trips to the hospital. He undergoes all of this physical pain for the psychological reward of feeling that he belongs somewhere, he has a place. When he moves to a new block, is in a new social situation, and when he is in prison -- each time he is obsessed with obtaining a rep, and thus, a position in a hierarchical system of violence. Primarily, Piri recognizes himself through the lenses of those around him: if his boys believe that he has heart, Piri believes it too. Without their approval he has nothing. He describes the point-of-view his opponent -- Waneko -- has, which mirrors his own: "He would have to fight me on his own, to prove his heart to himself, to his boys, and most important, to his turf." (Thomas 50). Piri sees heart as his only mode to social acceptance, and this heart is placed upon him the external world.

Despite Piri's ceaseless battle to gouge a place for himself in the societal structures around him, he continually finds that he is a general outcast from mainstream, white society. After repeatedly being considered a "negro" by both whites and blacks Piri begins to question his own racial identity: "Jesus, if I'm a Negro, I gotta feel it all over. I don't have the "for sure" feelin's yet." (Thomas 128). Furthermore, following his encounter with a white woman on the subway, he imagines from her calling him a "black boy." (Thomas 141). This incident provides an interesting look into Piri's way of thinking on a number of levels. First, it reveals his obvious distress at living in a world where he cannot act on sexual impulses entirely because he is non-white. Second, it shows that he recognizes his "blackness" in the eyes of others. And third, by the very act of his reminiscing from the perspective of the woman, it demonstrates his prevailing concern with his own image as looked upon from the outside. Piri's longing to reach general approval stifles his competing want to know who he is.

Overall, Piri's tale is one of deviance; however, this is mainly because he identifies it as such. Since he is so utterly concerned with the opinions of others he sees himself as a "spick," a "nigger," and a criminal. It is particularly enlightening that Thomas includes his homosexual experience within the pages of Down These Mean Streets. At first glance it appears that this portion is included to fit-in with the confidential nature of the novel; Thomas wishes to reveal all of his most embarrassing and shameful moments. However, a closer inspection reveals two significant aspects of the story that are not completely explicit.

First, it is important to keep in mind Piri's motives for going to the homosexuals' home. He writes, "All the guys felt like I did. Not one of them looked happy. So why were we making it up to the maricones' pad? Cause we wanted to belong, and belonging meant doing whatever had to be done." (Thomas 55). Although Piri and none of his friends wished to go along with the unfolding situation, they all did because their want of a definite social position outweighed any objections they might have.

Second, the fact that Thomas includes this event sheds light on some of his motivations for publishing the text. Thomas details this event because it was deviant, and he is deviant in numerous ways. By writing Down These Mean Streets he paints a picture of himself for the reader that is at once a "spick," a "nigger," and also a "faggot." (Thomas 55). This represents the strides he has taken towards understanding his own "self" -- the fact that an outsider could possibly label him as gay no longer concerns him. The book is brutally honest, and as such, demonstrates Thomas' current belief that individuality is not governed by labels, the mainstream or foreign opinions: only the individual mind.