Jamal’s character is very well-developed. His struggles with living in a single-family household with his older brother in jail come through as he tries to be responsible and care for everyone (his mother, older brother, and younger sister). This also applies to his strong feelings of protectiveness over his friend, Tito. When Jamal gets caught up in the gang activity, he is emotionally torn between taking over the Scorpions for his brother and walking away from it. Should he be in charge, carry a gun, risk his life and the lives of those he loves? He struggles throughout the book and Myers does a wonderful job of making the reader feel anxious for him, for making us want to help him through his difficult decisions.
The setting of Harlem is a good choice for the storyline. It emphasizes historical involvement with gangs and violence, and yet focuses on strong community. The connections people make in this neighborhood are crucial to their development, and Tito and Jamal’s friendship is a great example of this. We actually feel for the boys during their times of troubled youth, and Myers’ shows us the strong connection they have with each other despite the growing gang activity in their neighborhood. We feel Tito’s anxiety over Jamal being involved with the Scorpions and killing someone, see Jamal’s struggle to decide between what’s best for his brother or himself, sympathize with Jamal and Tito’s lack of positive male role models, feel sorry for Jamal constantly feeling overwhelmed by everything around him, empathize with Jamal feeling like no one takes him seriously or wants to see him succeed except his mother, and anger for Jamal feeling like the gang makes him actually belong somewhere. These all connect to Myers’ themes of responsibility, loyalty, making difficult decisions, self-awareness, and self-preservation.
Scorpions is a good book for young adults to discuss many issues surrounding them today. Gang activity and the struggles not to become involved; loyalty to our friends, family, and especially ourselves; and a willingness to stand up for individuality and making positive decisions are all good topics for discussion. This could also be a good book to teach with the history of gang violence and other challenging community issues in the neighborhoods the students live in. Students could discuss their own social difficulties, whether personal or communal, and they could research examples of strong, positive change in their community.
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