Essay Questions

What is the connotation of “Chicago typewriter”?

Peck writes, "You wouldn't think we'd have to leave Chicago to see a dead body. We were growing up there back in the bad days of Al Capone and Bugs Moran. Just the winter before, they'd had the St. Valentine's Day massacre over on North Clarke Street. The city had such an evil reputation that the Thompson submachine gun was better known as a "Chicago typewriter." The metaphoric "Chicago typewriter" underscores the prevalence of violence in Chicago which prompts a notable number of deaths there. The gun which the typewriter denotes is common and is the main instrument that is used to facilitate massacres.

Is prohibition conclusively effective in stopping the consumption of liquor?

The narrator expounds, "We'd stroll uptown in those first days. It was only a short block of brick buildings: the bank, the insurance agency, Moore's Store, and The Coffee Pot Café, where the old saloon had stood. Prohibition was on in those days, which meant that selling liquor was against the law. So people made their own beer at home." Seemingly, people consume liquor although it is prohibited. Prohibition does not what people from preparing their liquor at home. Accordingly, prohibition is not a sufficient deterrent measure for curbing consumption of liquor.