Outgrowing Poverty
Gunnar Kaufman lives in West Los Angeles, a poor, crime-stricken neighborhood full of bad influences. However, he eventually becomes a successful writer. The book itself is written as a fictitious memoir, and Kaufman wants to show how he overcame the bad experiences in his life to change for the better. Of course, he still has bad memories and habits with him - those will never be outgrown - but he shows that it really is possible to get out of a deep hole, and those who are around you shouldn't necessarily be your role models.
Adapting to Changing Environments
Of course, the neighborhood of West Los Angeles is a changing environment in itself, but let's focus more on the big picture event that happened early in the novel - Kaufman's move from Santa Monica to Los Angeles. Without this transition, Gunnar never would have been confident, probably wouldn't have gotten into basketball, and most likely would not have become a writer. At first, Kaufman was a little scared to make such a big change, as anyone would be, because it could mean that he would become a complete outcast in the new place he was in. The author wants to show readers that it is possible to overcome difficulties like these, and may even have based some of these life altering events seen in the novel on his own, personal life.
African American Discrimination
Discrimination as an idea isn't necessarily a bad thing - there have to be things that you should look down upon, otherwise, you would have no morals. However, discrimination against an entire group of people, especially when you have no idea who they personally are, is always wrong. Gunnar admits it - he himself isn't the best role model, and one of the people he associates with is a convicted felon. However, not all African Americans are bad, and the actions of those in bad neighborhoods are just mimicking those around them. In the summary on the back of the book, it is stated, "[Gunnar transforms] eventually to a reluctant messiah of a 'divided, downtrodden people,'" referring to, of course, African Americans. Through his memoir writing, Kaufman tries to show that not everyone is who you make them out to be - either if they are actually better or worse than you thought they were, they are still not your original impression, which could easily have been misguided.
