Black and White

I do not feel that Black and White exploits these true life experiences, but rather uses them to help point out the significance that race plays in our lives. I think by using these true situations Volponi makes the novel more creditable and demonstrates that white the book is fiction, situations like this really do happen in real life. I think that Volponi's experiences on Rikers Island proved to be some of the most valuable for him as well as this novel. There he noticed that most of the inmates were black or hispanic, thus giving him background from which to base Marcus's character. I think since Eddie was really the more guilty of the two, Volponi is making a statement that some of these inmates may have also been being punished for crimes in which they did not commit. The novel plays up racial and social class by giving evidence that because Eddie was white and more wealthy is the reason he was able to get off so much easier than Marcus. I think Volponi is playing tribute to these people from Rikers Island because he calls into question their guilty, just as Marcus's was in the book. This novel points to the ideas that the inmates at Rikers Island may not have had the means in which to defend themselves due to money, or that stereotypes against blacks and hispanics influenced to their conviction. In reality the inmates may have been innocent or simply just made a mistake despite the good people that they really were, like Marcus and Eddie.