Kekla Magoon’s “The Rock and the River,” takes place in 1968 in Chicago. Sam and Stick’s dad is a civil rights activist. Roland (their father) always solves things with zero to little violence. Stick believes that nothing will get achieved by the way his dad is solving problems. So Stick turns to the Black Panthers. Sam gets caught up in between these two. Sam understands where the two are coming from. I feel like a lesson from this story is to respect other people’s opinions. And take other people’s thoughts in consideration. Another lesson I feel that was hinted at is to not judge people based on how they seem.
From the beginning of the story I felt like a majority of the people introduced weren’t going through the greatest times in their life. They were being judged. Sam just wanted to be equal. Stick went to help a lady in the beginning of the story and the cops hit him in the head with a metal baton. Stick and Sam went to the hospital without telling their dad because they were told to not go wandering off in the crowd. When they went into the hospital to the receptionist, she automatically judged Stick based off of his skin color. The other receptionist said he was okay to wait. While Stick was in the hospital bed, Sam decided to go to the gift shop. Sam was looking around and seen a pair of purple mittens. He was going to buy them for Maxie. When Sam was looking at the mittens, the guy behind the counter told him to put it back. Sam didn’t do anything wrong. He was about to pay for the mittens. The guy thought that Sam was trying to steal and was threatening him. Sam stood up to the person working the cash register. He told him that what he was doing wasn’t right. Sam slightly convinced the guy and he walked the mittens over to the check out desk and payed for them. The guy said, “Now get your thieving behind out of my shop, and don’t come back here.” Sam left with the purple mittens.
In the middle of the story, Sam found a gun that Stick hid in their room, behind their block tower, that they built. After that, Sam and Maxie walked home from school another day. While they were on their way home, they ran into Bucky (a family friend). Bucky was on his way back to work from break. A few seconds after they parted, a cop walked up to Bucky. (Sam and Maxie were on the sidewalk watching). The cop questioned Bucky, asking where he was going. Bucky told him that he was on his way to work. After that, the cop asked Bucky what his name was. Bucky didn’t answer. The cop pulled out his baton and started beating Bucky with it. Everyone on the block, including Sam and Maxie, were all watching. Sam wanted to help but he just froze up. Bucky looked at Sam and smiled, then, passed out.
Towards the end of the story, a series of unfortunate events were starting to happen. Dr. King died and it caused riots and a lot of violence. Right around the very end of the story, Sam, Stick, and their friend were driving in the car together. They all were having a good time for once. A cop pulled them over and asked for their registration. Stick opened the glove box, forgetting that they stashed the gun in there earlier. The cop seen the gun and shot two rounds. The cop told them to exit the car. That’s when Sam noticed that Stick wasn’t getting out. Sam called out Stick’s name two times. But he didn’t answer. Stick got shot. Stick was dying, right in front of Sam. “I’m sorry,” Sam told Stick. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay,” Stick murmured, closing his eyes. Sam yelled out Stick’s name once more but Stick didn’t answer. The world around Stick shattered. He knew it was too late to change anything.
At the end of the story, Sam, family, and friends went to Stick’s funeral. Sam felt like he could’ve done something. Leroy told Sam that he couldn’t be “The rock and the river.” “As the river flows, it wonders what it would be like to be so still, to take a breath, to rest. But the rock will always wonder what lies around the bend of the stream.” Leroy told Sam, “I want to be both,” Sam said. “So did he, but when the story ends….” Sam knew exactly how the story ends. I feel like there was also kind of a hidden lesson at the end. You can’t solve everything . Something around that meaning.