The Young Landlords

Gloria, like Paul, is a 15-year-old member of Paul’s friend group and the one who coins the name “The Action Group.” Tall and pretty, Gloria is an idealistic firebrand. Gloria creates the Action Group after the Captain challenges her to make a difference in the world rather than criticizing others from the sidelines. She is fearlessly willing to confront adults who she believes are guilty of wrongdoing, telling A.B. that he is a criminal and Stratford Arms owner Joseph Harley that he is an unjust landlord. Over the course of the narrative, Gloria must confront the harsh financial realities that make her ideals difficult to fulfill. She argues against evicting a tenant who hasn’t paid rent in four months, spurring the Action Group to raise money on behalf of tenants facing financial difficulties. Though often tempted to quit the group she formed, Gloria resiliently works to make The Joint a better place for its residents.

Gloria is also Paul’s love interest. Though emotionally and physically tough, she is also naïve and innocent, more than once turning to Paul for help and courage. Her inexperience in romantic relationships mirrors that of Paul. Myers describes their mutual confessions of love as tentative, awkward, funny, and endearing. Paul holds Gloria in great esteem throughout, extending real deference to her. On one occasion, to make himself sound more mature, Paul describes Gloria as “an old lady” to an older neighborhood boy (169), cringing as he does so in fear that Gloria will find out.

In addition to Paul and Gloria, there are four other original members of the Action Group. Primary among these is Dean, Paul’s close friend, whom he counts on in moments that are particularly difficult or dangerous. Paul describes Dean as “strange, not stupid strange but weird strange” (71). Dean is a creative thinker who enjoys challenging conventional ideas, as when he tries to teach a goldfish to live out of the water in order to speed evolution. Myers devotes Chapter 7 to Dean’s attempt to use a mind shield to challenge Kenobi and force him to leave The Joint. Myers portrays Dean as clever and resourceful. When an armed guard pursues and shoots at Paul and Dean when they flee the warehouse, Dean shouts to Paul, “Shoot him” (148), causing the armed man to hide and allowing the boys to escape. Myers reveals Dean to have a good sense of humor, capable of irony, as when he tells Paul which days he is most likely to commit to doing stupid, dangerous things. He is the most dependable and thoughtful of the Action Group boys.

Myers depicts Bubba, the only 16-year-old, as an individual whose thinking seldom rises above conventional wisdom. When he sees Paul, Dean, and Gloria in the back of a police car, he guilelessly says that they, “must’ve done something” (37). Like the other young people, Bubba has ideals. However, his ideals have to do with living a life of social standing and wealth. In Chapter 8, Bubba decides to become a numbers runner, quickly learning that the profession is dangerous, nerve wracking, and math-intensive. Like Dean, however, when Paul needs Bubba to perform specific acts in anxious moments, Bubba rises to the occasion. He convinces Tony and Kelly, two men who possess stolen goods, that he intends to use the bag of money he carries to buy their illegal merchandise.

The two other original members abandon the Action Group after they end up accidentally taking ownership of a tenement building. The author depicts Omar as extremely prophetic and extremely opinionated. He confronts Harley, calling him an oppressor. He counsels other Action Group members not to trust Chris, who must be guilty because the police have charged him with a crime. The other member is Jeannie, who is pretty, intelligent, and, at 14 years old, the youngest member of the Action Group. Jeannie leaves the group when Gloria, as she checks inside a full toilet bowl with her hands, tells Jeannie that she must also put her hand in the water if she is going to be part of the Action Group, to which Jeannie responds by quitting.

Myers portrays Chris, a Black teenager from the neighborhood, as enigmatic. The young people say they know him, though he has never been as close to the group as most other members. Police arrest Chris for participating in the robbery of the stereo store where he works based on the say-so of Willie Bobo, though they have no physical evidence. The police and many in the neighborhood believe Chris to be guilty. Members of the Action Group steadfastly contend that Chris is innocent, though they also have no evidence to prove it. The Action Group makes it a priority to find evidence of Chris’s innocence. If they do, they will receive a $1000 reward offered by Chris’s father’s employer. Ultimately, Chris turns out to be both innocent and guilty. His employer took the equipment to store owner Toby, then made an insurance claim as if it had been stolen. Chris understands and accepts that the money given to him by his boss after his arrest is tainted, making him guilty of receiving stolen property and voiding the reward the Action Group had earned.

Myers does not disclose the first names of Paul’s parents. Paul’s mother, who is supportive of her son and often takes his side when Paul’s father continually criticizes him, is more of a background figure. Rather, the author describes Paul’s interactions with his father extensively. As the narrative progresses, Paul learns that his father hounds him because he is concerned that Paul may end up living a wayward life like Paul’s alcoholic uncle, Jerry. Myer’s symbolically captures the fears and regrets of Paul’s father as the two drive away from the father’s old hometown and Paul’s father sternly warns, “Don’t look back” (127). As Paul struggles with the responsibility of running The Joint, his father’s attitude moderates. The two become more able to communicate so that, in the denouement, Paul’s father suggests a way to prove the presence of the stolen stereo equipment and, thus, Chris’s innocence.

The author introduces the tenants of the Stratford Arms building early in the narrative and develops the storyline and characterization of these individuals as the story proceeds. Apart from being tenants, the one thing that virtually all of these characters share is their eccentricity. Pete Darden, the handyman and custodian, runs an illegal still that leads to an explosion in The Joint’s basement and a citation for Paul as the building’s owner—even though the police never found the still. Tina Robinson, who lives with her sister, routinely draws the attention of the police with her panicked screams. This quality becomes an asset when she successfully summons law officers to the side of the stolen stereo equipment while other appeals for legal help fail. Mrs. Brown, an older stroke victim, believes that the long-deceased heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, lives in her apartment. Regularly, she contacts Paul and others in her distraught moments to tell them that Johnson died in her apartment—though he does not remain dead for long. Askia Ben Kenobi, who lives on the top floor, perceives himself to be a mystical ninja. When threatened or mocked, he assumes a karate stance and begins to destroy furniture.