When I started to read part two of “Juice”, I thought it would be a continuation of part one. However, part two starts off with a different speaker and a different situation. The speaker returns to their hometown after being gone for a number of years. The speaker sees that nothing is the same from when they left. The speaker states the fact that their sister made signs and one sign in particular said ” No Through Street”. The speaker also talks traveling on trains from east to west. The speaker learns that you can be surrounded by both life and death on a train. The speaker also learned to love the human voice as they would rather hear what is going on than try to see it.
Even though the speaker says they do not blame their sister for the popularity that their street has suddenly received for the signs. The speaker speaks as if they secretly do blame her for it. Since the speaker has been back in town, they have not talked to their sister or went to go see her. The speaker states that after a public craze about the sister’s signs brought the media to Hershey Street, six months later, long- time neighbors, The Godfreys, moved out. The speaker feels as though the media and museum- goers have consumed the last of the street. The speaker is prepared to get on a train and never return because they feel like there is nothing to return to.
However the speaker does try to make the best of the situation. the speaker attempts to explore the new stuff that was built over the stuff that the speaker knew as a child. They attempt to snuff out the probable ghosts of the past. This section of the book seems to suggest the problem that some people have with change and growing up. The speaker hates the fact that so much has changed. Some people do not like change and tend to have a bad reaction to change when it happens. The speaker also seems to have a problem with growing up and changing them-self.
Briana N. Smith 