Analyse af Bernardine Evaristos 'Hello Mum'

The novella, Hello mum, was written by Bernardine Evaristo and published in 2010. It focuses on the life of fourteen-year-old Jerome, who is a teenage boy living in London council estate. Jerome has not had an easy life. He lives in a small flat, and does not have a good relationship with his mother. Jerome is fully aware that it is not her fault, but she does not understand what the life on the streets are like, when you live in that area. A teenage boy like him has no future prospects, and he is not doing well at school. Therefor he joins a gang to survive, a world where kids get beat up, because they live in a wrong environment.

Jerome is proud of himself because he caught the attention of the Kamikaze Kru, that are rivals of the B-Block Boys. He is very glad that he has become friends with the leader of the Kamikaze Kru, Delmar. Jerome is a 14-year-old teenager, with afro curly hair who lives in London. We do not hear about his father, but we know that he lives in a tiny flat with his mother. Jerome is in an identity crisis, which is very normal, when you are turning into a teenager. Adrian is or was, we do not exactly know, his best friend, but Jerome wanted to be part of a bigger social group, and reached out for the Kamikaze Kru. He might have joined this gang, and reached out for something bigger than him, because of the lack of attention from his mother. It is a cry for attention, and he does not care what he has to do, to get her attention, whether it is positive or negative. He wants to be noticed by people, and especially his mother. He idols bad guys that have guns, deals drugs and beats people up. He is not a good friend to Adrian - a boy who wants to do good in school, and become something of oneself - because JJ does not believe in him, and he does not believe that he will succeed in life.