Black Holes and Basketball Sneakers by Lori Aurelia Williams is a story about Malik, a 13 year-old boy trying to overcome conflicts as a result of his environment. Malik's struggles all stem from the adversity he faces in a materialistic society. Throughout the story Malik, has to deal with conflict in school, at home, and in his head. At the beginning of the story, Malik struggles with bullies at school. He runs away at first, but he eventually gives up because he knows he can't outrun them. This is the first instance of Malik struggling with adversity in an area of his life. Later in the story, Malik has to choose between stealing shoes from a basketball player or helping the player escape from the Bullets. Even though…show more content… Malik lives in a society that treasures material things. It is because of his lack of popular material things that he is made fun of in the first place. Malik isn't able to function well in this present society. The author first makes this clear when she says, "She just didn't get it, and deep down Malik knew he didn't get it either. Back in the small town of receding lake, where they came from, it just wasn't like that. School was about school, not clothes. You didn't go to class to style. You went to hopefully get a chance at a good scholarship" (Williams 124). Although this quote infers that this problem is only routed in school, it is clear that it affects his home life as well. Malik knows that if he was dressed like everybody else he wouldn't be bullied, which is why he decides that he needs new shoes. This is also why Malik has so many mixed feelings about the Bullets and their actions. On one hand, he believes that they are just like him in that they just wanted to have what everyone else did. On the other hand, he sees that they behave just like the bullies he's always running away from, which leaves him conflicted. This is especially hard for him when he finds himself thinking that he should've stolen the shoes. He realizes that in his pursuit of material things he almost had become one of the things that vexed him the most in his life. Unfortunately,
