The issues at stake here are that the main characters involved in this are somewhat f a family and I refer to the as such because they coexist in a way that people “nuclear setting do not. Dangers parents do not live together and he bounces back and forth between one home and the other because he cannot trust either of them not steal his stash or his money that he earns from selling drugs. Both of his parents are hard-core drug addicts which is another commonplace thing there that is accepted among the members of The Corner.
In urban America we have drug use, alcoholism and many other deviant things but people are not accepting of them or pretend not to be. In the winter of this story sometimes the snow will cover up the trash and make it almost look beautiful in esoteric way. This could be almost a simile for the way a lot of the people in this story end-up drug addicts slaves to their needs and cover it up at first. But the track marks make it impossible after a while. The premature aging that is caused by continuous drug use and hard living is very hard to hide even with the best cosmetics.
This can also be true of how bad parenting is also hard to hide when your children are left to raise themselves with no morals, no love and nothing else hat other children would expect. This would include a childhood. Children in these situations lack the inhibitions that an adult might have about shooting someone or beating someone to death. Also, children who see their parents dealing or using drugs are going to see that as an acceptable way of life. Parents, for instance cannot say, “don’t sell drugs. Don’t take drugs. They are bad for you”. When these same role models are selling and using and stealing to get them.
Fran is particularly conflicted. She has two sons and is bound by a moral code of mom sort to make sure that her kids are provided for. She also, for instance wants Dander to get into trouble for his drug distribution and other illegal activities because in some way she thinks that it will take someone else to save him. Unfortunately, she expects someone else to do the job she is incapable of. Since he doesn’t ever listen to her and his father figure is useless or ineffectual as a parent. Dander is not past saving at the age of fifteen in our world.