"Everyone Pays the Price" by Hadley McGraw

"Everyone Pays the Price"

Summary and Reaction

Part 1: Summary

The narrator, Hadley, is describing her days with her gang member boyfriends. Hadley is a good
student. She studies hard, good and obedient, pretty, makes good grades, comes from a good family,
and goes to college. On the other hand, her boyfriend Martin, who is a gang member, is a bad boy.
He comes from a broken family; his relatives are all gang members, tough. And soon, he quitted
school at freshman year. Hadley soon was joining him, she left home and lost her friends, used drugs
all day and all night, spent her days on a street corner and carried Martin’s gun by his side. But in
about a year ago, they had a gun fight with others, one of Martin’s cousin died. About two months
later, Martin was in Jailed. And all of these things scared Hadley, so she had been moving back o the
right track. She had started college, and returned home. Although she has nightmares about the
past, she still hopes that after Martin get out from jail, he will trade his gun and get back to school
for her.

Part 2: Reaction

Every one has different story. Sometimes we might be in the wrong way, sometimes we might
turn our parents down, but it is always not too late to go back on the right track. Hadley is a poor
girl; she had always be a good student, listened to her parents, and followed the rules before she
met Martin, a boy who was good looking and well known. This totally new world attracted Hadley,
so she followed her lover become a gang member. She called that as “Love”. But everyone will grow
up after get through some pain. All things that she has seen and things she has done are reminding
her do not go back to the wrong track. I feel sorry for her for choosing the wrong guy and hope that
one day Martin will finally wake up and go back to the right way.
"Everyone Pays the Price" by Hadley McGraw: A Summary and a Reaction

"Everyone Pays the Price" by Hadley McGraw:

Part 1: Summary

The author Hadley's boyfriend, Martin, a gang member, has been in jail and is about to see the
sunlight. He has spent nearly half of the time on correctional institutions in their relationship. Gang
membership of a loved one affects everyone around that person. Martin's bad-boy image and
carefree way of life make Hadley have a crush on him. However, they are from vastly different
family: Hadley was born in a perfect family; on the contrary, Martin was from a broken home
composed of gang members. In order to join Martin, Hadley left home and devastated all she had.
Little did she know that Jail sentence made him closer to his gang but farther from her. It was not
until Martin's cousin died before Hadley's very eyes one year ago that she had breaking point.
Therefore, this last year she has been moving back to the right track, gotten sober, started college
and then returned home. Nevertheless, she still lives each day in fear and grief, and prays Martin will
go back to correct path.

Part 2: Reaction

The leading role of this story, Hadley, is a girl who loves his boyfriend without any payment and
regret at first. However, "Love is blind.", after countless wrong doings and the occurrence of the
death of Martin's cousin, she had a sharp warning and learned a painful lesson. Although she has
went back to the right track, she still has nightmare about the horrible things she has seen and evil
things she has done. Since she is in extreme distress and pain, why not leave her boyfriend
unhesitatingly? Being willing to abandon everything she had and depart from everyone she loved for
the sake of a man is exactly ridiculous and absurd. Though it seems beautiful and dramatic that a
woman loves a man with selfless contribution and firm company, in this case this romantic epic is
almost blind and insane. In addition, Hadley may not regret being together with Martin but muss
absolutely regret breaking her parents' hearts and forsaking her friends, needless to say those
wicked things such as dealing drugs and joining the battle between gangs.

Besides, as a proverb goes, "A fox may grow gray, but never good." Martin was born in a broken
home. His parents hated each other. His father was a heartless man, and his mother was a "flaky"
drug addict. His parents did not give him a warm and well-education family. In such circumstance it
was hard for him to grew up as happy as a normal children. Apart from his parents, most of his
families were gang members. The instinct of violence and destruction is naturally in his blood from
his birth. The unstable nature makes him difficult live in a peaceful and safe life. There is no doubt
that the miracle that Martin trades his gun for Hadley, even gets an education is totally impossible to
happen. Hadley is too innocent too see through the cruel fact that she can never change Martin. The
stubbornness of staying with her boyfriend will definitely let her meet her doom in the near future.

Everyone Pays the Price (Summary & Reaction)

Summary:

According to Everyone Pays the Price by Hadley McGraw, who is from a good family and got good
grades in school before she led to a dangerous life. She was in a gang with her boyfriend who is now
in jail because of the gunshot happened one year ago in the party. The author’s boyfriend Martin is
from a broken home, so he has been in the gang for several years, and thus, had been in jail for
many times. The author is worrying about the safety of her boyfriend and hers. She now tries to live
and pray for Martin that he could move back to the normal life as she does.

Reaction:

The reasons that many people join the gangs are usually because of the broken families they have,
the bad peers they with, and the curiosity they come up in mind. Nowadays, most of these people
do things which are against the laws and own guns to fight with others to show their strength and
power. Some of them want to withdraw from these gangs they participate in, but they fail and were
hurt by their former “friends”. These happen every day.

In fact, I think entering the gangs is an action of getting away from the reality for people think they
can do whatever they want in the gangs because their friends would be with them all the time.
However, this is not true. Friends around on person when that person is doing bad events such as
stealing are not real friends. It’s no good to do the illegal things just to obtain fun and excitement