“This was fresh, rich, heavenly, succulent, soft, creamy, kiss-my-ass, cows-gotta-die-for-this, delightfully salty, moo-ass, good old white folks cheese, cheese to die for, cheese to make you happy, cheese to beat the cheese boss, cheese for the big cheese, cheese to end the world, cheese so good it inspired a line every first Saturday of the month: mothers, daughters, fathers, grandparents, disabled in wheelchairs, kids, relatives from out of town, white folks from nearby Brooklyn Heights, and even South American workers from the garbage-processing plant on Concord Avenue, all patiently standing in a line that stretched from the interior of Hot Sausage’s boiler room to Building 17’s outer doorway, up the ramp to the sidewalk, curling around the side of the building and to the plaza near the flagpole […] Naturally, Sportcoat’s affinity with the very important distributor of that item, Hot Sausage, guaranteed him a hunk no matter what the demand, which was always good news for him and Hettie. Hettie especially loved that cheese. So her crack about it infuriated him.” 

The book’s first chapter features the Cause cheese, the origins of which are mysterious at the beginning of the book. The passage underscores the diversity of people who are waiting in line to receive the cheese. Hettie’s affiliation with the cheese is meaningful because the cheese symbolizes the connection between the Cause Houses and the Elefante family, a connection that Hettie helped maintain during her lifetime.

“Everyone had a reason to be crazy in the Cause. There was mostly a good reason behind everything.

Until Sportcoat shot Deems. That was different. Trying to find reason in that was like trying to explain how Deems went from being a cute pain in the ass and the best baseball player the projects had ever seen to a dreadful, poison-selling, murderous meathead with all the appeal of a cyclops. It was impossible.” 

Deems’s evolution from mischievous neighborhood boy to hardened drug dealer is significant because it drives so much of the story. The narrator concludes that the process is inexplicable, which increases the sense of powerlessness and frustration that Sportcoat feels about Deems’s choice. The diction of the passage also underscores how many of the Cause residents feel about Deems: “dreadful, poison-selling, murderous meathead” is not a complimentary description and is worlds away from the precocious boy the residents used to know. 

“Jet, terrified, stared at the old man, who squinted back at him in the afternoon sun, which had come up high now. Their eyes locked, and at that moment Jet felt as if he were looking into the ocean. The old man’s gaze was deep-set, detached, calm, and Jet suddenly felt as if he were floating in a spot of placid sea while giant waves roiled and swelled and lifted up the waters all around him. He had a sudden revelation. We’re the same, Jet thought. We’re trapped.”

At the pivotal moment of the shooting, Jet has this intense encounter with Sportcoat in which he understands that the two, as Black men struggling to survive against unjust social systems, are “trapped.” The calm resignation with which Sportcoat seems to regard Jet makes the young man believe that their fates must be met with resignation and acceptance.