All Souls: A Family Story From Southie

As MacDonald’s narrative reveals a complex landscape of fraught family dynamics, local neighborhood attitudes and views, and broader political turmoil, the emphasis of his descriptions remains focused upon the various implications of the close-knit Southie community that dominated his childhood. From the moment of the family’s arrival in Southie, they are forced to contend with the importance of carving their own niche within this tough-minded neighborhood; as the young Michael’s new friend Danny explains, Michael himself is destined to get into a fight or three before he and his family manage to establish their bona fides within the neighborhood. Ma’s approach to this issue illustrates the complex dynamics involved, for when her family is initially threatened by local gangsters, she brazenly walks up and down the street with a shotgun to illustrate her lack of fear. Combined with her children’s growing reputations for toughness, confidence, and street smarts, this ensures the MacDonald family earns its place among the hard-nosed residents of Southie.

However, membership in this community comes with its own unique hardships, for as MacDonald observes, “In Southie the worst thing you could be was a snitch” (67). Distrust of authority figures is simply part of the local landscape, and the MacDonald siblings’ dabbling in criminal activities leads several of them to harsh and violent ends. The collective family grief over this series of tragedies binds the surviving members closer together, and as they and the rest of their community struggle to contend with the broader social and political violence raging around them, their sense of belonging to the extremely tight-knit community of Southie intensifies. 

As an extension of this dynamic, the community of Southie, with its predominantly Irish Catholic origins, stands as a discrete unit amid the wider population of Boston, maintaining a distinct culture and personality. This sense of unity, while often beneficial for its residents on a personal level, also contributes to the collective outrage, violence, and acts of racism that run rampant during the busing crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, for many of the white residents of South Boston see the Black residents of nearby neighborhoods such as Roxbury as their enemy. MacDonald’s descriptions of the ensuing violence match other accounts of anti-busing protests and mobs in which people gathered to jeer and throw bricks at the approaching school buses that were bringing Black students to South Boston High School. Opponents of the busing initiative wished to retain control of where their children were sent to school, but these incidents gave South Boston a widespread reputation for rampant racism. Amid this widespread turmoil, MacDonald’s account of the dynamics of Southie indicates that the entire neighborhood of Old Colony sees itself as a family of sorts, and the narrative indicates that white people in South Boston see themselves as a family feuding with nearby communities of Black people. Furthermore, the Southie of MacDonald’s youth clearly sees itself as a unit that is largely separate from the rest of Boston, and the descendants of Irish immigrants who live there see themselves as a family that is opposed to many American ideals and much of its government.