The first time I read this chapter this summer, it really stuck out to me. I admired her work ethic like no other. But I also think this is the reason her life turned out so much differently than Nelson's. She describes in other chapters how they're pretty much the same person, brother and sister, even twins. Though that still didn't account for the fact that boys in their type of community weren't pushed like the girls were, as she put it "the culture that pushes boys out onto the streets while protecting girls...". I do agree with this, I don't think boys are given the same fair chance that girls are in the type of community that she grew up in. But then again, that's not completely to blame.
If Nelson had the same drive to succeed that Sonia did, I'm sure he could have been just as successful as she is today. He would have been able to overcome the societal pressures in their community and then focus on his future. Just as she did when she arrived at Princeton, he could have done his whole life; "I saw right away that a sense of belonging would not come easily. The community was much bigger than any I had known, bound by its own traditions, some of them impenetrable to women and minorities". And for that I feel she is 100% accurate in the reasons she gives for why they didn't turn out the same.
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