Michael MacDonald's All Souls is a heartbreaking insider's account of his childhood in the Old Country housing projects located in South Boston, also known as Southie to local. The memoir takes the reader deep into the world of Southie through MacDonald's eyes. MacDonald was one of 11 children who grew up and faced the many tribulations of Southie, Boston. Southie is characterized by high levels of crime, racism and violence; anything that falls under the category of social problems. Social problems can be defined as “socially induced conditions that harm any segment of the population.” Social problems are also linked to actions and conditions that violate the norms and values ​​of society” (Long). The social problems present in Southie are the very reasons why living conditions are so poor and why Southie is considered one of the poorest towns in Boston. Macdonald and his family must overcome the presence of crime, racism and violence in order to survive in the city they consider the best place in the world. Crime can be defined as “a prohibited act or commission of an act”. or the omission of a duty imposed by a public law and which renders the offender liable to punishment under that law; above all: a flagrant violation of the law” (Merriam Webster). In simpler terms, any act that breaks the law is a crime. Southie, Boston is rife with crime, as crime is the most prevalent social problem in the city. Crime is the main cause of poor overall neighborhood conditions. The majority of crimes committed in Southie are drug related. The leader of Southie's drug trade at this time was a man named James Whitey Bulger. The ...... middle of paper ......r of a family that grew up in a city where crime, racism and violence thrived. The social problems present in Southie, Boston could all have been minimized if only parents had led their children on the right path. Parents could have warned their children of the horrors associated with any association with drug dealing, discouraged them from discriminating against people of different races, and reported violence in their neighborhoods instead of remaining silent in the hope of enforcing a sort of southern policy. loyalty code/ “Southie Code of Silence” (MacDonald 8). Instead, parents failed to teach their children about the dangers of drug dealing; they encouraged racial discrimination and remained silent in the face of violence. All of these things have contributed to South Boston's poor living conditions and bad reputation..