what does "the boy from church" mean?

[japanjapan]

Dear teachers,
Please read the following sentence:
I recall the girl I played dolls with who now rears five children on welfare, the boy from church who is in prison for murder, the pal found dead of a drug overdose in the alley where we once played tag.

Here "I", the author, is a black. "the girl", "the boy from church" and "the pal" are blacks too.

what does "the boy from church" mean?

Here is my another question:
Please read the following sentence:
I am not comfortably middle class; I am uncomfortably middle class.
Why is "comfortably" used here? I think "comfortable" (the adj. form) is better.
Adjectives modify noun phrases. Isn't it?
Please help me.
Thanks a lot.

[Coffa]

Originally Posted by japanjapan

Dear teachers,
Please read the following sentence:
I recall the girl I played dolls with who now rears five children on welfare, the boy from church who is in prison for murder, the pal found dead of a drug overdose in the alley where we once played tag.

Here "I", the author, is a black. "the girl", "the boy from church" and "the pal" are blacks too.

what does "the boy from church" mean?

The author is distributing the verb 'recall' over three clauses separated by commas. So he 'recalls the boy from church who is in prison for murder'. The 'boy from church' is a short way of referring to a boy he met in church when they were both children. It describes the context in which he knew the boy.

Originally Posted by japanjapan

Here is my another question:
Please read the following sentence:
I am not comfortably middle class; I am uncomfortably middle class.
Why is "comfortably" used here? I think "comfortable" (the adj. form) is better.
Adjectives modify noun phrases. Isn't it?
Please help me.
Thanks a lot.

'Comfortably' here is an adverb modifying the verb 'to be'. It does not modify the noun 'middle class', so it should not be an adjective.

[Tdol]

Couldn't 'middle class' be viewed as an adjective and, hence, modified by an adverb?