How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I found myself thinking about how I had arrived at this point in my life. Growing up, I never imagined that I would end up caged in a cell, living out my life like an animal. I'm too smart for this s***, I thought angrily as I stared up at the paint-chipped ceiling.(12.32)
Shaka is smart, but it takes more than just brains for him to escape the actions that put him in prison. He needs real transformation of his whole self, not just his mind.
Quote #5
At some point, all inmates begin to wonder if their existence is really a nightmare, from which at any moment they could wake up and be back home in their own beds. But as the years of your incarceration stretch on, you soon learn that prison is all too real. (12.33)
Nobody likes the idea of prison, but it sounds even worse when Shaka describes what it's really like. Does his clear description of the experience change how we think about it?
Quote #6
It was through these letters that I realized writing could serve as a means of escape. With a pencil and a piece of paper, it was almost like I could travel outside of prison and go wherever I desired. I could stand on the corner in my neighborhood, and no one could stop me. I could drive down the freeway to see my ex-girlfriend in Ohio, and the bars and wired fences couldn't hold me back. Writing was freedom, so I wrote till my fingers were sore.(12.36)
When he's in prison, Shaka finds out that writing makes him feel free in a way not much else can do. What makes writing so powerful?