Gantos’ message is that “beauty and power and truth” doesn’t need to be chased, it resides in front of us if we choose to notice it. Jack writes, “Each time I read a book, I cataloged the parts that struck me dumb with envy and admiration for their beauty and power and truth.” The morale of his story is not about making bad decisions and their consequences. He is the author of his life, and although he believes that his greatest writing was enmeshed between the lines of Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. His writer’s voice is freed upon his release, when he realizes that the path of his life has not already been written. His words are bound within the constraints of these authors. Through this journey, the words of others are a window into how he should think, feel, and act.
Through a series of metaphorical confinements, his high school set in a former prison, the island, the boat at sea, and ultimately the actual incarnation of imprisonment, Jack is trapped and isolated, searching for the next opportunity to escape and make it in the world of writing. Until Jack finally hatches his plan for early release from prison, the reader follows him from one situation to the next in which he feels trapped, and is looking for an opportunity to escape. I wonder about using his literary allusions and references to great works and great authors as a guide for having students engage in book clubs or literacy circles as a means of developing cultural literacy.
Like bloggers before me, I found the narrative as a great foundation to provide context for discussing the notion that there are consequences, good and bad, to all of our actions.Īs I was reading, I thought about the amount of background knowledge that I happened to have about classic literary works, and how those references enhanced the story for me tenfold. It is inherently and authentically instructive.
The sincerity and authenticity in his voice allows for a story that otherwise might be perceived either as reckless, or potentially instructive, to take the form of a window/mirror for students to reflect upon and learn from. As I read Hole In My Life, I found myself thinking deeply about the utility of Gantos' writing as a platform for discussing such issues. Last week, my in-class discussion group talked about the value of facilitating opportunities for healthy and productive dialogue around more controversial, or adult, issues through literacy instruction.
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