Back in middle school, my best friend Jillian and I were self-professed PBAs (Prison Break Addicts). Every Monday night at 8:00, she and I would plant ourselves onto our respective couches, telephones in hand, and tune in to watch our favorite criminals: C-Note, Sucre, T-Bag, Haywire, Abruzzi, Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows plan their epic escape from Fox River State Penitentiary. Immediately after the cliffhanger, we would call each other and discuss, in intimate detail, our love for the show. We had nicknames based on our favorite characters from the show and Jill even left me notes in my locker folded into paper cranes (the same medium used by Michael to communicate with his brother Lincoln on the show). Being a PBA, I the first thing that came to mind when Piri Thomas described the prison riots he witnessed was Prison Break!
This weeks reading was both upsetting and extremely entertaining. While Piri’s behavior (cheating on Trina, armed robbery, shooting police officers, shooting up heroin, beating the crap out of the old man at the car dealership and pushing drugs) was pretty deplorable, I found it fascinating to read about. To be inside the mind of a criminal and understand his logic is a point of view that a group of privileged, middle class kids rarely gets to experience. There were several things that I found particularly gripping/upsetting in Piri’s narrative: first was his violent encounter with his father after his mother’s death, second was his detailed description of heroin withdrawal, third was Trina’s willingness to take him back after he cheated on her and knocked up Chino’s cousin Dulcien, and fourth was Piri’s descriptions of Prison life and desire to be let out on parole.
In the first chapter required for this weeks reading (having not read the back of the book), I was totally floored by Piri’s violence, language, and attitude towards his father. While his anger towards his cheating father may be justified, his language (especially towards his father’s mistress) was sort of shocking, especially since four chapters later, Piri turns out to be a cheater himself. In the second chapter, when Piri narrated his cold turkey withdrawal from and dependence on heroin I was disgusted. His willingness to do anything for his next hit was pathetic and reading about how he managed to vomit and shit his pants during withdrawal has successfully deterred me from ever wanting to go anywhere near any form of drugs.
The scene between Piri and Dulcien had me hysterically laughing, especially Piri and Chino’s dialogue DURING the “heat of the moment.” I personally think Trina should have dumped Piri out on his ass after he cheated on her. I was really surprised that she forgave him. Lastly, I was surprised by how badly Piri wanted out of prison. When he refrains from participating in the prison riot, I realized that this was the first time in the entire book where he scarifies his pride and actually thinks before acting. His machismo attitude and constant use of the verb “to cop” applied to anything from money (“bread”) to women to his illegitimate child made me hate him by the end of the reading.
My questions after reading the chapters from “Down These Mean Streets” are:
- Is Piri a bad person or just a product of his environment?
- What makes a person bad or good? Is badness or goodness innate or learned?
- Is goodness measured solely by a person’s ability to abide to socially constructed rules?
- What is worth giving up/forfeiting in the name of pride?
