Prison Writing :: essays research papers

The bleak prison world portrayed by George capital of Mississippi in his letter to Fay Stender, his attorney, develops into a concentrated and condensed gaze of American society. This microcosm evolves from faults within the socio-political structure of the state. Jackson draws similarities between the construct of American and prison life, which harmonised the unrest of black Americans during an era of the civil right movement. The connect drawn add another dimension to the movement and the barbaric genius of American politics.To move a sort from Jacksons letter, I would care to quote something that I believe is essential to Jacksons view of the prison systemI feel like an alien in here because this whole prison system is created in such a way as to cut me off from my floriculture, my holiness. There is no way I can describe the effect it has on me to be forcefully separated from my very way of life. The values of the white worldly concern, I do not understand. I gaint und erstand a culture that believes that it is good to fight atomic number 53 another for wealth, for material things These things I dont understand, but it is the way of white man, and it is the way these prisoners are taught to be so that they can function properly in the white mans society when they are released. This is part of an affidavit written to sexual relation by a Native American called Timothy Reed, excessively know as Little Rock. The prison system is designed to remove ones identity to replace it with an American one. I have often thought that being American is more akin to a religion than a nationality. The nations zealous guarding of their identity condemns any conceit outside their own. That a nation so young and bastardised could be so xenophobic is horrifically ironic considering Americas history. And it is this history that Jackson considers important to understanding why racism exists at the prison with feature prominence and goes on to answer the larger que stion of why racism exists in American society with particular prominence, tied into history. That those who stay the prison and feed off its existence are historical products, fixes on an phylogeny of America which not only creates the need for such prisons, but also creates a micro-society in its image. The perpetuation of the cruelty of American history exists at bottom the prison walls, where overt racism exists unchecked.