My Life Had Stood A Loaded Gun Analysis

In Theo Padnos’ memoir, My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun: Adolescents at the Apocalypse: A Teacher’s Notes, he recounts his journey in discovering his career choice and his adventures of being a part-time teacher in a county prison. Discussing the variety of prisoners that came in and out of the Woodstock jail, Padnos reveals his relations with the prisoners. Padnos starts off describing the tediousness of the work in graduate school and how the, once fun, aspects of analyzing text no longer appealed to him. He relates to how, like most college students, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life; however, he was thirty-three-years-old and his father was pressuring him into finding a permanent occupation. Eventually, Padnos decides that his working towards his Ph.D. was hopeless and moves to Vermont. While in Vermont, Padnos takes up a temporary position as a teacher at the county jail. In this new job, Padnos feels exhilarated to be in such close contact with dangerous people. He describes how he imagines to connect with the prisoners through discussing books. He imagines that he will be able to open the eyes of the troubled teenagers and young adults of the Woodstock jail. When he gets hired on, he creates syllabi that he believes will attract the most prisoners. Padnos first meets prisoners Duane Bedell
He wrote notes and quotes throughout the day, later returning home and typing them all up in an electronic diary. Padnos continues to teach books that relate to the prisoners’ lives and continues to talk to the prisoners about their crimes and sentences. A prominent book Padnos taught to his students is Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The students in his class were very receptive to this novel and the class held many discussions, fulfilling Padnos’ fantasy of having intellectual conversations with a class of young