A Place to Stand - Short Essay
Louie Saenz
9/25/12
Jimmy Baca
Prison Rules
As I continue to read Baca’s works it all starts to make sense. I am enjoying his novel more than I did his poetry. I don’t think its because he’s a bad poet, but because I do not enjoy poetry as most people in this day and age. A place to stand continues to be a very good novel that explains everything quite well. I am extremely interested in this weeks reading because of what a breakthrough Jimmy finally has. The devils butcher shop by Roger Morris is something else. It brings out history of New Mexico prisons, prisoners, and guards. This just shows some of the things that Jimmy might have been going thru while being in jail all those years. As mentioned earlier Jimmy had a huge breakthrough and it all started in the beginning of chapter eight. “I was lost in the shifting phantoms of the past, and yet I still struggled to reach a present that seemed beyond my grasp. Time and space were jumbled in my mind.” Jimmy has been in isolation for a month. This is just him in a room all by himself with no interaction with anyone. I find this to be extremely harsh; I do not think I can go for a month without talking to someone. I believe that this causes a lot of people to go insane but weirdly it wasn’t the case for Baca. When he is finally escorted back to a normal cellblock he experiences something new. There is something different about the way he sees life. I would say he feels different himself. Things that used to bother him just weren’t so important anymore. I think he saw the light and figured that what he was doing was wasting his life. He then got back to his daily routine in jail eating his meals and getting in his daily exercise. The thing I found weird is that he started thinking of his childhood. His memories were getting the better of him and one day he broke down and cried uncontrollably. I think this really helped him out a lot. It allowed him to face many of his fears and his problems. This reminded me
9/25/12
Jimmy Baca
Prison Rules
As I continue to read Baca’s works it all starts to make sense. I am enjoying his novel more than I did his poetry. I don’t think its because he’s a bad poet, but because I do not enjoy poetry as most people in this day and age. A place to stand continues to be a very good novel that explains everything quite well. I am extremely interested in this weeks reading because of what a breakthrough Jimmy finally has. The devils butcher shop by Roger Morris is something else. It brings out history of New Mexico prisons, prisoners, and guards. This just shows some of the things that Jimmy might have been going thru while being in jail all those years. As mentioned earlier Jimmy had a huge breakthrough and it all started in the beginning of chapter eight. “I was lost in the shifting phantoms of the past, and yet I still struggled to reach a present that seemed beyond my grasp. Time and space were jumbled in my mind.” Jimmy has been in isolation for a month. This is just him in a room all by himself with no interaction with anyone. I find this to be extremely harsh; I do not think I can go for a month without talking to someone. I believe that this causes a lot of people to go insane but weirdly it wasn’t the case for Baca. When he is finally escorted back to a normal cellblock he experiences something new. There is something different about the way he sees life. I would say he feels different himself. Things that used to bother him just weren’t so important anymore. I think he saw the light and figured that what he was doing was wasting his life. He then got back to his daily routine in jail eating his meals and getting in his daily exercise. The thing I found weird is that he started thinking of his childhood. His memories were getting the better of him and one day he broke down and cried uncontrollably. I think this really helped him out a lot. It allowed him to face many of his fears and his problems. This reminded me