why you pick all these HEAVY books, man?

Wednesday we wrapped things up with our second round. Final work included finishing the reading of "Maus" as well as completion of the final project, which was to develop the characters and storyline-- along with the illustrations-- for a mini-graphic-novel-style story of their own. Two guys showed up with completed, illustrated final projects. The other five shared out works in varying stages of development. They all had logged significant cell time working them up-- the most significant work was a full-blown story of redemption, illustrated and bound as a short book, telling the story of one woman's fall from the dreams at her high school graduation to a rugged life of abuse and prostitution, followed by a period of determination and change leading to enrollment in the police academy, and finally resulting in her coming into her own power as an officer on the streets, pursuing and arresting the men engaged in sex trafficking...

Another story of redemption, and someone coming into her own power. This is a theme we kick around a lot in class. We recently discussed whether there can even BE an interesting story without that theme of a person coming into their own power, a person fighting their demons and moving ahead on their own path of redemption. (I posted these thoughts a few days back but they failed to appear on the blog, so here they are again: )

Shawshank Redemption is a favorite of many inmates. They mostly have all seen it, and can jump into discussion of different scenes, struggles, developments in the plot. And it's all about the redemption theme-- the chance to set one's life straight. And of course serving justice to the real jerks in the story strikes a chord as well.

Similar plights and struggles come up in the books we read, from Cece-- the girl struggling with her hearing disability as an elementary student in a "normal" school, to Yummy-- the eleven year old gang member on the streets of Chicago, to the white reporter, the militant black activist, and the relations between police and different races in Houston in the 1960s, to Vladek-- the survivor chronicled in Maus-- a Pulitzer winner and one of the most effective portrayals of the day-to-day details and personal stories of the Holocaust I've come across-- in graphic novel format!

All of this provides good food for thought-- "Why you pick all these HEAVY books, man?!"-- the inmates ask from time to time. And simultaneously they have the long hours in jail, in their cell-- paging through the pages of their own histories and regrets, as well as their plans and hopes for the future.