Persons and Things “In” (Pg. 169-178, Bandits and Bibles)

Just about every prison inmate is a “lost voice,” their stories only published in this obscure compilation (and many not even receiving this small recognition). Certainly, almost none are taught in normal classes of any time period. But the stories in this narrative are even more “lost” than most, because they deal with “lifers,” that is, inmates who have received a life sentence. These people almost never wrote down their personal experience, indeed many of them probably didn’t even know how to write. They simply disappeared into the maw of prison, becoming slowly gaunter, weaker, sicker and more broken down until they finally completed their sentence by dying.

Wiki Activities

These Shoes of Mine

Activity: write a tribute to something that you own or have

Tribute to a book

Paper and ink, glue and thread;
such are the ingredients for an adventure.
How often has this been said,
how often have poets and philosophers ruminated
upon the power of such a simple medium.

This book has seen many miles,
many adventures, has related many sagas
all the same, yet all different,
experienced through the lens of many lives
and many ages.

Computers, and their games, pale with time
becoming obsolete, beaten, boring.
But a book will hold its appeal for countless generations,
a tribute to the author and his imagination.
A good book has a soul,
and it is the only thing in this world
that is truly immortal.

"Very Short on Law and Order" Essay

The most interesting thing that I found in Very Short on Law and Order was the different viewpoints from which the narrator, Andrew Garcia, approached different story elements. First, and most striking for me, was horse thieving, which in the beginning he seems to glorify and even participate in. However, his final statement explains how if he had listened to Big Nose George “that night on the Big Timber, when he coaxed [the author] into becoming a horse thief like himself” he would have suffered the same fate. This is the central element of the story, and either intentionally or unintentionally he reinforces this with shifting attitudes about many other things.

Perhaps this is demonstrated most greatly by his attitudes towards the characters with whom he starts the story. At first he feels resentment towards them (or at least self pity) when he is forced by necessity to leave the group. Whichever sentiment it was, he felt no strong love or empathy for any of them (especially the drunken Beaver Tom). But when he learns later that they were killed to a man by La Brie, he is hurt – these were men that he knew! I believe that this was the root of his change in the story.

Another exemplifying element is Big Nose George. He is first depicted as a ruthless robber, taking Old Man Cohen's (who, interestingly enough, finds pity here when before he was shown as a money gouging scoundrel) money and peach brandy. Later, however, when he was apprehended and hung, he seemed to find sympathy from Andrew Garcia.

All of these events -- his changing views of small and specific elements of the story -- conspire to likewise change his perceptions of the whole. These realizations are so subtle, and the conclusion drawn so obvious from them, that in your first reading you don't even realize that he has changed.

The Sheriff's Children Response

The biggest thing that struck me while reading The Sheriff’s Children was the fact that the sheriff, when protecting the black inmate from the lynch mob outside, was portrayed as a hero. Another surprising fact was that a black man had gotten published in 1858 (though he did not advertise this)
The writing quality in this story was also good. Charles Chesnutt was able to give his main characters a fantastic amount of depth and internal conflict, though I was not able to observe much change over the book. I also found that the story seemed to leave off at a somewhat awkward place. This was not as bad as it could have been, but I feel that maybe it would have been better to describe what changes (if any) the sheriff made to his lifestyle after this experience.