Hole in my life by Jack Gantos (pg.165-200)

Summary
   The Chapter starts out by Jack discussing the drug activity in the federal prison. All types of drugs were brought to the jail through various methods, even some guards brought them inside the prison. When Jack worked at the x-ray room he had to deal with pretty rough situations of men almost dying because of overdoses of drugs. He helped one man who brought drugs in his stomach and they wouldn't come out, so Jack decides to help him out. Jack also learns a lot of medical skills through working in the hospital floor. He's is sentenced a two year set off before seeing his parole board again, when he went to court tried to be cooperative and sincere but no matter how hard he tried the board found him uncooperative and ignorant. Later on, Jack discovers that writing about his childhood memories took him back in time and filled him with positive energy to get through the harsh prison environment. One day, as he was cleaning a administrators office, he discovered his file and it said he was "uncooperative" he then realized that no matter what he did, it was what he had done that defined him. When he was in his room shortly after, he almost kills himself with his razor but then forces himself not to do it. His father and uncle visits him when they are drunk, and his father tells him that he loves him, this means a lot to Jack. He realized one day that his struggle as a writer had been a lot like his life. He then devised a plan to get out of jail, he decided to tell his caseworker that he wanted to enroll in college and if that he did maybe he would have the chance to be taken out. He applied to a college with the help of a caseworker and a prison administrator and got accepted. His father got him a place to live and a job, luckily the people that received him were very kind and filled Jack with happiness. He quit doing hash and became a fabulous writer.
Quote
"...I understood I had come all the way to prison to realize that what I had in my past was so much richer that what was before me. My struggle as a writer was a lot like my life..."(Gantos 186).
Reaction
 The authors style is shown in this quote as an Epiphany that the Character has, the turning point of the book that the author realizes that he had made up rules for himself and broke them and made more until he had got them right. This quote shows the irony of the book on how his life was alike to his writing. He had always thought that everything he was writing did not have value, or anything that he did in life did not have value to it, but then he realized that everything he did or wrote about in life had value to it. This quote connects to the rest of the story by being the turning point of Jack and guiding him to getting out of jail and going to college to fulfill his dream as a writer. This point gave him a reason to change.