The years that Piri Thomas spent in prison helped him learn self-control, put him into daily contact with people from very different environments than the one in which he grew up, and turned him into a reader and learner. For the first few years, he was drawn to the negative forces of prison culture and could not let go of his anger. As the end of his term drew nearer, however, he began to think more about returning to life outside and realized he had to “play it smooth”—break away from thinking of the prisoners as his community. From the friendship that he developed with Muhammad, a Muslim inmate, he learned about different religious traditions and how change from within is affected by one’s daily practices. Ultimately, this curiosity led him back to Christianity. As he developed further curiosity about social and cultural differences elsewhere, he also began a process...
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of self-examination. Taking charge of his own course of study, rather than having the subjects dictated for him as they had been in school, was both rewarding and challenging.
Learning made me painfully aware of life and me. What had I been? How had I become that way? . . . I got hold of some books on psychology. Man, how did we scuffle.
References
I think that one way in which prison helped change Piri is that it helped to focus his energies on what was important. Prison causes a maturation in him. It helps him to recognize that individuals can be restored and that change in the individual is possible. He feels a need to "turn his life around" and become more than what he was. Prison causes him to let go of the anger and intensity of emotion that might have driven his poor choices. It is also a moment where he is forced to define himself in terms that transcend racial identity and economic reality.
When he lived in Spanish Harlem, Piri was able to construct his sense of identity in the world through external reality. Anger about racial prejudice and economic challenges consumed him to such an extent that these became the forces that drove him. They were forces that were external in nature, precluding any sort of internal reflection. Prison gave Piri the space to understand his own sense of self away from these conditions. This can be seen even in his idolization of Trina. Prison provides Piri with a realm to define himself as a human being, apart from external reality. In being able to establish a sense of identity apart from the destructive elements of socially constructed notions of what is good, Piri is able to change into an individual who can be redeemed. Restoration is evident in his acquisition of an education. At the end of his prison experience and as a result of it, Piri has earned educational credentials that end up playing a major role in how to define his own sense of self, reflecting how prison has helped to change him.