Hole In My Life

Jack Gantos begins Hole in My Life with a frank statement: he invites the reader to revisit the picture on the front cover of the book, stating that the “prisoner in the photograph is me” (3). First, Gantos uses the initial chapter to explain just that the near-end of his memoir will be with him incarcerated in 1972, on drug-smuggling charges. He delves into the psyche of a prisoner, saying that the mind operates on one single goal: survival. He describes himself as “smart and cagey” (3); these qualities help him survive the brutal violence he witnesses as an incarcerated x-ray technician in prison. Next, the chapter introduces Gantos’ reflections on his face, a recurring motif in the memoir. He points out how unattractively pockmarked and greasy he appears in the photograph, the result of the poor conditions in prison and his anxiety over losing control of his fate. Lastly, Gantos uses the chapter to return back in time to his childhood, where he recalls times his father pointed out troubling and violent persons to Gantos. Accordingly, this chapter also signals to the reader that trouble looms on the horizon for young Gantos as he evaluates his father’s ability to point out criminals was good, but not good enough: “[h]e never had me pegged for being one of them” (7).