45 pages • 1 hour read
Mark SalzmanTrue Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 22-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary: “Window Tappers”
Chapter 22 begins with further changes to Mark's class, both negative and positive. The first key event at Central Juvenile Hall is a high school graduation, in which many of his students participate. The graduation is both a joyous and somber event; while students of Mark's are usually happy and proud, the students' impeding legal jeopardy puts a cloud over the celebrations. The threat of imminent incarceration weighs on the inmates and their work. However, Mark is more able to channel their energy into their writing: with the help of Ms. Brigade, they begin writing on more abstract topics. In these, new student Dale Jones stands out; he writes about a roommate of his who is bound for the country jail: "As we talked every day, all day, we found we WERE each other. He was me and I was him, but I couldn't understand it […] but little did we know we knew each other, and it took seventeen years to find each other" (256). At the end of the chapter, Ms. Brigade reads a poem of her own, whose lines resonate with the boys’ own loneliness and pain: "When I look back at you/I see my little brother" (259). This is an unequivocal sign that someone out there sees them.
Chapter 23 Summary: “The Man I Was Supposed to Be”
Chapter 23 centers around the graduation for those of the inmates who have earned enough to graduate high school. While graduation is generally a joyous event, Mark cannot help but be aware of the cloud cast over the celebration, citing the "the bleak future the graduates were stepping into gave these clichés an expected poignancy" (261). While Kevin is happy to receive his diploma, Patrick is not present, having been transferred to the county jail days before. Kevin's court case is looming, and Mark is asked to speak in Kevin's defense. Meanwhile, Javier also receives a hefty sentence—more than twenty-five years. During the class, the students remark on Javier's emotions during the sentencing: “‘Everybody cries’ Victor said. ‘But knowin' when to cry, that's what makes the man’ (268). Mark asks when is the '"right" time to cry, to which Victor explains, “‘In the holding tank, just like Javier did it. That way, his family don't gotta go home with a picture in their heads that'll rip their hearts out.’”(268).
Mark attempts to change the mood by bringing in some art provided by Sister Janet, but the impending reality is unavoidable; Jose, typically a jokester, declares gravely, “‘It's all nice,’ Jose said, ‘us tryin'a do good in here, goin' to school and takin' writing classes and bein' in plays an' shit. But in don't make no difference. In the end, it all comes out the same’” (272).
Chapter 24 Summary: “Thanks, Be”
Mark meets with Sister Janet to discuss his participation in Kevin's trial. Although Mark is hesitant about participating, a note from Kevin on how the class has helped him seals the deal. The immediate facts of Kevin's case are sobering: on a night at a theater, out with friends, Kevin has a confrontation with members of a rival gang, during which Kevin shoots three other youths—one in the chest, one in the buttocks, and another in the back. After this violent confrontation, Kevin and his friends drive to another theater. This callous behavior has a profound effect on Mark, who cannot reconcile it with Kevin's more kind and sensitive persona while in class. Much of the trial discusses whether Kevin could have reasonably felt his life was in danger when he shot the other boys.
While Kevin's defense argues that he was in mortal danger, the jury nevertheless finds him guilty. Mark is crushed, and confers with Mr. Sills, who seems indifferent about Kevin's predicament:
His blasé reaction to Kevin's trial upset me. I had seen the two of them interact many times and I knew that Sills had become a surrogate father to Kevin […] Was this all the man had to say now that Kevin was only a sentencing hearing away from life in prison? (287).
Mark realizes that he has been shielding himself from these crimes, in order to avoid prejudicing his teaching.
Chapters 22-24 Analysis
Mark's experience at Central Juvenile Hall describes growing reflections about the limitations in his role. Specifically, Mark comes to the realization that he has been shielding himself from the truth that his students are indeed violent criminals who must face punishment for their crimes. Mark believes implicitly that his students' conduct in the class is both proof that they are good people, and that they have a chance at real reform. However, Kevin's and Francisco's respective sentencings prove that these ideas are misguided. Though it has been readily apparent, Mark finally realizes that people who appear kind and diligent can still be violent offenders; moreover, he understands two more things: that those with whom we foster connections, we idealize, and that even vulnerable people can be violent offenders. Though these realizations trouble Mark greatly, he nevertheless resolves to continue his work, although without his former naivete.
