Stanville Women's Prison and Life Inside
Stanville is a story that highlights life at women’s prison and focuses on the inmates and Gordon, a man who teaches G.E.D classes to the prisoners. Being at the jail was challenging, particularly when teaching people who showed no interest in improving their lives. Gordon had a feeling that if the students could master the art of thinking well and enjoy reading the books, they would not be prisoners in every aspect (Kushner 1). However, the women prisoners were continually fighting. For instance, a woman had once walked into the prison classroom and flung boiling sugar water into another lady's face. During such incidences, the professor felt like he was wasting his life by teaching people with no concern for each other.
Challenges from the Guards and their Contempt
Also, the guards made the stay more challenging by exhibiting contempt towards the prisoners and being hostile towards the free world staff like Gordon. Although they went for sensitivity training, they did not like it because they observed that the women were always questioning everything. They reminisced the times they had worked in men’s prisons where they had witnessed the prisoners brutally attacking each other on the Closed-circuit monitors. However, they would watch such incidences from the safety of their office (Kushner 3). They had also disciplined the convicts who applied self-enforced convict codes within the jail. On the other hand, the female contested everything and the guards found it more irritating than subduing riots. The guards further detested working in women’s prisons, but Gordon only realized this upon reaching Stanville Women’s correctional facility. Such is evident in the phrase “Everything with you bitches is why, why, why.” (Kushner 2) His primary purpose of selecting the institution was because he perceived working with female inmates as safer than teaching the male ones. Dealing with children previously had proven to be depressing hence the need to change to a new place.
Point of View and Central Idea
This story takes a third person point of view. A narrator explains about Gordon, the prisoners, and the wardens She also highlights how the town of Stanville is always full of challenges and crimes. The author observed that searching for the phrase, Stanville resulted in the appearance of mug shot faces. The town also has the highest number of percentage minimum-wage workers, and its water is highly poisonous. The city also has terrible air, and most of the old businesses are boarded up. The most common business premises are dollar stores, gas stations serving as liquor outlets as well, as coin-op Laundromats. People without cars also suffer because they have to walk along the main boulevard during hot days.
If the author chose a different point of view, it would be difficult to bring out the aspects in various situations. For instance, it would not be possible to exhibit the conversations among the multiple parties involved in the story. While chatting with Alex, Gordon would discuss real-life issues as evident in the phrase “It’s seven,” I said. “I think we can move to something more challenging.” (Kushner 8). When a woman adds three and five to get five and receives a congratulatory message, she observes “I have to start somewhere.” (Kushner 5). Therefore, the first person reliable narrator point of view is crucial in bringing out the reality in the story. The narration also happens from the female inmates’ point of view. At some point, one lady explains how life at the death row segment can be challenging. Ahe also talks about her experience learning about G.E.D. Prep which was the guards’ education level.
The Various Settings in the Story
This story happens in various locations. In the beginning, the narrator reveals Gordon Hauster in prison teaching female inmates who are unwilling to cooperate. This resistance is evident in the phrase “If his students could learn to think well, to enjoy reading books, some part of them would be uncaged” (Kushner 1). The settings also take the reader to San Francisco where Gordon has taught juveniles for some time before quitting. In this setting, the vivid description of children in cages highlights the hardships faced by helpless individuals. The court’s waiting area also reveals that the children’s parents had not neglected them. Instead, they lacked the resources to offer useful lives to their children.
The story also reveals the mountain where Gordon found a place for renting. It was a single room with a woodstove, and it showed that there was a cabin. When Alex came over to meet his friend Gordon, they visited the Shattuck Avenue bar. The story has numerous settings which keep unfolding as the plot progresses (Kushner 11). When the wardens escort the inmates out of the weekly yard tone, they can see down to the death row caged area. When Sammy confesses from the hallway about his love for Candy and Betty, Candy looks up with a face dimple with a sad smile. The setting reveals the ladies stitching seams on their sewing machines. Mostly, these ladies sewed sandbags while on death row.
Works Cited
Kushner, Rachel. "Stanville”." The New Yorker, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/stanville. Accessed 15 Mar 2018. Web.
