Page 182

By Jack Joseph Smith

a young boy approximently twelve years of age. The conversation between Joe and the boy was about how he was going to survive as a runaway from reform- school. The boy knew that he wasn't going to return on his own, but Joe was explaining that he would be caught if he didn't continue the same kind of hiding practices necessary for survival when he was in the joint. The boy wanted to do dope, but Joe told him that it would lead him to believing he was free. "That kind of thinking is your enemy young man." The boy didn't like the young man business very much. He went on about how he had spent alot of hours studying how to make his mind slick. How he could spot a nark, because the faces of the guards were the same. "Trapped!" "I know there traped, but so are you inside and out. If you see each others eyes, your equally smart, but it's to late for you. He has somewhere to go after his realization, but you don't; unless you know how to use something that dosen't make noise; and would like to get into creamation." The boy continued on how he wasn't going to let them interfere with his psychic demands. Joe whistled (this kids something) to Animal and

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The runaway boy brings the collection's themes of freedom and entrapment into sharper focus, because Joe recognizes in him a younger version of street-smart desperation.

Joe's warning about dope is blunt because he knows how easily the feeling of freedom becomes another cage. The page respects the boy's intelligence but refuses to romanticize his flight from reform school.

Claude

A boy 'approximently twelve', a runaway 'from reform-school', gets hard counsel from Jiven Joe, who tells him survival means the same 'hiding practices' he used 'in the joint'. The boy 'wanted to do dope', but Joe warns 'it would lead him to believing he was free' - 'That kind of thinking is your enemy young man' - and the boy bristles 'didn't like the young man business'. The boy boasts of studying 'how to make his mind slick', spotting 'a nark' because 'the faces of the guards were the same'. Joe's bleak symmetry - 'I know there traped, but so are you inside and out' - turns even on the guard, who 'has somewhere to go after his realization, but you don't', short of something 'that dosen't make noise'. Entrapment is given a literal child to inhabit.