Burke's Pentad In The Reading Of A Life

Burke's Pentad in the Reading of a Life During the adult years of my life, I have come to view many of the concepts of our criminal justice and correctional systems as being antithetical to reason. The most instructive example I have been afforded in this regard is in gaining the knowledge of the life history of one of my ex-inlaws, who I shall refer to as "Abe". In the following section, I have used Kenneth Burke's five terms of dramatism to evaluate Abe's ongoing dance with the system of justice. Utilizing the tropes, I hope to make a political statement about the absurdity of man's justice, while at the same time engaging in an act of invention. Prologue: Abe is born in the early `50's to a fourteen year-old girl and her mechanic common-law husband. During his childhood, he increasingly becomes the target of his father's drunken abuses, and has to endure frequent disappearances by his mother. This downward spiral of human relations leads to.... The Act: Abe runs away from home at 15, and holds up a grocery store to obtain money. The Agent: Abe and two other young refugees. The Agency: A cap gun purchased at the 5&10 for 79 cents. The Scene: An A&P in Modesto, California The Purpose: To be able to eat and travel. Their abortive stick-up is thwarted by the local constabulary. Abe ends up in juvenile detention, where he is offered a deal by the local judge - if he will enlist in the U.S Marine Corps, then the charges against him will be dropped. Jumping at the chance to escape his private hell, Abe assents and is sent to basic training, where.... The Act: He is brutalized by drill instructors, taken outside the barracks and beaten so badly he urinates blood for days. The Agent: Non-commissioned officers of the U.S.M.C. The Agency: Batons, as well as the coercive psychological force they use on recruits. The Scene: El Toro Marine Base, California, 1967. The Purpose: To turn him into a "killing machine". Abe is immediately sent to Southeast Asia, where the non-sanctioned conflict between good and evil is about to boil over. Abe's platoon is sent on reconnaissance of a seemingly quiet village, quiet until... The Act: His squad is ambushed by North Vietnamese hiding in the houses. Abe drops to the ground and begins firing. One, then two little children run into his line of fire, but he cannot stop his programmed reaction, and they fall. A screaming man in black appears above him and stabs him in the upper torso several times. The Agent: 1) Abe, his brainwashers. 2)North Vietnamese soldier. The Agency: 1)Rifle. 2)Bayonet. The Scene: Chaotic firefight inside a North Vietnamese village. The Purpose: 1)To secure territory in an undeclared war, to protect one's life 2) Ostensibly, revenge for Abe's killing the young children. Abe is sent back to the U.S. as he returned, except for the addition of a Purple Heart, and the subtraction of one lung which was damaged beyond repair by his attacker. Now 18, he finds no one waiting for his arrival and no one lining up to offer him employment or training. Saddled with the handicap of post-traumatic stress disorder (then not clinically recognized), he begins having blackouts, which one day escalates to....

The Act: Taking a bar and its patrons hostage for three hours, engaging in gunfire with the police. The Agent: Abe, having flashbacks to Vietnam. The Agency: Several small-caliber weapons, with hundreds of rounds of ammo. The Scene: Downtown San Diego California, 1969. The Purpose: To protect himself from the "enemy". With the additional charges of heroin possession added to the list, Abe is given 15 years in San Quentin prison. He serves three of the years without incident, but then one day becomes the target of a racial groups' hatred of his skin color. He is beaten, stabbed repeatedly, and left for dead in the shower. As he recovers in the infirmary, he begins to change, as he puts it, "to lose his humanity". He hatches a plot to lash out at thoseresponsible, which leads to.... The Act: During a disturbance in the exercise yard, Abe slips behind two of his tormentors and slashes their throats, and they bleed to death before being noticed. The Agent: Abe The Agency: A switchblade purchased from a guard. The Scene: San Quentin prison, California, 1972. The Purpose: Revenge, to embody the animalism which had been programmed into him. Though suspected of the killings, he was never charged with the crimes, and he was given respect by the other inmates after that. After 5 years in prison, he received parole. Life on the streets was more uncertain than in prison, though, and he drifted across country to Florida. There, he was offered a large sum to perform a specific underworld activity: pilot large pleasure boats which were anchored off coast into port. He never was asked nor was told what his cargo was. He was beginning to enjoy life for the first time, when one night he was called to work, then dropped off by helicopter fifty miles off-coast. The vessel looked like many of the others, and all was routine until he was accosted by the Coast Guard as he came into port. When the hold was opened, they found... The Act: Two people who had been murdered, and hundreds of kilos of cocaine. The Agent: Abe's employers, who had bungled their usual theft of a legitimate vessel. The Agency: Underworld network which was shipping cocaine from South America. The Scene: Florida Keys, 1976. The Purpose: Money, with Abe as the flunky. This crime led to a 50 year sentence for second-degree murder, and a concurrent 25 year term for drug smuggling. At first hesitant to play stool pigeon, Abe eventually cooperated with the U.S. Attorney's office, and the murder charge was removed. Abe this time enjoyed status in prison, for his cell mate happened to be "Murph the Surf" of jewel robbery fame. Despite the rather humane treatment, he yearned for freedom, and one day escaped in a laundry bag. He began a life underground with a new identity, but found it impossible to obtain documents such as driver's licenses and social security cards. He learned the craft of masonry while working as a construction laborer, and became a family member during this time. Pulled over one morning on the way to work for a defective taillight, he was arrested for marijuana possession. His fingerprints gave away his former identity, and he was returned to prison with an added five year term for escape. Depressed at being separated from his wife and child, Abe... The Act: Attempted suicide. The Agent: A friendly prison guard/dealer. The Agency: Barbiturates

The Scene: U.S. Prison, Miami, Florida, 1982. The Purpose: Escape from the downward spiral of his life. His sentence commuted in 1985, Abe attempted to join the legitimate economy, but found all doors closed to him. Not earning enough in his construction jobs, Abe began selling marijuana in small quantities to supplement their funds. Life began to take on a veneer of normalcy, until... The Act: One of his buyers, caught with possession, gave Abe's name to the authorities. Abe was sent to state prison with a 20 year term, with no parole. The Agent: State of Florida law enforcement. The Agency: "Three-strikes, you're out " laws The Scene: Lakeland, Florida, 1989. The Purpose: Creating a "drug-free" America. Abe was diagnosed with metastatic carcinoma of his remaining lung in 1995. The state gave him a medical pardon, which allowed him to spend his remaining time with his daughter (he had been divorced while in prison). But even this bit of sanctity was to be upturned when... The Act: All of his possessions which had value were legally seized The Agent: The State of California The Agency: Law which allowed seizure of property. The Scene: Orlando, Florida, 1996. The Purpose: To repay the state of California for welfare in lieu of child support given to his illegitimate son and his son's mother, whom he had only had a brief fling with in 1969 The son was now 26 years old. Abe now lives by the generosity of his few friends and his ex-wife. His death is imminent, he cannot afford to pay for his pain medications, and he has no social benefits remaining because his entire life was virtually spent in incarceration. Burke's pentad, as a theory of reading, then can also be seen as a useful tool to expose the absurdities that many people face when they try to live under our current system of (in)justice.