End Of Unit Assessment

Jevohn Jasper November 9, 2018 End of Unit Assessment In the story “Hole in my Life” by Jack Gantos, the author believes that you should always be aware of the decisions you make and the consequences that may come with them. For example, Gantos says in Part 1 Chapter 2 that he could drink lots of beer in a sitting but also knew that his body could not handle all that beer. Another example is in Part 2 Chapter 3, when Gantos decided to prank Hamilton by grabbing his leg and ended up making Hamilton mad. In part 3 chapter 2, he made an adult decision and decided to stay in New York instead of leaving. Throughout the story, Gantos brings the thematic statement to light through his specific use of tone, word choice, and repetition over the course of the text. In Part 1 Chapter 2, Gantos says that he can drink lots of beer in a sitting, but was also realizing that he could not hold all that beer in his system at that time. He says “After having my own hotel room in San Juan, I wasn’t ready to live with other people.”(Gantos 13), implying that he knew how bad his choices were and the impact they had, but he didn’t stop. Gantos’ word choice implies that he knew what problems he had at the time, but did not let the Bacons know how he felt and didn’t address this problem before something like this happened. This relates back to the thematic statement because he made bad choices and the consequences that came with it were not ideal. He says that one night he was so drunk, the moment he walked through the door, he barfed all over the Bacons’ carpet. After this incident, the Bacons decided to kick him out of their house, and he was forced to find another place to live. In part 2 Chapter 3, Gantos decides to prank Hamilton while swimming around the boat by going through his porthole and grabbing his leg. It appears he made Hamilton mad, based off when he said “I dropped underwater, but even from there I could hear the gunshot.”(Gantos 88). His tone in this sentence does not sound that serious, even though this is an extremely serious event. This quote relates back to my thematic statement because he made what could possibly be one of the worst decisions of his life to try and be funny. He was not thinking about all the consequences, the very few good and the many bad, and this just happened to be one of the bad ones. In part 3 chapter 2, Gantos says that he would wake up each day and ask himself what he could do to avoid going to prison. He thinks about running away to Canada, but decides that it wouldn’t work for him. He says “My only sensible plan was to sit tight, go to court, and hope for probation”(Gantos 133). This is an example of choices because instead of being the immature, naughty, bad guy he was, he made a grown up decision and although it may not have been the best decision he could want, it was the most mature to make.

So, in conclusion, this is why the author believes that you should always think of the consequences of your decisions before you make them. You could make some not so important mistakes or you could make some life changing, or possibly life threatening mistakes. Some people aren’t careful about what they do and it could really affect them in the long run. People make bad choices everyday, but we need to realize how they affect us and start thinking about what we are doing. Jack made some mistakes, like not knowing when to stop drinking and messing with people at the wrong time, but that just goes to show that you need to think about your actions before you commit them.