Black and White
As we have previously seen in The Cape1, the black and white theme made the whole literature seem more antique and serious. Nothing was too colorful to distract the reader while they were exploring the page. It causes them to free up space and think about key elements and what the author is trying to show you. In the image, the reader had no color, so there was no distraction in that sense. Instead, they focused on the words that appeared and the testimonies that were waiting to be heard.
The first line that we read is, “The prison is a no man’s land that perforates the space of the state”. From this line, we are able to infer that prison is often set up in places that are completely ostracized from society. It is a space that belongs to the state where anything or nothing is possible depending on where you are. In an article2 written by Sharon Daniels, Daniels describes that there is a difference between the outside and inside of the prison. On the outside, there is a lawn complete with a rose-lined path, where the visiting room can be reinscribed as a safe, calm and domesticated space. However, on the inside where the visitors never enter, there are no trees, roses, grass or anything, and it is very hectic. Just like the black and white blocks in the picture, there are always two sides to everything.
On both sides, we are able to see two different types of stories due to the divide in the colors. On the white side, where it represents the life that they had planned for before they were in jail. A.C, one of the inmates, describes that “I had come from a good family. I went to private schools, I was in beauty pageants, I was a ballet dancer, tap dancer, and then I just made a mess of my life… She (Mom) wanted me to be an actress, my dad had wanted me to be a nurse or a doctor”. As seen from here, if A.C was not caught for having drugs she would have had such a different life. She would have been able to become successful out there just like everyone else. Where black shows how life inside jail is just different. According to Kelly Turner, “They can randomly search... Because it says ‘may’ in Title 15”. In prison, the guards can strip search you whenever they want because they have the power. Inmates have no power over anything, let alone what they want to be when they get out.
As you proceed onto a different topic, the squares begin to move and shift positions.