English essay: "The Tower Pig" .
What happens when in spite of all odds, foe becomes friend?.
What happens, when an infinite and unending chasm between individuals is filled, and a void of mistrust, hatred and prejudice is replaced with more noble values, such as understanding and a sense of mutual respect? These are among the themes in the American short story, "The Tower Pig." .
The tale is set behind, and outside, the walls of the Thomaston Penitentiary in present day America; the exact geographic location of the setting, however, remains unknown. The text, which is told in a first person narrative, essentially revolves around a young man who, due to a minor drug offence, suffers the hardships of imprisonment in an American correctional facility. The protagonist is throughout the tale addressed only by his surname, Caine. .
Caine seems to be liked by his fellow inmates, but he has his own problems; a beloved grandmother on the verge of death, an estranged family, and the incomprehensible anger he feels for one of the wardens, an outcast despised by colleagues and inmates alike, and who is commonly known as "The Tower Pig" by all the prisoners at the facility. .
"Pain, joy, worry, are shielded away until the cell doors slam and we"re alone in our solitude. For ten days in the hole, I had nothing to do but hate Strazinsky, the Tower Pig, for putting me there, and to mourn my grandmother, finally to sick to visit." .
When we are first introduced to Caine, he has just come out of "The Hole." The Hole is presumably a slang expression for a non-corporal punishment, which implies the use of isolation for the involved offender. This sort of punishment is usually deployed as a reaction to a disciplinary offense; this is also the case with Caine. Caine was according to the text put in the hole subsequent to a verbal row with Strazinsky, the man whom I formerly mentioned as "The Tower Pig.