After Reading Hole in my life by Jack gantos I believe that the choices Gantos made influenced his life more than the background situation he was in. The first poor choice gantos makes in this book is agreeing to join the Hash smuggling trip for $10,000. “count me in” he says, fatal words that have horrible consequences. The first of these consequences is “... a book the size of a dictionary. It was clothbound in green linen, and embossed in gold on the cover was the name of the ship… Dozens of pages had been ripped out. THe remaining pages were wrinkled and stained from water damage. It smelled salty” Gantos 81, is the finding of the ship’s log. This book ends up becoming the nail in the coffin while gantos is pleading in court. The other significant consequence of this choice is the jail time he recieves due to joining this smuggling adventure ”A 5010B is a youth sentence. It means you can do anywhere from 60 days to six years”Gantos 146. …show more content…
This choice has some direct and immediate consequences that affect gantos throughout the rest of the time he spends with hamilton. The first is Hamilton's reaction to being pranked ”As soon as i got my head above the deck I saw him step up out the main hatch and point the pistol at me” Gantos 88-89. The other show’s what Hamilton thinks about the whole situation ”bobbing out here like a bloody cork. it’s enough to make a man go mad and i’m stuck here with a nitwit”Gantos