Paper's Role In Dirt Road Home

Usually paper is not very important in ones life, but it is a main role in Dirt Road Home for many reasons. The main reasons paper played such a big role is that it represented lies, reality, and freedom. These three things were emphasized throughout the book to show the importance of paper. In many ways the guards and Mr. Fraley lied about the boys in hellenwieler by wrighting down things that were not proven true. "He set the shiv on his desk and opened my jacket and wrote something on it,"(125) Mr. Fraley said to Hal while he was denying everything Mr. Fraley said. This proves that the people at Hellenwieler didn't care what really happened to them , but they did care about keeping the boys off of the streets. Also lies were put down about the boys medical records by the guards signed by Mr. Fraley. These are examples of the many lies written down on paper by the people that worked at hellenwieler.

This was the only reality Hal faced because he was stuck inside walls with all kinds of bad people that he didn't even know. When he was in his sell he grabbed his paper and pencil and started wrighting, " Dear Carla,"(47) because that was the only thing he wanted to do. He just wanted to stay in touch with Carla and his dad. The whole story includes people always getting into fights and getting hurt, while Hal was in there he encountered a fight against Leroy. Though it was not much of a fight because Hal didn't fight back, Hal was hurt pretty bad and had to go into the infirmary. " I lay there while she changed the bandages on my face and made notes on a clipboard."(57) This makes Hal think of a way out of Hellenwieler because of the clipboard the nurse filled out about him. Without the paper on Paco's injuries Hal would've never been freed from the kids