Spoiler warning just in case. It's toward the end, and not sure it's a real spoiler, but playing it safe. The following passage stuck with me:
Now, Fonny knows why he is here-why he is where he is; now, he dares to look around him. He is not here for anything he has done. He has always known that, but now he knows it with a difference. At meals, in the showers, up and down the stairs, in the evening, just before everyone is locked in again, he looks at the others, he listens: what have they done? Not much. To do much is to have the power to place these people where they are, and keep them where they are. These captive men are the hidden price for a hidden lie: the righteous must be able to locate the damned. To do much is to have the power and the necessity to dictate to the damned. But that, thinks Fonny, works both ways.
You're in or you're out. Okay. I see. Motherfuckers.
You won't hang me.
First off, I read an epub version of the Penguin Classic version. I also own a paperback from Laurel publishing that I copied and pasted the above text from an image I took of the book page on my phone. Just noticed there is a lot missing from this excerpt in my paperback vs the epub. He talks about how there are murderes, rapists, thieves, etc "doing much." Also suggests lots of powerful people (Bishops, priests, statesman, businessmen, etc) "doing much" and the captives are the price of a "dreadful terror." I assume he means that people are doing bad things everywhere and the people in prison who have often done "not much" are paying the price for those crimes. Someone has to be held accountable, and it sure wont be those with power.
I fear my actual question may be a stupid one, but what does Fonny mean when he says it works both ways?
by katrilli0naire
1 Comment
I think Fonny is seeing his situation with a clarity about how the world works. He sees that most of the people in prison haven’t done much to be there, and the ones who put them there are the real criminals. He sees those who do much as the ones with power. Saying it works both ways is to recognize those who don’t do much as powerless. But he draws a line in the sand and what he says next is in defiance. In a way, his new clarity gives him power. So, it works both ways in that sense, too.