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Uris R. Campbell
I’ve lived behind walls for 18 years, wondering how I can get out of this miserable existence. But many years ago, I started my escape journey. That trip made me stay all over the world. Reading Great Books changed my life. In prison I have time to think, digest and think about the crimes that have brought me here. In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” Raskolnikov commits murder for no profit, thinking it was a cool choice at the time. it’s not. The point of this novel has nothing to do with the criminal justice process. Raskolnikov becomes tormented by his remorse for what he has done. He punishes himself more severely than any court.
Raskolnikov can work with his own demons, help others, and change lives for others and for himself. Dostoevsky fluently portrays the emotions of prisoners on paper. He met Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables” in France. He is perhaps the greatest literary figure to resonate with incarcerated people.
Victor Hugo captures the essence of being convicted and the hardships you face as a prisoner. Hugo gives us his story of a wonderful life. Valjean is more real to me than anyone in the dormitory. His yellow passport — a mark of disenfranchisement from society — is as embedded in my mind as he is.
Valjean is sentenced to gully for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his poor sister and her children. Time was added due to his repeated attempts to escape. He was locked up for 19 years. Re-entry was all challenging because of his yellow papers.
All doors were closed to him except one. The priest openly shared the house and hearth. However, Valjean responded to his kindness by stealing the priest’s silver and disappeared into the night. , implying that the silver belongs to Valjean. It was my second chance. When the police departed, angry that there was no case, the priest advised Valjean to keep the silver honestly from now on.This was the turning point. Become a respectable man in society. Like Valjean, I was given (or taken) some candlesticks and analyzing their influence changed my life. while entering his most sacred creation, a graveyard of forgotten books. In this cemetery you become one of his fellows.
When you open the book, the place and spirit change, it becomes light and free. I can wait for Isaac, the gatekeeper of Zafón’s cemetery, to open and I can choose another book, adding to his nearly 200 Greats I’ve read. A book written long ago makes us think of correlations with current events. Think “The Plague” by Albert Camus. A doctor from Oran, Algeria, speaks. The plague carried by rats has arrived. Soon the disease will soon stain. Viruses spread rapidly. Finally, people are told to take refuge in place. Special camps are set up to accommodate the sick. The city is on lockdown. Treatment is rationed. Volunteers are heroic, but many of them fall victim to the plague and die. Did Camus foretell Covid-19?Where did the ideas and inspiration for the novel come from more than half a century before the current pandemic?There are so many stories about Camus’ plague and his Covid-19. question is not resolved.
Before the Great Book Reading Program, I was just living. Now I have found so many things to live for. Books are your inspiration to become whatever you want to be and delve into the mysteries of human existence.
Each of us can capture something unique from the books we read and find our own “something” to live by.
Eulis R. Campbell is a resident of the Madison, Florida Correctional Facility and is serving a 40-year sentence for second-degree murder, theft, and arson in Palm Beach. He has an associate’s degree and is working on his bachelor’s degree.
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