Cherisse Mariano

3rd Period English

10-29-18

A Hole In My Life ​Mid-Unit Writing Assessment

In the memoir ​Hole In My Life ​by Jack Gantos, we read about the situations that the
author has encountered. He goes to jail because of this but he determines to change. The
author believes that perseverance is the key to change. The author takes up habits that would
help him become a better writer, and uses his passion as a motivation to change. We see this in
parts 1 and 2 of the story. Using the story’s tone and word choice, we can deeply evaluate what
the author is trying to express.

In the text it states, “I had been reading constantly. I kept up my daily journal-writing
routine, logging my favorite quotes and building my vocabulary. And now it was time for me to
stop being a chippy high school writer and to challenge myself.” (Gantos, Part 1 Page 40) At this
point in the book, the author has made some bad decisions regarding his life. He had been
drinking, smoking, and slacking off with school. The tone of this statement indicates the author’s
determination to change. He’s doing all that he can to improve not only his writing skills, but his
life as well. This relates to the thematic statement because Gantos perseveres really hard to
change himself for the better. He stops all his bad habits and picks up good ones. He truly
wants to change his ways so that he could have a future as a writer.

The text also states, “SInce I was trying to make books lead my life, I didn’t want to read
them and then just put them back on the shelf. I wanted books to change me, and I wanted to
write books that would change others.” (Gantos Part 2 Page 61) The author is trying to make
books lead his life, which means that his focus would solely be on becoming a good writer that
he would be proud of. He wants to fully understand books and look further than the surface
level. The word choice of this statement (specifically “I wanted books to change me”), suggests
the immense passion that the author has for writing. This relates to the thematic statement
because his reason for perservering to change is to write. Writing is all that is on his mind
throughout the chapters we have read so far. He thinks that writing will change him for the
better.

The author believes that perseverance is the key to change. This develops throughout
the text as Gantos picks up habits to improve his life, and still keeps his motivation for writing.
As we all know, this ends well for him, because if it didn’t, we wouldn't be reading his life story
right now. He did make some bad decisions, but most importantly, he worked hard to change
and turn his life around.