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“…you straighten up and they’ll let you out early on probation or parole or whatever it is, and you can come home. I’ll get you a job at the store—”

“Like hell you will […] I ain’t never goin’ back there again. When I get outa here, you ain’t never going to see me again.”

“We were like brothers,” I said, desperate. “You were my best friend—”

He laughed then, and his eyes were the golden, hard, flat eyes of a jungle animal. “Like a friend once said to me, ‘That was then, and this is now.’”

I broke out in a sweat and was suddenly glad of the walls and the guards and the bars. I think if he could have, Mark would have killed me.

Explanation and Analysis:

When Bryon visits Mark in the state reformatory, he tries to convince Mark to straighten out so that he can get out early on parole and Bryon can then find him a job. Mark’s dismissive attitude toward Bryon’s idea shows that even in jail, Mark ...

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Original

Romeo

(aside) She speaks.
O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art
As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven
Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art though Romeo?
Deny they father and refuse they name.
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

Modern

Romeo

(to himself) She speaks. Speak again, bright angel! For tonight you are as glorious, there up above me, as a winged messenger of heaven who makes mortals fall onto their backs to gaze up with awestruck eyes as he strides across the lazy clouds and sails through the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Why must you be Romeo? Deny your father and give up your name. Or, if you won’t change your name, just swear your love to me and I’ll give up being a Capulet.

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