Punching the Air

Amal hallucinates while in self-containment and sees his father. Why do you think this is the moment in the novel where Amal thinks about his father? What impact does this vision have on Amal and why?

Amal observes that people are trying to make him out to be a monster. Why does Amal think it is easy for people to see him that way and where does that monster image come from?

How much control do you think Amal has over the outcomes in his life? How much control do the white boys from the fight have over the outcomes of their lives? Why do you think that is?

In the poem “Blind Justice II” (201-02), Amal expresses the differences between the perception and treatment of Black people and white people. How do you think these images impact our society and the criminal justice system? How does society push these ideas of Black and white people onto others?

Amal compares school to prison throughout the novel and references the idea of the school-to-prison pipeline in the poems “Pipeline,” “Pipeline II,” and “Pipeline III.” How do you think schools might funnel certain students into the prison system? What role did school play in what happened to Amal?

Why do you think Amal refused to participate in the mistakes and misgivings activity in Imani’s class (221)? Provide textual evidence from previous poems. How does his initial refusal impact him when he returns to that activity later in the novel?

Amal becomes part of Kadon’s group while in prison. Why might it be important for Amal to have a group while incarcerated? What are some of the downsides of it? What role do groups play in the narrative, and how do others perceive groups based on race.

Even though Zenobia and Amal rarely communicated before his trial, why is it important that Zenobia sends letters to Amal now? What is her letters’ impact on Amal and how do they influence his actions when imprisoned?