"You mean-they'll let him out. And then he'll just start working his way back in again. You mean he'll never kick the habit. Is that what you mean?
Knowing family members who have dealt with addiction, this line resonated with me a lot. Indeed, relapse in cases of drug abuse occurs often, something that is shown in this passage.
alking about algebra to a lot of boys who might, every one of them for all I knew, be popping off needles every time they went to the head
I wonder how that would make a teacher feel? If something occurred in their personal life, how do you not let it reflect or spill out onto your kids.
I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work. I read it, and I couldn't believe it, and I read it again. Then perhaps I just stared at it, at the newsprint spelling out his name
"His" The narrator seems to set this up in almost a mysterious way and builds it over the course of the paragraph.