The prison in this story is Tommy Castellis life.

For many people, prison does not mean

grey buildings with guards and watch towers. Tommy is locked into a drab life that he
shares with a woman he has never loved, doing work that has no meaning with no hope
of any redemption. Every day is like any other. Catching the young girl stealing adds a
spark to his life because there is something new about it. He sees something of his early
life in her actions and that prods him to do something to save her before it is too late. But
he fails miserably here too.
Main themes
The imprisonment people suffer even when seemingly free is the main theme of The
Prison. When he was young, Tommys dream had been to break free from the thickly
tenemented, kidsquawking neighborhood, with its lousy poverty but it does not quite
turn out that way. He quit the vocational school that could have taken him somewhere,
began hanging out with the boys who seemed to have money to blow. The attempt to hold
up a liquor store goes wrong and he is lucky not to get caught. He briefly escapes to
Texas but comes back and gets married to Rosa. The banality of his present life affords
him no escape; everyday is the same. There is the candy store where he sells the same
toffees and cigarettes and there is plain ol Rosa for whom he has no love. When he
catches the little girl pinching chocolate, there is something new, something interesting in
his life. He wants to reform her because he knows her life too could go his way. But his
noble intentions dont go the way he wants.
Characters
Tommy Castelli
The reader gets to know Tommy Castelli quite well. His is the only character which fully
developed in the short story. Tommy is a decent fellow in spite of his checkered early
days. His incarceration stems from his early brush with crime when he partakes in an
attempt to hold up a liquor store. He escapes being caught by law but he effectively loses
his freedom when he marries Rosa, a match his father arranges to keep him on the right
side of law. Life in the small town with no escape in sight jars so he twice plans to make
a little money on the side but both ventures are failures.
Its when he is thoroughly bored with his life that he catches the little girl stealing
chocolate from the counter. He is confused about what to do but she is so young he has
this strong urge to help her break out of it. He remembers his childhood when he would
go out with his Uncle Dom who was adept at cheating. But Uncle Dom is now in prison
for his crimes. Before Tommy can carry out his plan to warn the little girl she is caught
by Rosa who thrashes her. Rosas fury angers Tommy and he slaps her. Tommy tries to
save the girl from Rosas fury by saying he had let her have the candy. The girl is hardly
thankful; she sticks her tongue out at him in disdain.
Rosa
We get to know of Rosa from Tommys thoughts which are hardly complimentary to her.
Rosa has a waspish tongue and a worse temper. She nags him when he does things that
she does not approve of. To her credit it must be said that she does not like him flirting
with law. When Rosa is angry, she screeches. She screeches at him so loudly when he
brings in the slot machine that her father goes at it with a plumbers hammer. When she

catches the little girl stealing chocolate she flies off the handle, provoking Tommy to slap
her. This shocks her as Tommy has meekly taken her tantrums till now.
The little girl
From the story, it does not seem like she is a first time thief. She times her moves well
and as Tommy goes inside the back room to fetch the tissue paper, she dips her hand into
the case and extracts two chocolates. When Rosa catches her stealing, she thrashes her.
When her mother comes in hearing the commotion, the girl tries to wriggle out of the
mess by claiming that one chocolate was for the mother as though that exonerates her.
Tommy tries to help her escape punishment by declaring that he had let her have the
chocolates. But the girl is not grateful; while leaving with her mother, she rudely sticks
her tongue out at him.