It wouldn't be better to describe the situation William is in as a nightmare. Personally, the very second when he comes up with the idea to smuggle several kilos of hashish serves to be the prologue of this nightmare. Fast heart pulsation, frequently chewing the gum and nonstop sweating admittedly prove that he is so nervous and timid that he is not even aware of what kind of aftermath is coming close. He gets busted and loses the chance to return home with his lover. It is not until he is sent into the jail that he realizes that he is already trapped in the nightmare. What he finds in the cell is nothing but a squalid bed without any warm thing, not to mention a blanket. At that first night, he is severely flogged by Luthern, head of the prison, who treats him like an animal.Perhaps we can hardly imagine how many horrible nights he goes through again and again when he is the prison. Moreover, Turkish legal system plays such a tremendous joke with William that his hope of going home is thoroughly devastated by the escalation of the sentence. As a popular Chinese saying goes, it is really detrimental to turn the light off when pursuers are approaching it. Literally, as for William, finishing the four-year sentence and going home is the light; the prosecutor, the judge and the prison guards are the devils who extinguish this light, making the darkness continue.it is really detrimental to turn the light off when pursuers are approaching it. Literally, as for William, finishing the four-year sentence and going home is the light; the prosecutor, the judge and the prison guards are the devils who extinguish this light , making the darkness continue.it is really detrimental to turn the light off when pursuers are approaching it. Literally, as for William, finishing the four-year sentence and going home is the light; the prosecutor, the judge and the prison guards are the devils who extinguish this light , making the darkness continue.
Nevertheless, William has never given up the hope even at the darkest moment. It is interesting to watch the depiction of William's transformation during the four year prison stay. Obviously William initially thinks his father will be able to get him out of there. When he finds out that it is not the case, he accepts the reality. He begins to count the days left to return home. The more the number decreases, the greater his joy of going home will be. The prison seems like a community; everyone in it has his own status. Prison guards are the upper class, and they have numerous privileges; prisoners, to the contrary, possess few basic human rights. William learns quickly that insubordinate behavior is not tolerated and that punishment will be swift, unjust and brutal . Besides, Max, Eric and Billy become his close friends and confidants,all of whom are aliens in Turkey. Apart from coping with being locked up in a foreign country, they also often deal with the treacherous behavior of Rifki, a trustee who is allowed to profit on the inside exchange for keeping tabs of the other inmates and reporting any infractions. Furthermore, in the end, it is the hope given by Susan that leads him to successfully escape. After all, home is always his spiritual support, sustaining his strength to move on till the end.home is always his spiritual support, sustaining his strength to move on till the end.home is always his spiritual support, sustaining his strength to move on till the end.
On the whole, by painting the atmospheric brooding dread, unrelenting darkness and torture, plus reveling in its graphic depiction of violence, the nightmare becomes vivid; clinging to the hope of going home, William struggles to come to life.
View more about Midnight Express reviews
