Chapter Nine Summary

Eugene explains that in the prison, the private owners of the facility do not allow live t.v. Instead, they run old VHS videotapes from the 1980s talk shows for the prisoners to watch and nothing else. This way, he tells the reader, the prisoners never have any current event to riot about, so they remain largely docile. He remembers how he once worked with a black inmate at the prison named Alton Darwin. Darwin fancied himself an intellectual, even though Eugene was teaching the illiterate prisoner how to read and write while Darwin maintained such a delusion of grandeur. Darwin tells Eugene that he is a great leader of men, even though he's in prison for selling drugs. But when the prisoners finally do riot, Eugene explains that Darwin actually began to shout, "Follow me!" Alas for a few rioting...