Nothing will, indeed, reflect the losses and devastation suffered by the Gulf Coast community more than Joe’s story. Weaving her own memories with the experiences of family and friends, Natasha chose to represent, in her book Beyond Katrina the story of Joe's attempt to rebuild his life and the simple tragic act that leads to his incarceration. Before Katrina, Joe's life and business is on track. “He was a hard worker – efficient and likeable” (46). After Katrina, the misery of natural disaster and the injustice in the government reforms forced him to yield to the temptation of a lucrative drug deal, leading to his imprisonment. Without a doubt, it is the hurricane Katrina that made him end up in prison; yet the prison is where he began writing to Natasha, or at least at first. …show more content…
Getting stuck in “four walls attached to a timeless revolving door” (112), he started to view expressing his thoughts through letters as a meditation process, and even further than that, a recovery one. His letters allowed him to look at his inner self, find his instinctive values and realize the fact that staying in a county jail was definitely not his life: “If I stand out in this crowd, maybe I don’t belong here” (115). The mindful self-transformation, coupled with his family’s affection, brought him the sheer inspiration to head for a better restart in his life. Looking back on the storm, Joe recalled ‘“I asked some of the people in my neighborhood what it was like for them how did you survive? - they said: “Man, the people here would be ok, we know how to survive under stressful times.