Chapters One and Two Summary and Analysis

Sister Helen Prejean teaches adult education at Hope High School and works with the poor of New Orleans when Chava Colon, representing an organization known as the Prison Coalition, asks if she will become a pen pal with a prisoner. She agrees and he writes the name "Elmo Patrick Sonnier" along with his address at the Louisiana State Penitentiary on a piece of paper. Sister Helen then gives the background explaining her purpose for being in New Orleans at the St. Thomas housing projects. She is to work with the poor and she sees so many impossible situations. She initially flounders, but in 1980 suddenly realizes that she's been disconnected from her work and the answer is to connect directly with the poor rather than working toward reforms that are out of her reach.

Helen writes...