This chapter is the one in which John Grady and Rawlins face their punishment. Here, the two youths spend time in jail, their adventure goes awry, and they are in greater danger than they have ever been in before. Rawlins spends time in a hospital at the prison, and John Grady is seriously wounded. What is the cause of their many problems? John Grady and Rawlins talk about this on their trip north, when they are first captured. Do they face this punishment because of a lie, as John Grady says, or because of the truth, as Rawlins says? It is, of course, a combination of factors, including bad luck. Blevins is a major part of their problems. John Grady and Rawlins helped Blevins because he was so young and without common sense. And he told the authorities who they were. A natural response to Blevins' treatment of John Grady and Rawlins is anger. But Rawlins, who has never defended Blevins and always thought he would bring bad luck, says repeatedly that no one deserves to die like that.
Another obvious reason for their imprisonment is John Grady's lie to Don Hector about coming from Texas alone, just the two of them. Although it is only one lie, it has terrible consequences. The lesson here should not go unheeded.
Rawlins, of course, thinks that the affair with Alejandra is what has landed them in trouble. He tells John Grady that, when the militia came for him in the night, he asked them if Rocha were awake and they laughed at him and said he'd been awake a long time.
The Romeo and Juliet parallel in this novel is quite interesting. Two young lovers have defied their parents, John Grady by running away from home and school and Alejandra by spending lots of time at the ranch. Alejandra is defying all her culture's dictates by having an affair with a poor Americano. She is not only soiling her virtue, she is ignoring her class position. And she is the one who initiates the affair.
