Born of violence and forged through society’s systems of reform—education, religion, and correction, Kane Kulpa developed outside the law. Despite his background, he’s a decent human, a man with a sense of his own moral code, a code developed from the outside looking in.

Originally, Kane sought only to survive. He lived beyond the law because it was the only world he’d ever known. His father pushed him beyond the boundaries of civilization’s smallest unit, the family. After his father’s death, Kane’s only recourse was the petty criminality of his childhood surroundings, the neighborhood he’d always known. In time, Kane attempted to use the opportunities petty crime appeared to provide in order to improve his position.

Crime might pay in its way, but it never leads to respectability. What you do makes you who you are, and you do what you are. A clean, respectable citizen will never be a true criminal, and a true criminal will never be a clean, respectable citizen. Such is the cycle of cultural norms and civilization’s boundaries. Crime, ever present on the fringe, leads to more crime.

Kane, a decent criminal, was born and raised to break the outlaw cycle.

The outlaw cycle is an essential part of American Mythology. The crown drew legitimacy first from the church and then from parliament. Breaking from the authority of the crown required breaking the law. In the American configuration, the law could only be as legitimate as the way it served the people.

The rights of the individual, then, is the basis for American law, and the law serves to protect the rights of the individual. 

Obviously, this is the ideal and rarely the reality. It’s the ideal, however, that Kane, a decent criminal, was forged to redeem by crossing the line between law and outlaw, civilian and criminal, decent and ruthless.

Will Kane live up to his potential? Will he realize his destiny? Or will he merely live as the statistic he became when sentenced to prison? 

Only time will tell.