Plot:
Exposition- we get introduced to the characters and introduced to the argument of the death penalty vs. life imprisonment
Inciting Event- the banker proposes the bet and the lawyer accepts
Rising Action- the years pass and we learn how the lawyer is handling his 15 years in prison. the end of the bet nears and the banker no longer has the 2 million to pay the lawyer, so he goes in to kill him. he sees a letter the lawyer has written.
Climax- The banker reads the letter in which the lawyer renounces the 2 million dollars and says that after gaining wisdom he is giving up on society
Falling Action- the banker goes home and cries, the guard tells the banker the lawyer has run away and the bet is over
Resolution- the banker puts the letter in the safe

Setting:
Place-The bankers lodge
Time: 1885

Conflict:
Person Vs. Society, because the way society dealt with prisoners is what starts the bet in the first place. Also, society is what made the lawyer change because he read all of the books that talk about people, and that gives him new wisdom. The lawyer has given up on society at the end of the story.

Protagonist:
The lawyer is the protagonist because the story revolves around him and how he changes because of his imprisonment. He is against the way society works in the end. In the beginning the bet represents the way society works and the lawyer is proving something by saying that he can survive 15 years in prison. His conflict is both with society and inside himself.

Antagonist:
The antagonist is society, represented by the banker and the money he offers the lawyer. The banker also represents everything that is wrong with society, such as greed and self-righteousness. He is what the lawyer is fighting against, and what the lawyer grows to hate in the end.

Meaning of home:
Home is a place where you can be yourself and be comfortable. The lawyer was not comfortable in his surrondings and had given up on societey and other human beings, so he had lost his home. There is no way, after giving up on society like he did, that he would have ever been able to feel comfortable again. He did not believe in home, life, or humanity. He had given up on it all. Once you give that up, there's no way you can have a home again. He may have had a place to live, but he definitely wouldn't have had a house. Giving up the way he did, and hating society and people so much, I'm surprised he didn't just kill himself. But I believe that he hated himself as well because he realized just how human he way. By the end he had no home.

Meaning of freedom:
The lawyer gave up freedom by choice. He took the chance to earn 2 million dollars in return for 15 years of his life; 15 years he spent in solitary confinement. At the end, when he escaped early, he was physically free, but I believe he was mentally trapped in a place he couldn't get out of. He was trapped inside his ideas and his hate for society and humanity. I fully believe it was his own fault because he chose to be this way. He chose to put the mental handicaps on himself. When he was let go he had less freedom than when he was locked up. When he was imprisoned, he had the right to choose what he wanted. Once he had made up his mind about society, he was stuck that way. He willingly gave up the right to be free.