And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES. His question asks Will if he is going to follow through with killing Riggs, and thus follow the ghosts into death when someone comes after Will. Will goes back to the day, explaining that he is talking with his friend Tony when Shawn is shot outside their building. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. Instant PDF downloads. The man is Buck, a man who used to be like a big brother to Shawn, the man who gave Shawn the gun Will now carries, and a man . From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. 111 lessons. Its a terrifying moment for Will and it shows him how hed feel if he were in Riggs place. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." In order to deal with his grief, Will resorts to "The Rules," a set of dictates that discourage crying and encourage revenge as a means of coping with the loss of a loved one. Frick doesnt know Riggs, and because of this, he becomes the final attack on Wills certainty. There are Rules, and the Rules must be followed. At fifteen, he has already lived through innumerable shootings, and so he and Tony know the drill when they hear shots, ducking until the sound stops and then standing up to count bodies. This is important because when Will plays along, he realizes he cant imagine shooting Riggs. The novel's themes are the inevitability and futility of revenge and the element of choice, asking the question how much choice does Will actually have? At fifteen, Will is on the threshold between childhood and adulthood. (These instructions are completely customizable. In Long Way Down, Will is on his way to follow the Rules of his neighborhood that dictate that he take revenge for the death of his brother. PDF downloads of all 1715 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. -Graham S. Below you will find the important quotes in, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. We know the spirits of the dead exit the elevator at the lobby (along with the cigarette smoke) and Shawn's spirit asks Will if he's "coming" with them. Will is seeking revenge for his brother Shawn's murder. Among the ghosts are Will's father and Shawn, both of whom sought to follow The Rules when feeling grief over Uncle Mark and Buck, respectively. Word Count: 904. This is only the first part of Will's journeyonce he reaches the lobby, his plan is to avenge the death of his older brother, Shawn, who was shot the night before in what was likely a gang-related incident. Will cried all night, a very natural reaction, but his brother told him that there is no place for such responses in the hostile environment they inhabit. BEEF. Long Way Down thoroughly explores the theme of revenge. Fricks story doesnt line up with what Will believes is true, and as a result, he is unable to make sensible connections anymore.. Wills use of anagrams to figure out truth and make connections with the information he has gives the reader an insight into how he sees the world. No Snitching. -Graham S. Below you will find the important quotes in, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. Which character in Long Way Down has the largest impact on Will? Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds | Summary & Ending, Unwind Book Series | Unwind by Neal Shusterman, Beah's A Long Way Gone: Themes & Discussion, On the Sidewalk Bleeding by Evan Hunter | Summary & Themes, The Outsiders by S.E. Most examples fit the identified symbols. his face was wetwith tears he wasntsupposed to crywhen he was alive. Finally, I found Wills fascination with anagrams interesting, especially since there are five (maybe six) anagrams scattered across the book. Objective Summary Steps & Examples | What is an Objective Summary? Complete your free account to request a guide. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Bubble gum and blood (p.133). So Mikey represents Will if he kills Riggs. Additionally, Will meets the ghost of a man named Frick, who Will is shocked to discover murdered Buck. The person that shot Shawn had to be someone who knew Frick, but when Dani describes Riggs to Frick, he responds, Who? (p.275). Novels and poetry often have a variety of themes throughout that students can identify and analyze. Will must decide if he'll follow neighborhood code . So strange to say. The first thing that Mikey brings is guilt. If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original More books than SparkNotes. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. Will Holloman. it was like the wordcame out and at the same timetime went in. Most examples do not fit the identified symbols. Written by Beah in the United States after he returned to civilian life, the narrative gives real-life insight into how children can be coerced to commit terrible acts of war. However, he responds to his grief in his community's expected way, which is to get revenge. Will, however, speaks with a casual indifference to things that would normally frighten people, such as a nearby shooting that provokes the routine reaction of ducking for cover and then counting bodies. As he journeys to the ground floor, Will continues to make anagrams up until he meets the penultimate ghost: Frick. But for men, crying is a sign of weakness, not a way to cope with grief. Learn about Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. In the elevator, Will comes face to face with the ghosts of Buck, Pop, his Uncle Mark, Shawn, and Dani, a childhood friend who was accidentally shot and killed as an eight-year-old. Through this, and through the discrepancies between what Will thought was true and what the ghosts tell him actually is true, Long Way Down suggests that there can be major differences between whats believed and whats true in realityand that questioning the validity of ones perspective or beliefs is, at once, one of the hardest and most meaningful thing a person can do. Uncle Marks parting words are chilling. Mikey had killed the wrong guy (p.218). My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. As the other elevator occupants gradually expand Wills understanding of the events leading up to Shawns death, the novel makes it clear that loyalty and love motivated all of these killings. Also.the audiobook is just an hour or so long! This is why one bullet is missing from Wills gun. Already a member? Is he going to shoot Riggs, and further the cycle of violence? The way the content is organized, A concise biography of Jason Reynolds plus historical and literary context for, In-depth summary and analysis of every chapter of, Explanations, analysis, and visualizations of, Reynolds grew up in Oxon Hill, Maryland, an unincorporated suburb of Washington, D.C. [] I thought about this when the man withthe gold chains got on and checked to see if theL button was already glowing. When Frick discloses his story how he was killed Will thinks, I wish I knew an anagram for POSER (p.276). Why is Will going to shoot Riggs? Most important, however, are Wills reactions to the questions and thought experiments that the ghosts pose: its clear that hes never been asked to think about these questions before. Two things began to turn Reynolds onto literature and poetry: rap music in the form of Queen Latifahs album. He makes a painful piercing sound (p.300), as if hes mourning, until the elevator finally stops. When hoping to flirt with Dani, Will admits to this chain of influence, saying that Dani brushing his hand is "the perfect open for me to flirt or at least try to do my best impression of Shawn, which was his best impression of Buck." Long Way Down thoroughly explores the theme of revenge. Long Way Down tells the story of Will, a 15-year-old boy riding the elevator in his apartment building down to the lobby. 18 Apr. walking me to the store,teaching me how todo a Penny Drop. The way the content is organized, LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in, Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme, The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Loyalty and Revenge appears in each chapter of. The Genius of Elizabeth Weins Code Name Verity [SPOILERS], Three-Act Story Structure Study: Neal Shustermans Scythe, MG & YA Books by POC Authors + representation chat. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. Revenge. But each of the ghosts presents, in its own way, the futility of revenge. Dialogue Writing. The second date is today's Complete your free account to access notes and highlights. 2023 . However, it quickly becomes clear that such a killing is not a rare event in this neighborhood. An unbroken chain that gets passed down and inherited (p.27), it weighs down heavily on Will, who has been heavily affected by it and has to decide whether or not to further it himself. In a world that forbids men to weep, not even for their fallen brothers, Will cant find a way to cope. I couldnt see himas anything lessthan my brother, Instant downloads of all 1715 LitChart PDFs This sets the tone for the story, which requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, given that Wills journey happens over a single minute and contains A Christmas Carol type interactions with ghosts. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Loyalty and Revenge Theme Analysis. "But if the blood inside you is on the inside of someone else, you never want to see it on the outside of them.". Or, you can call it a gun. Teachers and parents! He challenges what Will believes to be true, and as a result, Will is no longer sure of Riggs involvement in Shawns death. Dani represents Wills loss of innocence, and it is her death that marks the true loss of his childhood. This is just how I interpreted the book. All of the ghosts in the elevator are interesting in their own way, but the second person who enters the elevator, Dani, is especially fascinating to me. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. BUCK IS DEAD. Long Way Down tells the story of Will, a 15-year-old boy riding the elevator in his apartment building down to the lobby. As the ghosts file out of the elevator, Shawn turns back and asks, you coming? (p.306). And understandably, this isnt a conversation Will wants to have at all, let alone take seriously. Shawn is the embodiment of Wills pain, his death the catalyst to why Will is in the elevator in the first place. Teachers may opt to lower the security if they want to allow sharing. Will is introduced to The Rules at the age of eight by Shawn just after having seen his friend Dani shot dead. Reynolds doesnt explicitly tell us. (including. Loyalty, in this sense, is the very reason families in Wills community are fractured in the first placeWill suggests that if someone doesnt avenge their loved ones death, theyre considered disloyal and effectively betray their loved ones memory by doing nothing. But I guess not surprising, which I guess is even stranger, and even sadder.". Complete your free account to request a guide. Even then, the author does not, in this work, offer any alternative code of behavior. Time is up, and Will has to make a decision. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. It is also a bildungsroman novel, showing Will's passage from childhood to adulthood in the grip of an impossible decision. LitCharts Teacher Editions. around the grip, placingthem over Shawnsprints like littlebrother holding bigbrothers hand again. I followed The Rules.At least the first two. Without further ado, lets dive in. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. Unlike a fictional narrative, real time does not stop at some arbitrary point. Instant PDF downloads. Loyalty and Revenge. However, The Rules are restrictive, stating that a man must not cry and therefore show fear or weakness. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. While Will tries to follow The Rules, the ghosts put up repeated challenges to his masculine posturing until Will breaks. L ong Way Down by Jason Reynolds is a 2017 verse novel about Will Holloman, a fifteen-year-old boy grieving over the death of his brother.. Will's older brother, Shawn . Olson, Maxwell. Danis death, then, not only killed herit inducted Will into the cycle of violence and emotional repression that led him to his current state, in which hes considering taking anothers life so he can stay true to the Rules. Though Reynolds has said he no longer crochets to unwind, he used to be an avid crochet hobbyist. Struggling with distance learning? The novel follows Will's stream of consciousness. He tells Will that he couldnt kiss [Wills] mother, couldnt kiss [his] boys good night (p.216). Complete your free account to request a guide. 10 likes. The next important thing in Mikeys story is a link to the theme of truth. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Drawing found families because Im single and dont want to mingle, I barely read anything in January, but here are some classic book recommendations anyway, A Writers Guide to Getting to Know Their Character. Its worth considering that while Wills elevator ride is supernatural and enlightens him to information that he couldnt have gotten without the ghosts, the simple act of thinking about the dead and what secrets they may have taken to their graves can still be a useful exercise. I will be spoiling almost everything in this book as I analyse it, so I would highly recommend reading it first before continuing. publication in traditional print. Its possible hes disappointed in Will for following in his footsteps. No snitching. A piece. At only fifteen, Will assumes this responsibility as though it is a rite of passage into manhood. Thats where Wills now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brothers gun. His presence is the most impactful because he is the person that Will loves most. Passed to him.Passed them to his little brother.Passed to my older brother.Passed to me. Essentially, Dani is asking Will to consider whether following through on his communitys Rules of revenge is guaranteed to have its desired effect. around knew. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Wills determined to believe that he can pinpoint the blame on Riggs, but deep down, hes not sure if this belief is truth, as implied with the brackets (parentheses?) Over the course of the story, Wills interaction with the other characters continues to place doubt on the assumption that Riggs shot Shawn. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. Identify the themes from the story that you wish to include and type them in the title box at the top. His question gets Will to begin reevaluating his decisions, but his confident you aint got it in you is what truly hits Will. In this elevator, Will, the main character, is greeted . The author can choose to leave the storyboard public or mark it as Unlisted. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." Hey, I'm Germaine: writer, artist, and more. All rights reserved. Like. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. She adds to his growing doubt by asking him, What if you miss? (p.142), a possibility that Will hadnt really considered before. A chopper. Long Way Down Themes. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. Will's true vulnerability is exposed when he pees himself in fear, when he cries over his uncertainty about killing Riggs, and when he seems to want nothing more than to hug the people he has lost. Much of how Will conceptualizes manhood has to do with acting appropriately masculinethat is, as, Instant downloads of all 1715 LitChart PDFs Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. Will says that The Rules, which define what it is to be a man, do not come from any man in particular. The soundtrack of an epic motorbike adventure from John O'Groats to Cape Town. After Danis death, Shawn begins to teach him The Rules. And because of her youth, many of the words used around her have connotations of innocence and childhood: playground (p.124), sunshine (p.127), and flower dress (p.127). When Will answers, Buck says, you aint got it in you (p.101). In Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Will is a young man on an elevator ride on his way to shoot a guy named Riggs. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. Thank you for sticking with me on this extremely long analysis! 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