The Rules stem from principles of masculinity that suppress vulnerability, and most of the novels characters follow The Rules. The middle drawer is on Shawns side of the brothers bedroom. 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 . Frickthe man whom Shawn killed, and who was undergoing his initiation into the same gang that Riggs belongs to when he killed Buckdoesnt recognize Riggss description, which suggests that its likely Riggs didnt kill Shawn to avenge Fricks death. When Reynolds was 19, one of his best friends was murdered on the street. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. He knows who hes after. Its impossible to ignore the supernatural aspect of Long Way Downall the individuals who share the elevator with Will on his way to avenge his brother Shawns death are ghosts. Yet every act of revenge only leads to another, thus furthering the cycle of violence, and Long Way Downdoes a fantastic job of hammering this idea in. "Long Way Down - Themes" eNotes Publishing Wills father, Pop, was killed when Will was a toddleras much as Will wants to remember Pop, he doesnt. The second is the date of Composed by Masafumi TakadaVocals by Gary NumanLyrics:Find myself withinDarkness twisting me aroundThere is nothing I can doThis world doesn't spinIt just tu. In this elevator, Will, the main character, is greeted . Additionally, my opinions may not align with yours and thats cool, too. This is only the first part of Wills 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. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance Bethany is a certified Special Education and Elementary teacher with 11 years experience teaching Special Education from grades PK through 5. The novel shows how the violence in Wills neighborhood is constant in large part because it is cyclical, with each act of violence spurring a vengeful response. While Will sees it as a signal to follow Rule #3, its awkwardness actually serves to draw attention to the wrongness of tracking Riggs down and killing him to avenge Shawn. When Will's older brother Shawn is shot dead on the playground outside their building, Will takes Shawn's gun and sets out to . gets inherited like a trunk of fool's. gold or a treasure map leading. Went downinto me and chewed on everythinginside as ifI had somehowswallowedmy own teethand they weresharper thanId ever known. Throughout the book, masculinity arises as a key theme. 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 . In the form in which they appear to Will, they have continued to grow and change as though they were living. 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Thank you for sticking with me on this extremely long analysis! Over the course of the story, Wills interaction with the other characters continues to place doubt on the assumption that Riggs shot Shawn. Wills interest in anagrams may be because they remind him of his bond with Shawn same letters, different words, somehow still make sense together, like brothers (p.37). And understandably, this isnt a conversation Will wants to have at all, let alone take seriously. All of the characters that Will meets are victims of gun violence and each of them adds depth to the themes and the story. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Any literary elements can be conveyed through characters, setting, dialogue, plot, or a combination. 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. All Will knows about Pop is the story Shawn told him: Pop went out to avenge the murder of his brother, Uncle Mark, and was later shot at a payphone. Long Way Down Themes. It represents Wills growing discomfort as he tries to prepare himself to kill Riggs and quite possibly the immorality of using murder to solve problems. The first character that Will encounters is Buck, the only big brother Shawn had ever had (p.86) and the one who taught [Shawn] The Rules (p.93). So Mikey represents Will if he kills Riggs. Instant PDF downloads. A fifteen-year-old Black teen, Will has grown up in an unnamed impoverished neighborhood with a high incidence of gun violence, drug abuse, and gang activity. He asks Will what happens after he shoots Riggs, to which Will replies, thats it. The elevator moves impossibly slowly, giving Will ample time to speak . I couldnt see himas anything lessthan my brother, Instant downloads of all 1715 LitChart PDFs The cycle of violence would continue to carry on. Print Word PDF. Over the course of the minute in which Will is in the elevator, ghosts of other people (many of them family members) who died as a result of similar violent incidents join Will. It represents the accumulation of hate, anger, and hurt, which can push someone into doing something that they might later regret. Two things began to turn Reynolds onto literature and poetry: rap music in the form of Queen Latifahs album. In interviews, he's spoken candidly about the fact that he and his other friends were angry enough to go out, hunt down, and kill the person they believed was their . As the ghosts file out of the elevator, Shawn turns back and asks, you coming? (p.306). Long Way Down is the story of 15 year old Will, whose older brother was just killed. 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?) Passed to him.Passed them to his little brother.Passed to my older brother.Passed to me. Not affiliated with Harvard College. The header on page 55 reads Reasons I thought (knew) Riggs killed Shawn. Everyone on the elevator with Will is dead, offering advice from the perspective of experience. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. The cycle of violence is the strongest theme that Reynolds book explores. 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. Word Count: 904. The main themes in Long Way Down are everyday violence, the rules of masculinity, and the passage of time. succeed. A heater. date the date you are citing the material. In fact, the Rules make it hard to figure out ones target, given the no snitching rule. Complete your free account to request a guide. When Frick discloses his story how he was killed Will thinks, I wish I knew an anagram for POSER (p.276). Most symbols are correctly identified, but some objects are missing or are incorrectly identified as significant symbols. Reynolds doesnt explicitly tell us. In Jason Reynolds' anti-gun novel, Long Way Down, written in verse, he explicitly emphasizes the effects of the acts of revenge in Will's society to evoke the adverse consequences of a gun violence. However, the surety Will begins the elevator ride with is steadily worn down by the ghosts who challenge him to reconsider his decision. -Graham S. Reynolds has been upfront about the purpose of his books: to speak to young readers who dont often see themselves represented in book characters. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Some of Reynolds first successful works were partially written during slow times at the Rag and Bone store he managed. There are Rules, and the Rules must be followed. Struggling with distance learning? An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds's fiercely stunning novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds - the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he's going to murder the guy who killed his brother. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Long Way Down, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. By presenting a story in which the wisdom of the dead takes center stage, Reynolds poses a compelling thought experiment: what might happen if someone in Wills position had this unencumbered access to information that, in reality, is usually lost forever when someone, At 15 years old, Will is on the brink of coming of age, even before his brother Shawn is shot and killed. 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