Character Identifications
This character is excellent at timing the perfect penny drop.
Who is Shawn?
Throughout the novel we see Will grapple with his feelings of anger and revenge; but we need to remember as readers that he is only 15. His innocence comes in to play in several parts of the novel- for example, his feelings for Dani, his connection to "chocolate syrup" and Shawn's blood. His struggle with emotions and control for his situation with Rule #3
Floor 7
Buck
he was Shawn’s mentor after Pop died. He’s tall and slim, has no facial hair, and wears gold chains around his neck. When Will meets Buck’s ghost in the elevator, Buck is wearing a T-shirt commemorating his own death.
The middle drawer
Will explains that the broken middle drawer was the only thing out of place on Shawn’s neat and tidy half of their bedroom—and furthermore, it contained Shawn’s gun.
Figurative Language?:
-"Always always always, be skeptical of a person who answers a question by asking a question."
Repetition
Will believes this character killed Shawn because they recently moved and joined a rival gang, the Dark Suns, and Shawn was killed in Dark Suns territory while on an errand to buy his mother special soap for her eczema.
Who is Riggs?
1- crying. Don't
2- snitching. Don't
3- revenge
Dani
She was Will’s childhood best friend until she was accidentally killed at eight years old in a revenge shooting gone wrong.
Elevator Rules
They get in, check that their floor button is lit, and then face forward. Nobody speaks.
- "Sadness split his face like a cold breeze on chapped lip after attempting to smile"
simile
"Her eyes wide, the brightness dimming. Her mouth, open. Bubble gum and blood."
Who is Dani?
Cycle of Violence
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.
This is linked to The Rules, which have been passed down for so long that Will can’t even name who came up with them in the first place — “The Rules have always ruled. Past present future forever” (p.174). They are simple, as the blurb explains: No crying. No snitching. Revenge.
Floor 5
Uncle Mark
He was Will and Shawn’s uncle and Pop’s brother, who died sometime when Will was a toddler. As Pop’s older brother, Uncle Mark was the one to pass on “the Rules” of the neighborhood to Pop.
Elevator
The elevator in Will’s building represents his sense of feeling trapped—trapped by “the Rules” of his violent neighborhood, and trapped in his grief over his brother Shawn’s death. Most of all, Will feels trapped in the irrevocable choice he believes he’s made by stepping into the elevator.
Figurative Language:
-"And the reason why is because for the first time in your life, you realize, or at least you think you could kill someone, right?"
Will and Shawn’s uncle and Pop’s brother, who died sometime when Will was a toddler. As Pop’s older brother, this character was the one to pass on “the Rules” of the neighborhood to Pop.
Who is Uncle Mark?
The accepted way to deal with grief isn’t through introspection, time, or venting one’s emotions—the only correct course of action, per the Rules, is to seek violent revenge.
Floor 4
Pop
Will and Shawn’s father who died when Will was three years old and Shawn was seven.
Anagrams Define and List 2 for full credit
"My wall had: an anagram I wrote in messed-up scribble with a pencil in case Mom made me erase i"
--> What was the anagram?
SCARE = CARES
"The man smiled, adjusted the chains around his neck. Looked me straight in the eyes, dead in the face."
Who is Uncle Buck?
Loyalty & Revenge
the novel makes it clear that loyalty and love motivated all of the killings. But it also suggests that such emotions, and the violent actions that Will and others like him want to take as an expression of that loyalty, have irrevocable consequences for all parties involved.
Floor 3
Frick
He was shot and killed by Shawn in retaliation for Frick killing Buck. And, if Will’s assumptions are correct, Frick may be the man whom Carlson Riggs was avenging by killing Shawn
Random Thoughts Poems: What is their purpose in the novel? Why did Jason Reynolds incorporate them into the novel?
Because they let us into his inner feelings about the situation he's in - on the surface in front of the ghosts we see a kid who is trying to be confident and not feel or break rule #1- so these allow us into his mind
Tupac and Biggie