Ryder Adams Mrs. Holliday H English 10 4/6/2023 Anagrams, Hallucinating, and Poems The novel Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds is a story about the life experiences of a young man, Will, as a teenager in the hood. He is determined to get revenge for his brother, who was murdered. This novel tells the story of his experience finding out his brother was murdered and then going to avenge him. The Long Way Down is an excellent read, in my opinion, due to its poetic composition and descriptive, minute-long format. The entire book was written in poem form, stanza by stanza, giving the reader a quick experience. The entire book happens during a minute-long elevator ride for Will. This book is filled with literary devices such as poetic style, the …show more content…
It is evident that Will has gone through some tough times, and he is going to ameliorate the pain he feels by getting revenge for the murder of his brother. But as the elevator changes from floor to floor, a new character is introduced. Each character means something to Will but is now dead. In the book, on page 304, it states, “I caught my breath as Buck, Dani, Uncle Mark, Pop, Frick, and Shawn chased behind it. The L button no longer lit”(Reynolds, 304). Every floor that the elevator stopped at introduced a new character. All of the characters were telling their story of how they died, and telling him it is not worth going through and committing murder. This is because they all know that he will end up in the same place they all ended up, dead due to the cycles of violence in the hood. According to study.com, “The mystical element of the ghosts is used to give shape and power to Will's thought process during what would otherwise be an uninteresting elevator ride.” The use of people in the form of ghosts shows that Will is starting to learn that the cycle of violence in the hood will catch up to him. Everyone that showed up was encroaching on his drive for revenge for Shawn's death, whether it was Buck saying he didn’t have the audacity to do it, or Dani asking him why he would do that. Overall, all of these ghosts of essential people to Will show that he is hallucinating and learning the ramifications of getting revenge and that he does not need to fall victim to the cycles of
Will Shawn’s experiences and guidance help Will, or will it lead him astray? The first reason why Shawn has the biggest impact on Will is because he’s an older brother/father figure to Will. For example, a quote in the book states “ Shawn was my big brother, my best friend, my protector. He was the only one who always looked out for me, no matter what” (Reynolds, 21).
Will is dead because he is seeing dead people and at the end he went to get out of the elevator to go to the afterlife. Will is dead because he’s seeing all of his dead relatives at one time in the same place. At this moment in the novel, Will has just got to floor seven and a man got on. Will thinks he recognizes this man from somewhere and it ends up being his dead Uncle Buck.
In the young adult fiction "Long Way Down" by Jason Reynolds, the narrator, William, faces many challenges for revenge and meeting his deceased relatives. When Will was in the elevator, I believe Will's father had a drastic influence on the narrator. Will grew up, under the impression that his father died because of a "broken heart". However, it was later on in his life that he discovered that what he was told about his father was a lie. Shawn confessed to the narrator the truth about his father. "
One day, she got killed by a nearby shootout while they were playing, which ultimately altered Will's entire childhood and life. It impelled Shawn to teach him about the "rules "and adulthood because his childhood was already beginning to collapse on itself. The reason is that he just witnessed his best friend dying in front of him and described it as, "Her eyes wide, / the brightness dimming. / Her mouth, open.
First when Will first got into the elevator there was a timestamp of the time that was passing by in the elevator. At first you might not think too much about it, but slowly as you're reading the story you realize that the “conversations' ' they are having are happening in such a short amount of time. Between the first and last time he got into the elevator only 1 minute and 7 seconds passed. It symbolizes that everything that was “happening in the elevator” was fake . As the time starts to tick more and more , more of those people who are supposed to be dead start entering the elevator for a short amount of time.
Will said that Shawn was the King which he wouldnt have said if he didnt look up to him. In the quote it shows that Will thought Shawn was cool bu the way he talked about him, not just in this quote but throughout the
In "Ode to Dirt " Sharon Olds ases viid imagen, metaphor and personification to convey the speaker's evolving attitude toward dirt, from revulsion to appreciation, as she explores the complex and often overlooked role that dirt plays in sustaining life and connecting us to the natural world. Sharon Olds states specific language in the poem "Ode to Dirt" to express revulsion. In lines 2,3, and 4, Sharon Olds states," I thought that you were only the background for the leading thoracters- the plants and animals and human animals. " This quote proves revulsion due to Sharon Olds thinking that dirt was not as important as the plants and animals. This information proves that Sharon Olds was never paying attention to dirt.
Overnight he made a plan on how to kill Shawn’s killer, Riggs. In the morning he left his apartment with the gun and headed to the elevator. Will enters the elevator thinking he has everything planned out, but by the time he reaches the lobby a couple of visitors made him think differently.
Additionally, the author Willam Senator also uses foreshadowing in his story to make it better. An example from the text, “Of course he was always uncomfortable in elevators, afraid that they would fall, but this on was especially unpleasant. Perhap this was because of the poor lighting and the dirty walls. Perhaps it was because of the door, which never stayed open long enough, and slammed shut with a loud clangin noise. Perhaps it was the way the elevator shuddered each time it left a floor, as if it was exhausted.
After letting Buck know of his plan to kill someone and avenge Shawn, Will’s nerves started to build up. His adrenaline quickly rose as he grew afraid and impatient of the upcoming events. Will was sure about killing Riggs and the justification behind it, yet he was still afraid of
This trip changed White’s outlook on life, for he finally realized that mortality was closer than he imagined. He was no longer young, and watching his son mature only made this notion more real. One day, he will be only a memory to his son, just like his father is to him. White uses a variety of rhetorical devices to convey the message to his audience that life moves quickly, not stopping for anything, including emotionally-charged diction, imagery, and personification. White uses emotionally-charged diction as a form of pathos to convey his feelings about his past and explain trouble he is having with accepting his old age.
The novel is constructed to even deceive the reader. The first paragraph of the first chapter begins with a description of a beautiful summer day with “delicate perfume” (Wilde 1). It is a beautiful and pleasantly smelling environment but it is also
Another theme that is present is the theme of freedom. At first, she does not have much freedom at all and throughout the duration of they story she is confined in her home. Her newfound freedom gave her much joy but as she left her room, it was cut much too short due to her untimely death. The Story of an Hour has many structural, stylistic, and literary approaches that make it a very powerful
The narrator then proceeds to show Robert what a cathedral looks like by taking his hand and drawing a cathedral on “a shopping bag with onion skins in the the bottom of the bag.” (Carver 110) . Through this bricolage, the narrator closes his eyes and has an epiphany, for in this moment where his eyes are closed, hands intertwined, he truly sees, and “ ‘It’s really something,” (Carver 135). It’s the minimalistic approach that prefaces this big event that really showcases the theme. Carver’s use of colloquial language, in creation of an increasingly relatable scene allows for the reader to empathize with the narrator, allowing for a much stronger impact when the epiphany occurs and the story’s theme has been
When the narrator first noticed the so-called love of his life, he says, “my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires” (Joyce np). With this, the narrator is provided with a newfound purpose in life, yet this does not last long.