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Buck
Will and Shawn’s father who died when Will was three years old and Shawn was seven. In life, Pop was a romantic and a jokester, though he started out life as an extremely uncool kid. It wasn’t until he met Will’s mother and she taught him how to woo women that he became the suave and accomplished adult Will has heard about (though he doesn’t remember Pop himself). Pop and his older brother, Will and Shawn’s Uncle Mark, were extremely close; Uncle Mark mentored Pop and taught him “the Rules” of the neighborhood. Because of this, when someone killed Uncle Mark, Pop felt compelled to follow through on the third rule and kill Uncle Mark’s killer. Will grows up thinking that Pop was successful in this endeavor and was then killed at a payphone not long after. However, when Pop’s ghost joins Will in the elevator and expands on this story, he tells Will a more complete and truthful version. Pop goes to great lengths to draw out the similarities between what he did and what Will plans to do by avenging Shawn’s death and killing Carlson Riggs (Shawn’s supposed killer). Specifically, Pop notes that he thought he knew who killed Uncle Mark—but it turned out he didn’t know and ended up killing the wrong man. As Pop tells this story, he cries a bit, and the combination of Pop’s tears and his admitted mistake makes Will disappointed in his father. Though the two embrace and Will seems genuinely interested in making sense of these additions to his Pop’s story, Will is caught off guard when Pop suddenly pulls Will’s gun out and puts it to Will’s head—only removing it after Will is afraid to the point of wetting himself. Though Pop never explains his reasoning for doing, it’s likely that he wants to make the point to Will of how utterly terrifying it is to find oneself in that position—something that might stir up Will’s sense of empathy and change his mind about killing Riggs. Following this incident, Pop’s ghost says little to Will for the rest of the elevator ride, and Will acts uninterested in trying to get close to Pop again.
Pop Quotes in Long Way Down
The Long Way Down quotes below are all either spoken by Pop or refer to Pop. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Five
Quotes
BUT TO EXPLAIN MYSELF
I said,
The Rules are
the rules.
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He knew them
like I knew them.
Passed to him.
Passed them to his little brother.
Passed to my older brother.
Passed to me.
The Rules
have always ruled.
past present future forever.
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Four
Quotes
I was only three.
And I don’t remember that.
I’ve always wanted to,
but I don’t.
I so don’t.
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A BROKEN HEART
killed my dad.
That’s what my mother
always said.
And as a kid
I always figured
his heart
was forreal broken
like an arm
or a toy
or the middle drawer.
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WHAT YOU THINK YOU SHOULD DO?
he asked.
Follow the Rules,
I said
just like I told
everybody else.
Just like you did.
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BUT YOU DID WHAT YOU HAD TO DO,
I said,
after listening to
my father admit
what I had already
known,
The Rules
are the rules.
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I didn’t know
he wasn’t the right guy,
Pop said,
a tremble in
his throat.
I was sure that was Mark’s killer.
Had
to
be.
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Two
Quotes
I TOLD HIM
about the
drawer,
the gun,
that I did
like he told me,
like Buck told him,
like our grandfather told
our uncle, like our uncle
told our dad.
I followed The Rules.
At least the first two.
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Get the entire Long Way Down LitChart as a printable PDF.
Pop Quotes in Long Way Down
The Long Way Down quotes below are all either spoken by Pop or refer to Pop. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Five
Quotes
BUT TO EXPLAIN MYSELF
I said,
The Rules are
the rules.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
He knew them
like I knew them.
Passed to him.
Passed them to his little brother.
Passed to my older brother.
Passed to me.
The Rules
have always ruled.
past present future forever.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Four
Quotes
I was only three.
And I don’t remember that.
I’ve always wanted to,
but I don’t.
I so don’t.
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Explanation and Analysis:
A BROKEN HEART
killed my dad.
That’s what my mother
always said.
And as a kid
I always figured
his heart
was forreal broken
like an arm
or a toy
or the middle drawer.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
WHAT YOU THINK YOU SHOULD DO?
he asked.
Follow the Rules,
I said
just like I told
everybody else.
Just like you did.
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Explanation and Analysis:
BUT YOU DID WHAT YOU HAD TO DO,
I said,
after listening to
my father admit
what I had already
known,
The Rules
are the rules.
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I didn’t know
he wasn’t the right guy,
Pop said,
a tremble in
his throat.
I was sure that was Mark’s killer.
Had
to
be.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Two
Quotes
I TOLD HIM
about the
drawer,
the gun,
that I did
like he told me,
like Buck told him,
like our grandfather told
our uncle, like our uncle
told our dad.
I followed The Rules.
At least the first two.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
