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Will’s Mother
Uncle Mark 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. Mark was an extraordinarily tall man who was always impeccably dressed in suits, dress shoes, and jewelry, with a cigarette tucked behind his ear. There are lots of photos of Uncle Mark around Will’s house, and Will has heard several stories about his uncle—so in some ways, it feels like he knows Uncle Mark when Mark’s ghost shows up in the elevator on Will’s way down to his apartment building’s lobby. In life, Uncle Mark was an aspiring filmmaker. He filmed everything on a camera he received for his birthday, but his dream was to make a movie based on Pop and Will’s mother’s dramatic and romantic early relationship. Though Mark started to film, he lost his camera before he could finish. To make the money for a new camera, he began selling drugs. This led to Mark being shot to death a few months later. Will shares that Uncle Mark wasn’t one to get a job or steal (stealing would require running, which might make him sweat or muss his clothes), so dealing drugs seemed like his best option. As a ghost, Uncle Mark plays the role of both a roughhousing peer and a somewhat scary authority figure. He menacingly makes Will tell the truth about his plan to avenge Shawn’s own shooting death, and then forces Will to walk through the “scene” of killing Carlson Riggs (who Will believes killed Shawn). Doing so exposes the cracks in Will’s resolve. Later, the ghost of Uncle Mark helps the ghost of Pop explain what went wrong when Pop tried to follow the Rules and avenge Uncle Mark’s death.
Uncle Mark Quotes in Long Way Down
The Long Way Down quotes below are all either spoken by Uncle Mark or refer to Uncle Mark. 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:
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Five
Quotes
Fly.
Like Shawn.
Foreshadowing the flash.
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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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it was like the word
came out and at the same time
time went in.
Went down
into me and
chewed on everything
inside as if
I had somehow
swallowed
my own teeth
and they were
sharper than
I’d ever known.
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The end?
he murmured,
looking at Buck,
motioning for a light.
It’s never the end,
Uncle Mark said,
all chuckle, chuckle.
He leaned toward Buck.
Never.
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Four
Quotes
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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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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Uncle Mark Quotes in Long Way Down
The Long Way Down quotes below are all either spoken by Uncle Mark or refer to Uncle Mark. 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
Fly.
Like Shawn.
Foreshadowing the flash.
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BUT TO EXPLAIN MYSELF
I said,
The Rules are
the rules.
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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.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
it was like the word
came out and at the same time
time went in.
Went down
into me and
chewed on everything
inside as if
I had somehow
swallowed
my own teeth
and they were
sharper than
I’d ever known.
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The end?
he murmured,
looking at Buck,
motioning for a light.
It’s never the end,
Uncle Mark said,
all chuckle, chuckle.
He leaned toward Buck.
Never.
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Four
Quotes
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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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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