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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Long Way Down, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Loyalty and Revenge
Grief, Fear, and Cycles of Violence
Perspective and Reality
Masculinity and Coming of Age
Summary
Analysis
Since nobody believes anything these days, the narrator says, this is the first time he’s telling this story. He understands if the reader doesn’t believe it—the reader might think the narrator is lying or going crazy, but his story is true and really happened to him. The narrator then introduces himself: his full name is William Holloman, but everyone just calls him Will. He instructs the reader to call him Will, too, since after Will tells his story, the reader will either want to be his friend or want nothing to do with him. Only Will’s mother and brother, Shawn, call him William, and Shawn only did so when he was trying to be funny. Now, Will wishes he’d laughed at Shawn’s jokes more, since Shawn was killed the day before yesterday.
The fact that Will is so concerned with whether or not the reader will believe his story speaks to his youth, to his desire for someone to take him seriously. The matter-of-fact manner in which Will presents Shawn’s death suggests that perhaps Will is suppressing his true emotions about the tragedy. Meanwhile, Will’s regret over not laughing at his brother’s jokes while he was still alive introduces the novel’s examination of how people often make choices they regret when their perspective is limited to the present moment.
Themes
Will doesn’t know the reader’s last name, or if they have brothers, sisters, parents, or other relatives. But if you share blood with someone, Will says, you don’t want to see it outside their body. Will admits that the sadness is hard to explain. He asks the reader to imagine waking up, strapped down, while a stranger rips out their molar. He asks the reader to imagine the pressure in their ears, the blood, and the pounding in their head. Will says that the worst part will be slipping their tongue into the empty space where they know there’s supposed to be a tooth.
Here, Will speaks to the idea that losing a loved one is a universally traumatic experience. Even if the reader may not be able to fully relate to Will’s life, he suggests that grief is universal. Importantly, the fact that grief can translate to any reader suggests that this emotion is something that all humans experience—something that Will doesn’t always act like applies to him.
Themes
Although it feels difficult, strange, and sad to say that Shawn is dead, Will isn’t particularly surprised by his brother’s death. This lack of surprise is possibly even stranger and sadder than the tragedy itself. Will says that the day before yesterday, he and his friend Tony stood outside, wondering if they’d get taller now that they’re 15. Shawn grew a foot or more when he was 15, and passed down all of his clothes that no longer fit. Tony hopes he’ll grow—he’s a great basketball player, but he’s short, and it’s impossible to get very far as a short guy unless you can jump.
Will’s comment that he and Tony haven’t experienced their growth spurts yet lets the reader know that they’re still children, at least physically. That Will is wearing Shawn’s hand-me-downs also illustrates this point, while Will’s lack of surprise that Shawn is dead suggests that violence like this unfortunately isn’t something that’s unheard of in Will’s neighborhood. In fact, it’s so common that even a young person like Will is desensitized to it.
Themes
During this conversation, Will, Tony, and everyone else in the area hear gunshots. They run and tuck themselves down, praying they won’t get hit. Once the shots stop, Will and Tony look up to count bodies. There’s only one: Shawn. Will says he’s never been in an earthquake, but it seems like the ground ate him up in that moment.
The way that Will describes feeling in the immediate aftermath of Shawn’s death speaks to his depth of emotion. This is proof that he does experience intense and overwhelming grief, even if he tries to suppress it.
Themes
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According to Will, usually only moms, girlfriends, or daughters scream when someone is killed. At the scene of the shooting, Leticia, Shawn’s girlfriend, kneels beside Shawn’s body and shrieks as she kisses his forehead. Will thinks Leticia does so because she hopes her screams will keep Shawn alive—but he also thinks that, on some level, Leticia knows she’s kissing Shawn goodbye. As the sound of sirens approaches, Will and Shawn’s mother moans, “Not my baby.”
Again, the way Will talks about who screams after a murder makes it clear that this is something Will experiences often. It’s different, however, now that it’s his family grieving, which shifts Will’s perspective. He now understands that the screaming isn’t just screaming—it’s a way to release emotion and start to grieve.
Themes
Police officers arrive, shine lights in everyone’s faces, and ask if anyone saw anything. No one says anything. One cop, who looks young and honest, seems to expect answers. Marcus Andrews, the “neighborhood know-it-all,” says that he didn’t see anything—even Marcus knows better than to act like he knows something. Will clarifies that gunshots make people deaf and blind, especially when the shots kill someone. It’s best to be invisible, and even Tony runs away. Will isn’t sure if the cops talk to him, since he can’t hear anything but his heartbeat in his ears. He holds his breath and hopes he can give some back to Shawn.
This passage makes it clear that Will’s community doesn’t trust the police, which perhaps plays a role in why killings like these are so common. It seems that achieving a sense of justice for murders like Shawn’s likely falls to the community, not to the police. Meanwhile, Will not being able to hear anything suggests that he’s in a state of shock, meaning his brain is probably trying to protect him from the intense grief he’s experiencing. While a normal response to trauma, this another sign that Will’s first reaction is to suppress his emotions, not let them out.
Themes
When bad things happen, Will and his family can usually look up and see the moon. In the past, it’s always made Will feel better that there’s something up there sending light to them. But on the day Shawn dies, the moon is dark, which someone told Will happens once a month before the moon goes back to normal and becomes new. Will thinks the moon is lucky it’s not down on Earth, where nothing is ever new. Will clenches his teeth as he looks down at Shawn’s body, which seems to have been abandoned like a piece of furniture. Shawn is still wearing his gold chain—his killers didn’t even take it.
The fact that Shawn’s killer didn’t take Shawn’s chain is a hint to Will that this killing was probably personal—not because the killer wanted to rob Shawn or make some other point. Again, the way that Will talks about the moon not providing comfort right now illustrates just how dark of a place he’s in. His clenched teeth, however, suggest that he’s not allowing his grief out.
Themes
A random thought pops into Will’s head: under the glow of streetlights, blood soaking into clothes looks like chocolate syrup. Will knows, however, that blood is nothing like chocolate syrup. In Shawn’s hand, there’s is a plastic bag that reads “THANK YOU, HAVE A NICE DAY.” Inside is some special soap for their mother’s eczema. Sometimes, their mother scratches and picks at her flaky skin until she bleeds, cursing "the invisible / thing trying to eat / her.” Will wonders if there’s something invisible trying to eat everyone, as though they’re all beef.
The bag containing Will and Shawn’s mother’s special soap shows that her sons care deeply for her, and the image drives home the inhumanity of Shawn’s death—he was murdered while fetching medically necessary soap for his parent. He wasn’t, as far as Will can tell, doing anything to provoke someone, which makes Shawn’s killer look even more coldhearted to those assembled here. It’s also significant that Will wonders if there’s something eating everyone. It’s obvious that Will’s grief is “eating” or bothering him, but the long-term consequences of this emotional torment are unclear.
Themes
In Will’s neighborhood, beef gets passed around like name-brand T-shirts. Like the T-shirts, the beef is always too big and never gets ironed. The beef is inherited, but it’s like fool’s gold or a treasure map that leads nowhere. Beef is what knocked on Shawn’s door, kicked it down, and left only his gold chain behind. Eventually, the police put up yellow tape around the crime scene, and everyone goes home. The police zip Shawn’s body into a bag and roll him away, leaving his blood on the pavement. The tape frames the blood and the old bubblegum on the ground—tomorrow, Will thinks, kids will play mummy with it.
Even from this early stage (both in the novel and in life), Will is well aware that the “beef,” or cycle of violence, that circulates in his neighborhood doesn’t do any good (which he shows by comparing it to things that are worthless). That doesn’t mean, however, that the “beef” isn’t deadly—but Will recognizes that the violence in the community isn’t doing anyone any favors. This is a mature perspective given Will’s young age, and it suggests that he has the capacity to decide whether or not he wants to be swept up in the “beef.”
Themes
Back in his eight-floor apartment, Will locks himself in his room and covers his head with a pillow so he doesn’t have to listen to his mother sobbing in the kitchen. She only stops crying when she takes a sip from a glass, and those silent moments are the only time Will feels able to breathe. Will holds back tears—it feels like there’s a tiny person trapped behind his face, kicking and punching at his eyes and throat. Will whispers to himself to stay strong and tells the tiny person to stay put. Crying, he says, is against “the Rules.”
Will holding back tear is a way of denying himself a normal and natural emotional outlet, and the fact that crying isn’t allowed suggests that Will has grown up in an environment that encourages emotional suppression. Despite Will’s attempts, however, he’s still attuned to and pained by his mother’s sorrow. This suggests that Will is still feels those emotions himself, and cannot stand being around someone else who—probably because she isn’t expected to be masculine and tough—can express herself.
Themes
The first rule is no crying. The second is no snitching. The third is that if someone you love gets killed, you must find the killer and kill them in return. Will says that the Rules didn’t come from Shawn, Shawn’s friends, Will and Shawn’s dad or uncle, or any of the guys outside. They didn’t come from Will, either. Will also explains that it’s impossible to break the Rules—rather, “broken” people must follow them.
Will situates “the Rules” as law in his neighborhood. It’s a requirement that instead of grieving, people who have suffered a loss must turn their negative emotions into violence. Will’s tone suggests that he recognizes this isn’t a good thing, but he still doesn’t seem to see the Rules as negotiable. This is likely due to his youth and limited understanding of his actions’ consequences.
Themes
Will and Shawn shared a bedroom. Each side is the same, with a bed and a dresser, and there’s a TV in the middle. Shawn’s side, the left, is perfect, while Will’s is messy and disorganized. Shawn has posters of Tupac and Biggie, while Will wrote an anagram in pencil on his wall, just in case his mother makes him erase it. It reads: “scare=cares.” Will explains that an anagram means taking the letters of a word and rearranging them to make a new word. Sometimes, the words are still connected, as with “ocean=canoe.” He thinks that the same letters in different words that still make sense together are like brothers.
Will’s interest in anagrams mirrors his interest in people, and suggests that he has the ability to think critically about relationships. On a more structural level, this mirrors the way that other characters in the novel will try to illuminate connections between different people for Will and show him how closely-related everyone and everything in his community is. This particular anagram suggests that Will associates being afraid with caring about someone.
Themes
The only thing out of place on Shawn’s side is the middle drawer in Shawn’s dresser, which sits like a jagged tooth in an otherwise perfect mouth. Shawn kept his gun in the middle drawer, and Will suspects Shawn messed it up on purpose to keep Will and their mother out. Will admits that Shawn wasn’t one to be home by curfew, or to call and check in about where he was. This was especially true after Shawn turned 18, at which point their mother stopped trying to control him and started to pray that he wouldn’t go to jail, get Leticia pregnant, or die.
In Will’s mind, Shawn’s middle drawer indicates that there was something purposefully, violently wrong with Shawn, in spite of a handsome and put-together appearance. The way that Will’s mother had to shift to praying for Shawn’s wellbeing when he turned 18 shows how little power she has to influence her male family members’ actions, or how the wider culture functions. It’s possible that because she’s emotional and doesn’t adhere to the Rules, she doesn’t get a say in them.
Themes
Will’s mother used to say that she knew Shawn was young and needed to get out, but warned him to be careful of the “nighttime.” Will thinks Shawn probably had his headphones on and didn’t hear her. Will usually went to bed alone, staring at Shawn’s half-full bottles of cologne and the middle drawer. He never touched anything because he didn’t want to Shawn to put him in a headlock. It wasn’t always this way, though: when Will was 12 and Shawn was 16, they’d stay up all night talking about girls. They’d talk about Tupac and Biggie too, but now Will wonders if people think these rappers were the best just because they’re dead—people are loved more when they’re dead.
The way that Will describes his early relationship with Shawn paints a picture of a close, loving, and supportive brotherhood, which indicates that Shawn likely stepped into somewhat of a fathering role to Will after Pop’s death. The idea that people are better or more loved when they’re dead suggests that in Will’s community, there’s some incentive to engage in violence behavior, since dying boosts one’s legacy.
Themes
When Will turned 13, Shawn spritzed Will with cologne and said Will’s first girlfriend would like it. Will’s first girlfriend actually hated it, however, so Will broke up with her. Shawn thought it was funny that Will broke up with her because of that, but the teasing headlocks felt more like hugs. Now, Will thinks that the cologne bottles will never empty. Will will never have to fear that touching something will earn him a headlock. Thinking about how Shawn is never coming home feels like a headlock to Will. He wonders if he should love Shawn more now that he’s dead. Shawn was Will’s only brother, and Will’s favorite.
Breaking up with a girlfriend because she didn’t like Shawn’s cologne speaks to the intensity of Will’s idolization of Shawn—as does his sense that Shawn’s headlocks were an expression of love and not actually violent. This indicates that Will’s idea of how to demonstrate love and loyalty are a bit skewed. He’s beginning to see now that he doesn’t love Shawn more just because he’s dead—rather, he’s loved Shawn all along.
Themes
All of a sudden, the room seems lopsided to Will. He’s curious about Shawn’s middle drawer, which seems to call to Will. Will thinks that the off-centeredness of the drawer is a sign of what’s inside, and the fact that what’s inside should be able to fix things. Will works at the drawer until it opens an inch and he can touch the cold steel inside. There are many nicknames for a gun: a piece, a biscuit, a hammer. Will says it’s a tool for Rule No. 3.
Fishing out Shawn’s gun isn’t just the first step to carrying out Rule No. 3. In some ways, it’s also a method for Will to become more like Shawn, which likely appeals to Will given how much he idealizes his older brother. There’s little indication thus far that Will is much like Shawn in other ways, so he may also see this as a good first step to making Shawn proud.
Themes
In Will’s neighborhood, Carlson Riggs is known for being loud, but gentle. Some say he talks so much trash because he’s short, but Will thinks it’s because Riggs’s mom made him take gymnastics as a kid—wearing tights means you need to at least talk like you can defend yourself. Shawn and Riggs were friends. The best thing Riggs did was to teach Shawn how to do a Penny Drop; the worst thing he did was shoot Shawn. A Penny Drop is hanging off the monkey bars by the legs until the performer swings off and lands on their feet. It’s hard to do, but Shawn taught Will how to do it after he learned the trick from Riggs. People who can do a Penny Drop or a backflip are king. Shawn was king, so Will was the prince.
Here, Will reveals that his neighborhood’s definition of masculinity is narrow and not up for interpretation. Carlson Riggs is at a disadvantage because he hasn’t grown up in a “properly” masculine way, and now he seems to be making up for it by turning to violence. This suggests that Will’s community—and by extension, Will himself—tie adult masculinity to violence. This helps to explain why Will takes the gun, too, as shooting someone (Carlson Riggs, presumably) will thus allow Will to become an adult and man.
Themes
Not long ago, Riggs moved to a part of town that’s home to the Dark Suns gang. He wanted to join so that he could associate with the gang and not be just a loudmouth anymore. The Dark Suns wait for people to cross into their territory, which starts nine blocks from Will’s building—the corner store that carries their mother’s special soap is right inside their territory. Riggs understood that he needed to get in with the Dark Suns or someone would beat him. Will and his mother used to watch crime shows, and Will could always identify the killer. This is a gift, like his knack for anagrams. Riggs has to be Shawn’s killer, Will thinks.
The title to Will’s poem about Riggs,“Reasons I Thought (Knew) Riggs Killed Shawn, No.1: Turf,” reveals that Will isn’t actually sure Riggs killed Shawn. However, Will believes there’s enough circumstantial evidence to pin Riggs as the killer—this is obviously questionable, especially since Will learned to identify killers by watching crime shows. These shows usually follow a formula, which Will very well may have been good at recognizing, but that doesn’t mean Riggs is definitely Shawn’s killer. Will’s assessment, again, illustrates his youth and naïveté.
Themes
Will has never held or touched a gun. When he picks up Shawn’s pistol from the drawer, it’s heavier than Will expected—it seems as heavy as a newborn baby. Will knows the gun’s cry will be louder than a baby’s, though. When Will hears his mother in the bathroom, he turns the light off and leaps into bed, hiding the gun under his pillow. Sleep eludes Will, which reminds Will of how he used to hide from Shawn. In the morning, Will wakes up and realizes he didn’t dream. He decides to pretend he dreamt about Shawn so that he’ll feel better about going to sleep on the night Shawn died. Still, Will feels guilty for waking up and reaching under his pillow.
Noting that the gun feels as heavy as a newborn infant alludes to fatherhood—by picking up the gun, Will is losing some of his own childish innocence. He’s not a kid anymore in his mind, as he’s staring down the one thing that’s going to catapult him into adulthood: killing someone else. Will’s guilt and attempts to hide this from his mother show that he does feel horrendous about what he’s doing, but in his mind, it’s more important to follow the Rules than it is to protect his mother’s feelings.
Themes
Will puts his fingers over Shawn’s prints on the gun and feels like he’s holding Shawn’s hand again. He remembers Shawn teaching him to do a Penny Drop and coaching him on the timing of the trick. Now, when Will looks at himself in the mirror and thinks he resembles a zombie. He slept in his clothes, so he stinks of death and sweat. Will doesn’t care. He tucks the gun into the waistband of his jeans so it sticks out like a tail. His shirt, a name-brand hand-me-down from Shawn, covers it. Will’s plan is to wait for Carlson Riggs outside of Rigg’s apartment building. Will thinks it’ll be safest in the morning, when none of the other Dark Suns are out. He’s going to hit the buzzer, wait for Riggs to come down, and pull his shirt over his mouth and nose. Then he’ll “do it.”
The fact that Will feels so connected to Shawn when he holds the gun shows again that even if Shawn didn’t include Will in any of his violent dealings outside of the apartment, he nevertheless led by example and primed Will to engage in this kind of violence as well. Will feels as though Shawn is leading him into adulthood now, since it almost seems as though Shawn left the gun in a place where he knew Will would find it. This helps Will feel more secure in killing Riggs, since he thinks Shawn would support him in doing so.
Themes
The sun beams through the kitchen window, illuminating Will’s mother, who is asleep at the table. Her arms are swollen like she’s been scratching all night. Will wants to tell his mother that Shawn’s death wasn’t her fault, but instead he sneaks out of the room so that he doesn’t break her heart even more. In the hallway outside Will’s apartment, the lights buzz like the lightning bugs that Shawn and Will used to catch in jars. They’d watch their captives until their lights went out. The gun digs into Will’s back, rubbing it raw. Time seems to stand still as he calls the elevator, steps in, and starts down.
Again, it’s very important that Will chooses not to comfort his mother, and instead chooses to leave the apartment so he can go shoot Riggs. This is the moment in which Will chooses violence over emotion, even though he can see that staying and comforting his mother would likely have more positive results than killing someone. His belief in the Rules, however, means that he must ignore the possibility that open expressions of emotion, grief, and love are superior to violence.
Themes
