51 pages • 1 hour read
Jason ReynoldsLong Way Down
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | YA | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “5”
Part 4, Pages 149-170 Summary
The cloud of smoke created by Dani and Buck fills the elevator, so Will can’t see the next person to get on. Suddenly, he is wrapped in a headlock. He feels as if he is choking. The mystery man laughs, and Will is angry, until he hears the man calling him nephew. It is his Uncle Mark, his father’s long-dead younger brother, who pulls Will closer, wanting to look him over. Uncle Mark is big: “Six foot four / Six foot five / (Six feet deep)” (160). He tells Will, “Look like your damn daddy” (160). Uncle Mark loved movies—he videotaped everything. He wanted to make a film, and through that project introduced Will’s father to his mother, Shari. But before Will can be too sentimental, Mark asks about the gun in his waistband.
Part 4, Pages 171-192 Summary
Will recalls the story of Uncle Mark’s death. He lost his video camera and didn’t want to work or ask for money or steal a new one. So he started selling drugs on the corner. He only planned to do it for one day, but of course the money went to his head. Uncle Mark demands Will to imagine what will happen when he leaves the elevator. He wants him to picture it, like a film. Will describes walking up to Riggs’s building, but the idea of the gunshot catches in his throat. He tries to explain himself, saying, “The Rules are / the rules” (173). But Mark insists he keep going. Finally, with Buck’s help, Will describes the gunshot. But Mark wants more. Will insists that this is the end of the scene. Mark laughs at him: “It’s never the end / Uncle Mark said, / all chuckle, chuckle” (192).
Part 4 Analysis
Uncle Mark appears and introduces a new metaphor, a new way for Will to consider the situation at hand. Mark was an amateur filmmaker, and he encourages Will to frame the scene in his head—to play out the reality of what will happen once he gets off the elevator. Will’s inability to follow through with this visualization indicates his apprehension and his reluctance to follow The Rules. Mark tries to show Will that his automatic response might not necessarily be the one that makes the most sense for him.
Uncle Mark is also the first person to suggest The Rules aren’t the be-all and end-all of masculinity. No male figure in Will’s life has questioned The Rules before Uncle Mark, but with Mark, Will is forced to move beyond his mantra, “The Rules are / the rules” (173). Mark asserts that The Rules create cycles of violence that have no end. While Will sees his action as a single moment without repercussions or consequences, Mark sees a larger narrative of violence, death, and grief. Mark laughs at Will’s naivete: “It’s never the end / Uncle Mark said, / all chuckle, chuckle” (192). This dark joke indicates the wisdom Mark gained through death. He sees the complex cycle of violence engendered by the simple desire for revenge.
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