51 pages • 1 hour read
Long Way Down
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Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “6”
Part 3, Pages 109-129 Summary
On the sixth floor the elevator stops and a beautiful woman gets on. She’s around the same age as Will. She comments on the cigarette smoke coming from Buck, which Will takes as a good sign—he’s not crazy if she can see Buck too. As Will admires the girl, she asks him questions, finally circling around to ask him about his gun. He balks, saying he doesn’t ask strangers questions like that, but she eerily replies, “But / I do / Know / You / Will” (122). Suddenly, Will is propelled back to memories of a childhood crush, Dani. He recognizes the woman in front of him as a grown version of that eight-year-old girl.
Part 3, Pages 130-146 Summary
Will recalls Dani’s sudden and traumatic death on the playground. She describes the burning in her body as Shawn lay on top of her and Will, trying to protect them from the flying bullets. Will watched as the light left Dani’s eyes. Will describes his grief after her death, as Shawn taught him the first rule: “I stood in the shower / the next morning / after Shawn taught me / the first rule, / no crying / feeling like / I wanted to scratch / my skin off scratch / my eyes out punch / through something” (136). Dani again asks what Will plans to do with the gun. He explains Shawn’s death and names the likely culprit. Dani then asks, “What if you / miss?” (142). Will rejects this possibility. Dani is worried, he can tell. Buck hands Dani a cigarette, and the elevator stops on another floor.
Part 3 Analysis
Will describes his first experience with grief and loss, and how it defined his childhood. He talks about learning The Rules for the first time, and how this rejection of his emotions led to a feeling of uncontrollable violence. He describes his inner turmoil after Dani died: “I stood in the shower / the next morning / after Shawn taught me / the first rule, / no crying / feeling like / I wanted to scratch / my skin off scratch / my eyes out punch / through something, / a wall, / a face, / anything” (136).
Will’s desire to hurt himself, to destroy something else, indicated his couched pain. Because he is told not to cry, he has no outlet for his pain other than violence. This is the beginning of the cycle that has come to define his young adulthood, as well as the lives and deaths of so many people he loves.
This section also offers a perspective on violence from the voice of an innocent victim. Dani, who was accidentally shot by a stray bullet on a playground, asks Will an important question: “What if you / miss?” (142). This compels Will to confront the unintended consequences that could arise from his actions. He is forced to reckon with what this cycle of violence, which he wants to be a part of, does to everyone in the community, not just the people who own and shoot guns.
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By Jason Reynolds
