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Dylan Feld

Ms. Gruber

English 9 - Period 4

3 October 2021

A Descent into Realization

In Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds writes about themes of a cycle of violence. The main

character, Will, spends most of the story in an elevator where he debates the decisions and

emotions that he has for such a cycle. The elevator is a representation of the linearity, entrapping

repression, and doubt that Will has for this endless cycle of violence. The elevator is meant to

help Will understand the cycle of murder that surrounds him so that he might choose to escape it.

As the elevator allows Will to meet people and explore ideas along the path of his

journey, the first floor of his dive into the depth of the cycle that Will finds himself trapped in is

the linearity of the cycle. In this cycle, the victims of such an environment become the aggressor

in a linear fashion. The linear cycle is not so easily managed or controlled by the characters

because of how the complex system allows itself to be sustained purely from loss. There seems

to be an endless funnel of people into this machine to be made into cogs of it, such as much of

Will’s family and close friends. In the elevator, Will says to Shawn: “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'' (Reynolds 293). In saying this,

Will provides a perfect example of a consecutively linear sequence of when and how people can

get roped into the cycle to feed it so that it may reach further, and why it always will. Earlier in

the story, Will attempts to justify the carrying out of the continuous cycle to himself after

doubting it, then rebutes that “... to explain myself / I said, / The Rules are / the rules” (173). This
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is an explanation in a way of how so many people such as his extended male family could non-

concurrently murder just in turn to be murdered. When the next guy picks up the gun with one

less bullet, he is then in line to take the hit. This lays out the structure of the cycle, an integral

building block for Will to base his understanding of it so that he may have a more informed

decision when making the choice to escape or sustain the cycle.

When Will decides to act out in grief to avenge Shawn’s death, he looks for the

blood of Shawn’s supposed killer, Carlson Riggs. Riggs is completely antagonized to Will,

driving Will mad and blinding him to reason. In this fit of rage when Will first enters the

elevator, he takes a brief moment to actually reflect on his intentions for the first time. This is

when a character with a gold chain walks in, and Will thinks to himself “... I thought about this

when the man with / the gold chains got on and checked to see if the / L button was already

glowing. I wondered if he knew / that in me and Shawn’s world, I’d already chosen to be a loser”

(75). This not only references Will’s childhood with Shawn, one of the reasons why Shawn's

death was so impactful on Will but also deeply reflects how Will was confined to the

circumstances when he had ‘already chosen’ to be in the system that kills and endlessly. He had

just never been a big part of its motion until now. Will also traps himself in his own mind by

living by the constructs of ill-defined rules, such as when he tries to define elevator etiquette -

“Every time / somebody gets / in, they check / to see if the button / for the floor they’re / going to

is lit, / and if it isn’t, / they push it, / then face / the door. / That's it. / They don’t speak to the /

people already / in the elevator, / and the / people already / in the elevator / don’t speak to / the

newcomer” (73). This set of rules for Will represents the rules of the cycle of killing, showing

how blind loyalty to them could lead Will to meet an unwelcome end unless he realizes that

these rules aren’t meant to be followed.

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Because later in the story Will admittedly finds himself trapped, he desperately

seeks help to undo his actions. This is one of the first times in the story where Will firmly doubts

his decisions and seeks some sort of redemption or savior from his intended actions. He feels

small when he thinks his plan through with his uncle, Mark, and realizes that “I got stuck /

Couldn’t say / nothing else. Couldn’t say / it. Hoped Uncle Mark would say, / cut” (177). At this

moment Will wants to get bailed out of this scenario, representing how he wishes someone is

there to stop him when he is to actually carry out his murder. Though this moment seems to be

Will’s first sign of doubt, Will doubting the system and its values appears earlier in the story as

Will first enters the elevator. At this point, the reader can begin to form that the elevator

symbolizes the cycle of violence, and as Will enters, it is his turn in the cycle. Along with the

elevator, the gun that Will carries throughout the story is a symbol of revenge. These two are

brought to the reader’s attention in the analysis of when Will arrives first at the apartment to kill

Riggs. “At the elevator / Back already sore. / Uncomfortable. / Gun strapped / like a brick /

rubbing my skin / raw with each step” (70). This quote is Will indirectly informing the reader

that he is literally uncomfortable with revenge when it dawns on him that it is his turn to take it.

In the end of the story, Will is well prepared, at least more so than before, to make his

choice about whether or not to continue the cycle of violence around him when the decision rests

on his shoulders. His debate is catalyzed because he is trapped in the elevator of his murderous

environment as it slowly but surely brings him down, and there is no way for him to escape it

without understanding its behaviors.