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elizabethp on...
This is just ridiculous, but so obviously what actually would happen in reality. The government would be so angry with someone pointing out its flaws that it would rather prosecute someone for making them look like an idiot than fix its mistakes and go after real criminals.
No! But Darryl has been in love with Van for years. What are you doing Van? You can’t like Marcus. Actually, like Raven, I had a feeling that Van fancied Marcus over Darryl, but I would’ve much rather it not being confirmed.
This is one of the most powerful quotes in the book. Marcus is completely right. No one in our country that’s been denied their freedoms just waited for it to be handed to them. They had to fight and work at it.
I agree with Raven. Marcus does need to be careful with his exact words and syntax and whatnot. But I think that’s what makes this really great is Marcus’ willingness to sacrifice everything he’s been fighting for. The whole idea of martyrdom is one that I have the utmost respect for. Though I wouldn’t put Marcus on the same pedestal as St. Joan of Arc or anything of the sort, he’s still making a huge risk just for the cause.
That’s not exactly true anymore. My brother’s best friend is in the National Guard and in times of war like Iraq/Afghanistan and what’s going on in the book, the government will call out the National Guard. Those soldiers know that. But I do understand what he’s saying. The National Guard is a reserve force. The only branch of the military where you’re pretty much safe from being called to participate in active duty is the Coast Guard.
“Kick them for me.” That is easily the greatest line in the book. Zeb wins.
This completely reminds me completely of the Rally to Restore Sanity. At the end of the rally he says ”the press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems and illuminate problems heretofore unseen, or it can use its magnifying glass to light ants on fire, and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous-flaming-ant epidemic. If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.” I think this part has a great critique of the media’s need to always scare us about everything that’s going on and because of this we never know when it is to truly be afraid.
Honestly, I don’t understand what Marcus was expecting the newspapers to say. More often than not, the news shows cops as the good guys. Whether or not they actually are remains to be seen. No matter what actually happened that night, media typically shows anyone opposing the cops as the bad ones and their side of the story is rarely told or cared about.
Okay I’ve had a “mild” scotch bonnet. Those things are dangerously hot if you don’t eat spicy food often. When I say hot, I don’t mean gulp down water for 5 minutes hot. I’m talking tear inducing, drink milk and eat bread for the rest of the day, face is on fire, “oh my god, my head is going to explode” hot. I eat spicy food often and even I don’t mess with stuff that spicy. If this is what she considers milld, i’d be deathly terrified of anything that’s close to the millions on the Scoville scale.
I agree. I think it’s nice for him to find someone who has the same views as he does and doesn’t think he’s strange or crazy. Of course he has his friends, but having someone new like Ange around that shares the same beliefs as he does is very refreshing.
My dads a cop and this passage completely reminds me of him. They have this tendancy to repeat and rephrase questions just to see if you mess up your story. My dad does it at this point because he’s just so used to having to interrogate people. I know that this cop may seem stupid, but he’s probably been trained to repeat and rephrase questions over and over just to see if someone’s response will change.
The security in this book is getting ridiculous. The problem is that their initial purpose was most likely to prevent accidents and things of that nature, but now they’re probably being abused and people’s right to private has been completely stolen.
I totally understand what you’re saying. Marcus is making the same wrong decision twice by cutting school again, and you would think after what he went through by being kidnapped he wouldn’t try it again. But Marcus is very determined and the government is is watching every single move that he makes. I think he’s more concerned with regaining his freedoms than something happening to him when he cuts school.
Marcus has a talent and compartmentilizing his emotions. It’s almost as though he has a switch and can turn them off even if only briefly. He’s afraid and in pain, yet he can still push past that and think logically enough to focus on figuring out where they are and where they’re going.
For people to be crushed beneathe you and you actually don’t have any way to help them, the corwding in the area has to be insane. I don’t know if i’d be able to just leave someone there, no matter how crowded it was.
It’s really a testament to Van’s character that even in the wake of such panic and terror, she still finds time and reason to mace someone. I’m curious as to if she was always like this or if she became aggressive because of the all-girls school she goes to. She’s lucky to have a friend like Marcus to keep her in check.
That’s an extremely interesting way to keep your poker face. How exactly does a person come up with the idea to start singing Irish folk songs when trying to look composed and where do they even learn these songs with three hundred verses?
The fact that Marcus knows Mr. Benson’s “tell” so well shows that Marcus is observant and also that he’s been in trouble in school enought to mess with Mr. Benson’s head so frequently that he was able to link the connection between Benson tapping his ring and things not going the way the vice-principal planned.
The fact that Marcus knows how to hack well enough to get such an extensive and invasive amount of information on his vice principal whom he doesn’t like doesn’t surprise me. I’m very curious as to what exactly he plans on doing with it, if anything, and why he has these pieces of information so easily accessed in his memory.
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