A Long Way to Freedom

Before A Long Way Down’s narrative begins, the author, Jason Reynolds, dedicates the novel to “All the young brothers and sisters in detention centers around the country, the ones I’ve seen and the ones I haven’t. You are loved.”

Keeping this dedication in mind, it is important to recognize that the author is writing from the perspective of having interacted with incarcerated youth. With this at the forefront of the readers’ mind, it is more apparent that Reynolds is attempting to use the plot of his novel to shed light on the idea that some people are born into a certain way of life and never have the opportunity to escape from it. Such is the case for many of the young brothers and sisters in detention centers; kids who were likely brought up in an environment where murder was anticipated, revenge was expected, and they felt like they had no other option other than to follow “The Rules.”

To me, this was Reynolds’ first attempt at shaping his authorial or hypothetical audience. Rabinowitz explains that:

[An author] cannot write without making certain assumptions about his readers’ beliefs, knowledge, and familiarity with conventions…Since the structure of a novel is designed for the author’s authorial audience, we must, as we read, come to share, in some measure, the characteristics of this audience if we are to understand the text.

Rabinowitz 126

In saying that, Rabinowitz makes it clear that Reynolds made assumptions about his hypothetical audience while drafting his novel; one of the assumptions being that readers would be willing to sit in the chair of the idea that not all children in detention centers are “bad” kids, but that some have just been raised in such a way that it became their only path.

It is my belief that the overarching idea that Reynolds is attempting to present to readers is that we are all a product of our circumstances. Kids who are “bad” are not necessarily bad by choice, but because it is all they have been exposed to. When it comes down to the nitty-gritty, we are all the same: we are human beings, who while each born into different circumstances, follow the same path: we live, we die, we are gone. In A Long Way Down, the author presents just one way of dying: murder. For those who haven’t experienced this way of life, it is easy to separate yourself from it while reading. However, once you come to understand that everyone is going to face death one day, one way or another, although it may not be through murder, it becomes a much more personal read, which I believe was he goal of the author. After finishing the novel, I felt that his main aim was to present the universality of death to readers.

For me, personally, it wasn’t all that difficult to bridge the gap between myself and Reynolds’ authorial audience, since once I began reading, it was very easy to look at Will’s story and understand that he had never known any life other than one of violence, having lost his father, uncle, brother, and childhood best friend to gun violence, so the only logical progression was that he would eventually commit an act of violence himself.

In terms of the actual audience, Rabinowitz describes it as:

The flesh-and-blood people who read the book…It is the only audience which is entirely “real,” and the only one over which the author has no guaranteed control.

Rabinowitz 126

When reading this novel, rather than viewing Will as a lost cause or a detriment to society, however, I was able to view him as someone who, in a twisted way, was demonstrating his loyalty to his family by debating on whether he should avenge his brother’s death. Being someone who did not grow up with this mentality and would never think to murder someone as revenge, it was at first shocking to me that this was how his brother’s justice would be served, but I was able to consider that different cultural codes in different parts of society manifest in different ways. For example, the cultural code of the area I grew up in was that violence does not solve anything, while where Will grew up, the cultural code was, essentially, that violence is the only answer. This difference in cultural codes, and therefore ways of thinking, allowed me to bridge the gap between the actual and authorial audiences.

From there, I’d like to pose the question: Who is Will talking to when he says “you” throughout the book? “You” was first referenced on page one of the novel:

And the truth is,

you probably ain’t

gon’ believe it either

gon’ think I’m lying

or I’m losing it,

but I’m telling you,

this story is true.

Reynolds 1

This usage of “you” leads us into the narrative audience, which Rabinowitz explains by saying:

Since the novel is generally an imitation of some nonfictional form, the narrator of the novel (implicit or explicit) is generally an imitation of an author. He writes for an imitation audience (which we shall call the narrative audience) which also possesses particular knowledge

Rabinowitz 127

In order to discern the narrative audience in this novel, we must identify who Will is speaking to when he addresses “you.” While talking to Professor Kopp, he challenged me to think about the book from a different perspective, asking me “What if Will is already dead when the novel starts?” Following this premise, we must assume that Will ultimately made the decision to avenge Shawn’s death by murdering his killer. Under this assumption, Will was then murdered to avenge the death of Shawn’s murderer. If you choose to subscribe to this method of reading, then the reason that Will can see ghosts is because he is one himself. That means that the reason he is in the elevator is not because the ghosts are trying to talk him out of committing murder, but because he is just another one of the ghosts who are sharing their stories, attempting to talk the person who is planning on avenging Will’s death out of doing so.

This would explain why the novel is able to take place throughout 60 seconds, being that it is a flashback. This method of reading allows us to know what choice Will ultimately made, which ended with his death, and showed readers that by continuing to follow “The Rules,” people continue to perpetuate the endless cycle of violence. In this novel, the narrative audience is “you,” but you represents the person Will is trying to save and provide a second chance, which in this case, is the person who is planning on avenging his death.