The Road Back!!

What is Marcus' road back/return with the Elixir?

After Marcus was freed from the DHS prison he was given an office to continue with his Xnet operations. Marcus uses the office daily and starts a non-profit organization in it. Marcus is starting to go back to his ordinary world, but it will be different then it was before the terrorist attack. He has met many new people and made many new friends. When Marcus returned to his ordinary world he had a girlfriend that he met through Xnet, he had found his friend Darryl, who had been held in the DHS prison for three months, and he had a better relationship with his parents. "Ange, I've never thought more clearly in my whole life."(Cory Doctorow, Little Brother, 365)

However his life was still not completely back to normal yet. He had to spend his nights in a halfway house for juvenile offenders with real criminals. He was not aloud to leave the city or be out past dinner time. Marcus' life was slowly going back to what it used to be like, but better.

Reward

How is Marcus rewarded after he is released from the DHS prison?

After Marcus is freed along with all the other prisoners from the DHS prison by the California State Troopers, he is given an office to continue his Xnet operations. Marcus starts a non-profit organization and operates it out of his office. The organization tells Marcus' story and others who were put through the DHS torture and tries to keep America free.

Even though Marcus is rewarded he still is not completely free. Everyone that the DHS captured was put on trial to see if they did do anything illegal and if they did they would still have to do time for it. Marcus' lawyer had made a deal to drop all relating to the crimes against the DHS, but he had been convicted for stealing Masha's phone with the photograph on it that he gave to the reporter. Marcus was put on a day-release program that would not let him leave town, and he would have to spend his nights at a halfway house for juvenile offenders.

Ordeal

What is the ordeal in this story? How does Marcus get through it?

The ordeal in this story happens when Marcus is captured by the DHS again. Marcus was being interrogated by the severe haircut lady, and she had asked him to tell her his password and login for his Xnet account. When Marcus refused to do this, the severe haircut lady threatened him with a type of torture called the waterboard. She said that it simulates the feeling of dying within your body. Marcus just laughed at them because he thought that he had already been through the worst that they could throw at him. Unfortunatly he was wrong, it was exactly what the severe haircut lady had said it would be like. They put a bag over his head and laid him down with his head tilted backwards, and then poured huge buckets of water over his head. The water would run through his nose and down his throat. He would try to cough and gag to get the water out, but he could not suppress his gag reflex because of all the water. ""Give him a drink," she said"(Cory Doctorow, Little Brother, 345).

Marcus tried to tell his body that he was going to be okay, but he could not fight the feeling that he was dying. "This time, it was a bucket of water, all at once, a flood that didn't stop, it must have been gigantic. I couldn't help it. I gasped and aspirated the water in my lungs, coughed and took more water in. I knew they wouldn't kill me, but I couldn't convince my body of that. In every fiber of my being, I knew I was going to die. I couldn't even cry - the water was still pouring over me."(Cory Doctorow, Little Brother, 345).

Luckily for Marcus as this was happening the California State Troopers bursted into the room as this was happening and arrested severe haircut lady and all the other agents in the prison.

Approach to the Inmost Cave

When does Marcus start the approach to the inmost cave? And how does he deal with it?

Marcus starts his approach to the inmost cave as soon as he was released by the DHS. After starting and using the Xnet for a while Marcus started to realize that it was only a matter of time before the DHS caught him again. Marcus is really approaching the inmost cave throughout the whole book. Near the end of the book Marcus starts to realize that it is only a matter of days before the DHS tracks him down and takes him back into custody.

Marcus tries to deal with the approach to the inmost cave by escaping the country with his girlfriend (Ange) and a DHS associate (named Masha) that no longer wanted to be a part of what they were doing. Masha promised that she could get them out of country without anyone catching them or being able to track where they went. In the process of trying to escape Ange gets left behind and captured by the DHS, and Marcus decides that he cannot run away from his problems.

To try and stop the DHS for good, Marcus decides to tell his story to a newspaper journalist that his parents know. Marcus tells her everything that has happened to him, that he had not told anyone else. He decided to do this when he recieved a note from Darryls cell mate that had escaped the DHS facility. Marcus gave the reporter this note along with a video, that he had recieved from Masha, of the President's chief advisor giving the DHS permission to do anything to San Francisco and that he did not care if the city was bombed again.

Tests, Enemies, and Allies

How is Marcus tested throughout the story? And how does he meet and deal with his enemies and allies?

Marcus faces many tests throughout the story. His first test is making it through the torture that the DHS put him through when he was in their captivity. They did not manage to break Marcus, and when he was released he immediately started to fight back against them. His next test is continuing to lead the Xnetters against the DHS even though many things have happened to him that discouraged him. Marcus' next test is accepting the fact that the DHS is going to catch him again. When they do catch him he is very confident and smug, and he does not cooperate with him, so they start to torture him even more brutally than they did the first time. Luckily, the California State Troopers raided the jail that the DHS were using and released all of the prisoners and arrested the DHS agents.

Marcus had encountered many enemies throughout the story. Some of the minor enemies that he meets are his english teacher, his principal, and a boy at his school named Charles. Marcus' hated the english teacher he had because she believed that everything the DHS was doing was good for the country and completely disagreed with Marcus. When Marcus had tried to prove his point the teacher kicked him out of her classroom. Marcus' principal had always had something against Marcus. He was always out to get him, and when his English teacher kicked him out of the classroom he suspended him for a week. Charles is just a really annoying character. He was always trying to get Marcus in trouble. He once taped Marcus doing something against the DHS and threatened to turn him into the police.

The major enemies that Marcus encounters are the whole DHS and the lady that tortured Marcus when he was in captivity, he called her severe haircut lady. The DHS was taking over the city and not letting the people have any freedom. They tried to catch and figure out who the leader of Xnet was. The leader of Xnet was called M1k3y (Mikey), who was actually Marcus, but the DHS did not know. Marcus hated severe haircut lady more than anyone else on earth. She was the one that interrogated him and tortured him while he was in captivity. She would also mock him and try to humiliate him in order to get what she wanted.

Marcus had many allies. His mother, father, and three friends; Darryl, Vanessa, and Jolu. He also met new allies throughout the story. His girlfriend helped him through many tough situations, and was like a mentor to him. He also met a reptorter that his mother used to be friends with. Marcus told the reporter his story, so the world would know what he had been through and what other people were going through at the time.

Little Brother - Refusal of the Call

The emerging hero in this book, Marcus, did not refuse his call to adventure. He was called to adventure after the DHS released him from their captivity. Marcus had realized that the DHS still had one of his friends. He swore that he would get his revenge on the DHS and take them down one day.

When Marcus got home that day, he worked all night setting up and making the Xnet secure (the online resistance group against the DHS), so that everyone on it could talk to each other without the DHS being able to monitoring them. As Marcus began to settle back into his old life he began to hate the DHS even more, they had taken over the city and were monitoring everything anyone did. Marcus continued working on Xnet, every night he would improve it and blog about what he thought about how DHS was ruining peoples lives.

As Marcus continued with Xnet he was starting to have some second thoughts about Xnet. His two best friends that had been captured by the DHS with him did not want to take part in it because they felt that it was too risky and it might end up in them getting captured again. Marcus' father also thought that what the DHS was doing was making the city better and a safer place to live in (he did not know that the DHS had Marcus in captivity). The DHS eventually started to catch on to Xnet and what they were doing, and this worried Marcus because he did not want to go back to their prison.

Marcus and the Xnetters would go around swapping the identity cards that the DHS had on cars to keep track of where people go, to throw them off.
"They only get away with it because the normals feel smug compared to the abnormals. If everyone was getting pulled over, It'd be a disaster. No one would ever go anywhere, they'd all be waiting to get questioned by the cops. Total gridlock."(Cory Doctorow, Little Brother, 125)

Little Brother - Crossing the Threshold

Marcus, the main character in this book, is starting to emerge as the archetypal hero in this book. Marcus starts to cross the threshold into the new world when him and his three other friends are captured by the DHS (Department of Homeland Security). The DHS interrogated them and humiliated them for a week before releasing only Marcus and two of his friend.

Marcus's call to adventure is when they realize that the DHS still had one of his friends in captivity. Marcus swore that he would get his revenge and take down the DHS, and get his friend back.

After his call to adventure, Marcus continues to cross into the new world as he starts the Xnet and the resistance against the DHS. He completely crosses the threshold when he sets up the inner group of trust within the Xnet. Him and his friend Jolu, set up this group to make sure that they can safely talk to people they trust without anybody being able to read their conversation or know what they are doing on the Xnet. In his new world he realizes that there is much more to Xnet then what he thought.

Little Brother - Limiting Beliefs

Marcus is continuing to fight the DHS with his online resistance group called the Xnet. Marcus has had many things discourage him throughout the story that would make him want to give up and stop fighting the DHS. One thing that discourages him is that his two friends that were released from the DHS stopped helping him. One of his friends, Van, would not help him at all with his plan because she thought that he would get caught and taken away again. His other friend, Jolu, is a computer programmer and helped him set up and make the Xnet secure, but once things started to get serious, and the risk of getting caught was getting higher, he no longer wanted to be a part of it. Another thing that discouraged Marcus from wanting to continue with the Xnet was that the DHS was catching on to the Xnetters switching the security cards on cars to throw them off. The DHS had also deployed spies onto the Xnet to try and catch the resistance group. Marcus is also discouraged from continuing with the Xnet because his father thinks that it is good what the DHS is doing is good for the country and will make it safer. Marcus feels like he is betraying family by working against the DHS. There are many things holding Marcus back from doing what he wants, but I think he will continue to stick to his goal and then eventually achieve it.

If I could give Marcus advice I would tell him to continue to work towards achieving his goal because if he does he will eventually achieve his goal. Even if does not achieve his goal he will know that he gave it his best shot and did not give up on it.

Little Brother - Character Archetypes

The main character's name in this book is Marcus Yallow. Marcus is most like the hero in this book because in the beginning, Marcus and his three friends were captured and imprisoned by the Department Of Homeland Security (DHS) for being suspects of a recent terrorist attack on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. When they were let go, Marcus swore that one get his revenge on the DHS for imprisoning and humiliating him and his friends. He also wants to stop the DHS from putting up security cameras all over the city and adding to the police force and making them much more strict. To do this Marcus stars an online resistance against the DHS called the Xnet. Marcus and the people from Xnet (Xnetters) go around the city swapping security cards for cars that the DHS had installed so they could see where people were at all times, to throw them off. When Marcus is released by the DHS with only two of his friends he says "I want us to fight back,"(73,Cory Doctorow). Marcus is the emerging hero in this book and is continuing to develop into the archetypical hero.

Little Brother - Connections to Real Life

The part where the four frends feel the earth shake and then they see a huge black cloud of smoke rise up in the distance reminded me of when I saw the broadcasts for the Nine Eleven attack on the television. "A huge black cloud rising from the northeast, from the direction of the Bay."(Cory Doctorow, Little Brother 33).

This event in the book reminded me of 911 because the way that the book described what was going on, it seemed like there was chaos and panic in the streets of the city. Everyone was running for some kind of shelter, there were sirens going off throughout the city, and every kind of emergency vehicle driving around the streets. This seemed a lot like what was going on in New York City when 911 happened. This also reminded me of 911 because when the four friends saw the smoke rise up from the where the explosion happened, it made me think of all the dust that was blown through the streets when the towers fell.

Little Brother - Part 1

This book is called Little Brother and it was written by Cory Doctorow. So far in this book the main character, Marcus, and his three friends, Vanessa, Darryl, and Jolu, find themselves caught in the middle of a terrorist attack. In the chaos of the attack Darryl was stabbed by someone. Trying to find help the kids stopped a vehicle to ask for help. Unfortunatly inside the vehicle was the Department of Homeland Security, who thought that they were part of the terrorist attack.

Marcus, Vanessa, and Jolu were all captured by them and treated like terrprists. They took them to a prison where they interrogated them for days. After a week of being prisoners of there own country, the three of them were released after they proved that they were not terrorists. Now the three friends are all going home and thinking of how they can get revenge on the Department of Homeland Security, and find their friend Darryl.

Introduction - Little Brother

This book is about four teenage friends who live in San Francisco, California. Every once and a while, the four friends meet up to play an online video game. In the game you have to complete a series of challenges and tasks, it also includes some real life tasks. So far in the book two of the four friends have gotten out of school to meet with their two other friends and complete one of the games real life tasks. While trying to complete one of the tasks the four friends found themselves in the middle of a terrorist attack, and they saw a huge explosion coming from somewhere in San Francisco.

I like action and adventure and suspenseful books. I chose this book because by reading the summary of the book, it seemed like it had both of these features. I chose this quote because it was sort of humorous and it was similiar to how I think of books.

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ~Groucho Marc