Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Doctorow, Cory. Little Brother.

Tor Teen; 2008,

ISBN: 0765323117.

Reader’s Annotation

Because the day the bridge blew up was the day Marcus and his friends skipped school, they are under suspicion and continually tracked by the DHS, which isn’t really prepared for computer geek Marcus to counter with a resistance movement of his own.

Plot Summary

The afternoon that Marcus and his friends Darryl, Vanessa (Van), and Jolu decide to skip school, is the day that terrorists blow up the San Francisco Bay Bridge.  In the mad scramble with crowds trying to get to shelter, Darryl gets stabbed.  As the four frantically try to help Darryl, they instead get arrested for suspicious behavior by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Taken to a secret prison as “enemy combatants”  they are subjected to psychological torture and humiliation at the direction of “Severe Haircut Woman”.  When finally Marcus, Van and Jolu are released and threatened if they tell anyone what happeded, they discover that San Francisco has become a police state.  They respond to their ordeal in different ways.  Marcus, upon learning that Darryl has been taken to a secret prison on Treasure Island, gets mad.  Under his code name, W1n5t0n (Winston), Marcus develops and organizes a resistance movement.  During this time he develops a relationship with Ange, who supports him in his efforts.  As the story progresses, the danger and stress level grows.  Marcus finally confesses to Darryl’s  father, and to his own parents, who in turn take him to a reporter.  Marcus again get arrested by the DHS, and this time is tortured, (recorded on video) by waterboarding.  Thanks to the reporter, and consequently the governor, Marcus is rescued, and Darryl is found and saved.  Happy ending except, nothing happens to the DHS.

Critical Evaluation

Doctorow allowed the protagonist, Marcus show complexity.  In the beginning, Marcus seemed the classic hero—he was David, to the DHS’s Goliath.  I was kind of expecting Doctorow to make Marcus a one dimensional good guy.  As the plot progressed, however, the lines blurred.  One way that Doctorow highlighted this was to show how even some of Marcus’ closest friends would not stand with him completely.  On both sides of the security/privacy issue, there was represented a range of gray area.  Marcus’ own code of ethics throughout the book is summed up in the part of the Bill of Rights which he quotes.  When Marcus demonstrated how to reprogram the RFIDs, he dramatically made his point about privacy and surveillance.  The downside of that, was that innocent people were unavoidably hurt in the process.  Some might simply call that collateral damage, but Marcus did begin to squirm as he saw jammers going overboard with the procedure, and he did try to call them off.  When Marcus finally tells the truth to his parents, there was a feeling that he was giving up the fight.  But Marcus finds (especially with his dad), that there’s power in the truth, and he learns that there are appropriate and legal ways to fight back against injustice.  He finds that he has many more allies in the battle by speaking the truth—allies such as his parents, Barbara Stratford—the reporter, and Darryl’s father.  The truth becomes a much more effective weapon in the end. 

Information about the Author

Cory Doctorow considers himself to be much more than a science fiction writer.  Born in Toronto, Canada, he is an activist, journalist and blogger (He is co-editor of Boing Boing).  Doctorow lives in London, and is also the author of For the Win.  For more information, go to Craphound.com.

Genre

Science Fiction

Horror

Curriculum Tie-ins

Civics

Social Studies

Booktalk  Ideas

1. How should we balance our right to privacy with our need for safety?
2. Discuss Marcus’ father’s response throughout the book and contrast that with his response after Marcus confesses the truth.

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (ages 13+)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

Political issues

Sexual content

Be ready with a copy of the library’s selection policy

Be familiar with similar works in the collection

Refer to site: YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults

Why I included this work

The political and moral themes help readers to consider their basic rights, and hopefully not take them for granted.

Other awards and honors:

•  2009 White Pine Award
•  2009 Prometheus Award. and the
•  2009 John W. Campbell Memorial Award
• Finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Great Quote from the Book:

"I can't go underground for a year, ten years, my whole life,

waiting for freedom to be handed to me.

Freedom is something you have to take for yourself."