Downsiders Research Paper
In Neal Shusterman’s Downsiders, Talon lives Downside, that is, underneath New York City. There is a strict code of secrecy among the Downsiders, taboos forbid them from going Topside, but the two worlds collide when Talon ventures up looking for medicine for his sickly sister. Through his journey, he meets Lindsay, a Topside girl who intrigues and lures him so much that he breaks a crucial rule and takes her into the tunnels, to show her his “amazing” side of life right under Grand Central Station, full of unwanted, forgotten items, dryer lint, subway tokens, soda-can tabs-that have become useful, even…beautiful to him. Her visit leads to a threatening chain of events, which seem to affect both top and downsiders. Lindsay Matthias is
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They are a group of people who live in an “unused subway station and never see the light of day in fear that it will burn them” (9). Some of the Downside is made up of "fallers", people who are usually homeless and have hit rock bottom with no where else to go. They then become part of the Downside community where they are completely happy because they have a place to live without many worries. One of the Downsiders is a fourteen year old boy named Talon who Lindsay describes as "long-haired, odd-clothed, and unusual-smelling"(14) Talon is brave and holds strong in his beliefs as a Downsider until he meets Lindsay, that's not to say that he doesn't do his fair share of rule-bending. Railborn and Gutta are Talon's lifelong friends (or so he thought.) Then there is The Champ. The Champ is, closely, seventy years old and lives in an unfilled swimming pool in New York. He might be described as “missing a few pickets from his little white fence.”(78) He and Talon sometimes play Monopoly in the empty pool, but Talon is a Downsider and The Champ is a Topsider so he is technically breaking the number one rule that a “Downsider must never set foot on Topside ground” (34) and especially not meet one of the
They are a group of people who live in an “unused subway station and never see the light of day in fear that it will burn them” (9). Some of the Downside is made up of "fallers", people who are usually homeless and have hit rock bottom with no where else to go. They then become part of the Downside community where they are completely happy because they have a place to live without many worries. One of the Downsiders is a fourteen year old boy named Talon who Lindsay describes as "long-haired, odd-clothed, and unusual-smelling"(14) Talon is brave and holds strong in his beliefs as a Downsider until he meets Lindsay, that's not to say that he doesn't do his fair share of rule-bending. Railborn and Gutta are Talon's lifelong friends (or so he thought.) Then there is The Champ. The Champ is, closely, seventy years old and lives in an unfilled swimming pool in New York. He might be described as “missing a few pickets from his little white fence.”(78) He and Talon sometimes play Monopoly in the empty pool, but Talon is a Downsider and The Champ is a Topsider so he is technically breaking the number one rule that a “Downsider must never set foot on Topside ground” (34) and especially not meet one of the