Little Brother Chapter 4 + 5

Little Brother

            (Chapter 4+5) Cruel punishment is placed on Marcus and the cruel punishment such as the no bathroom breaks, the plastic cuffs, the messing with his head, all violated rules of the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights states that you have the right to have a lawyer, which the lady with the bad haircut wouldn’t let him have one, he couldn’t speak without permission, he was kept in a cell with no real evidence to support that he was the terrorist in the first place, and most importantly, he wasn’t free. He wasn’t sentenced to jail, he was kidnapped and kept there against his will and they threatened him which violates the Bill of Rights. They were supposed to be from the U.S. government, but how could they if they were violating the very rules they stand by and protect? They were doing those cruel things to teenagers, which really goes against the rules. They had no solid evidence that he did it, yet they still made him go through what they did to him and still threatened him that they would be watching him all the time and they he was kind of like a wanted man now. He would always be suspicious to the government if he was in an area where something major happened.

            I also wonder about Daryll. He wasn’t imprisoned with Joyl, Van, and Marcus. He also didn’t become free along with the rest of his friends. Well they weren’t really free since the government was watching their every move. But Daryll wasn’t seen again since they were kidnapped by the government. He was also wounded. I believe that Daryll is dead. He was wounded and the government agents thought they were terrorists so they probably didn’t care since they just assumed that they were the terrorists. From the blood loss and the government thinking that the teenagers were terrorists, I believe that they ended Daryll’s pain, or just left him there to die. If he was left there, he would have been killed anyways because of the bomb on BART and how many people were drowned.

            So far the book is pretty interesting. It’s a bit confusing at first, but they when you read it over again you understand it a little better. I also think that Marcus should act a little bit more like a seventeen year old. Most seventeen year olds don’t cry when they get frustrated. They think it through. The other characters in the book seem ok to me. I also think that Van and Marcus are eventually going to start liking each other. It’s hard not to bond closer to someone when you get into a situation like the characters in the book got into, but I don’t think anyone is ever going to get in a position like them.  I wouldn’t know if our government is really that cruel or not to its citizens even if they are supposedly terrorists. I honestly don’t know a thing about how our government really treats people when confronted with them alone. It’s never happened to me before, and I really hope I don’t have to meet a government agent for something bad.