Mistaking revenge for justice can result in horrible consequences. In the Novel Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds a 15 year old African American boy named Will has to deal with the death of his older brother Shawn. Will’s brother had been shot and killed on his way back home from a grocery store. Where they are from they lived by these three rules. Will was taught the first one when he was eight by Shawn, no crying. The other two, no snitching and revenge, Shawn eventually taught him later on. Will did the best he could to follow these rules. Growing up he saw everyone following these rules and viewed them as normal. Although he was never put in the place where he had to follow rule number three, revenge.
If someone you love gets killed, find the person who killed them and kill them. That's the revenge rule. Will knew these rules were not made to be broken. He also knew who killed Shawn and that he had to do something about it. Will found Shawn's hidden gun and took it. Overnight he made a plan on how to kill Shawn’s killer, Riggs. In the morning he left his apartment with the gun and headed to the elevator. Will enters the elevator thinking he has everything planned out, but by the time he reaches the lobby a couple of visitors made him think differently.
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Buck was like a father figure to Shawn. He taught Shawn the rules. Although, these rules were also the reason Buck was killed and is now only a ghost. As Will conversed with Buck he discovers that Buck was the one who gave Shawn that gun and that it’s missing a bullet. This means Shawn had used this bullet on someone for revenge. That one bullet cost Shawn’s life, and the next may do the same for Will. These rules had a bad impact on many lives in their neighborhood. They saw revenge as an act of justice. They believed it was the right thing to do. Which is why Will wanted to kill