Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Little Brother Questions

1. How does Marcus’s comment that he’s “one of the most surveilled people in the world” set the tone for the novel? Is the statement true? Compare the school Marcus describes in the opening chapters to your own in terms of surveillance, discipline, and student-administrator relationships.

  1. Marcus's statement is true after he comes back from the DHS prison he is told they will be watching his every move. He also finds out that he has a tracking device in his laptop. Like Marcus's school we too have cameras, unlike his school we do not have cameras in classrooms. Discipline and relationships with teachers is almost exactly the same between our two schools we like and dislike teachers.

2. In what year or decade do you think Little Brother takes place? Cite passages from the novel to support your answer. Do you think the story could happen today? Why or why not?


2. Little Brothers seem to take place only a few years into the future because they still have almost the exact same kind of technology we have now. Another clue that this take place only 5 to 10 years in the future is Marcus remembers 9/11 and is only 17. This story has thing that could and that couldn't happen but for the most part it seems realistic. We have bases where we take prisoners and we have a sort of fast pass for buses.


6.Describe Marcus’s capture and imprisonment. What happens to Darryl? What conclusions does Marcus reach about his government and his community as a result of his imprisonment?


6. Marcus is captured by the DHS after an explosion go off while he is playing Harajuku Fun Madness with his friends Darryl and Van. He is taken by them to a prison and asked for his passwords to his computer phone and other accessories. Marcus later finds out Darryl is in another island from a person who escaped from it. He thinks poorly of his government and that they are not really to find terrorist. He now wants to to get back at the DHS for imprisoning him and his friends.


7. What does Marcus’s refusal to give passwords to and answer questions from government interrogators reveal about his character? How are passwords a recurring motif in the novel?


7. By refusing to the demands it show he really cares about his personal things. He does not feel other people he does not even know should looking into his life. This part of the novel also shows that he is stubborn. He does not give the DHS his passwords and it takes them a few times to get them. In the novel passwords are used by everyone. They need password just to decrypt codes from emails.


9. List some of the technologies Marcus explains in the novel. How much of this information did you already know? How are the explanations in the novel similar to, or different from, your previous encounters with this information? Do you view the Internet differently after learning this information?


9. Technologies Marcus uses are his Xbox with the installation of paranoid software. I have heard of this because my brother has a similar program on his Xbox I set up for him. Another technology is decryption codes I have not heard a lot about this but I now know this is something probably used by a few people. This book did make me view the Internet differently because there were different this I did not know you could do on computers and phones.

1 comment:

Boeser said...

You do the assignments but your answers are perfunctory. Your answers for these questions should have been 200-500 words.