The Teenager Character Analysis in A Long Way Home

The teenager is a young man who takes Saroo in for several days in Calcutta. He allows Saroo to work with him and finally takes Saroo to the police station and turns him over to the authorities. Though Saroo is distraught at the time (he doesn’t trust adults in general, and especially not adults in uniform), he later credits the teenager with saving his life. One of Saroo’s biggest regrets is never learning the teenager’s name so he could properly thank him.

The Teenager Quotes in A Long Way Home

The A Long Way Home quotes below are all either spoken by The Teenager or refer to The Teenager. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Random House edition of A Long Way Home published in 2013.

But like the teenager who later took me to the police station, he had given me another chance to live. He hadn't profited from his act in any way...and I had never thanked him.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 266

Explanation and Analysis:

The Teenager Character Timeline in A Long Way Home

The timeline below shows where the character The Teenager appears in A Long Way Home. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...this is how people are in the big city. Not long after, Saroo meets a teenager about Guddu’s age. The teenager approaches Saroo and patiently asks him his name. They talk... (full context)

Survival, Poverty, and Childhood Theme Icon

The teenager finally tells Saroo that he’s going to take him someplace to get help. When Saroo... (full context)

Memory, Technology, and Friendship Theme Icon

...the reader and explains that he wonders what might’ve happened had he not trusted the teenager. It’s likely he would’ve died, as most homeless kids in Kolkata die. The railway worker’s... (full context)

...almost drowned. He thinks of the homeless man who saved him, as well as the teenager who took him to the police. Saroo thanks the homeless man as the sun begins... (full context)