Older Brother Character Analysis

Older Brother isn’t Willis’s “actual older brother”—he’s “Everyone’s Older Brother,” a stereotypical golden child and role model to all. He was briefly Kung Fu Guy, a role he was born to play, though he never really related to that identity. Even so, young Willis wanted to be Older Brother when he grew up. Older Brother disappears under mysterious circumstances sometime before the novel begins, apparently having buckled under the pressure of being a model minority and having to live up to the high expectations of his parents and his community. Older Brother reappears toward the end of the novel to represent Willis in court, and it’s at this point that Willis learns that Older Brother left Chinatown to attend law school. Older Brother defends Willis in court against charges of having “disappeared” (a seeming metaphor for Willis’s sudden departure from the show Black and White). When Willis is found guilty, Older Brother claims that the system is rigged against them, and he and Willis resort to “Plan B,” which involves using kung fu to “kick [their] way out of” the courtroom.