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Buck
Will and Shawn’s father who died when Will was three years old and Shawn was seven. In life, Pop was a romantic and a jokester, though he started out life as an extremely uncool kid. It wasn’t until he met Will’s mother and she taught him how to woo women that he became the suave and accomplished adult Will has heard about (though he doesn’t remember Pop himself). Pop and his older brother, Will and Shawn’s Uncle Mark, were extremely close; Uncle Mark mentored Pop and taught him “the Rules” of the neighborhood. Because of this, when someone killed Uncle Mark, Pop felt compelled to follow through on the third rule and kill Uncle Mark’s killer. Will grows up thinking that Pop was successful in this endeavor and was then killed at a payphone not long after. However, when Pop’s ghost joins Will in the elevator and expands on this story, he tells Will a more complete and truthful version. Pop goes to great lengths to draw out the similarities between what he did and what Will plans to do by avenging Shawn’s death and killing Carlson Riggs (Shawn’s supposed killer). Specifically, Pop notes that he thought he knew who killed Uncle Mark—but it turned out he didn’t know and ended up killing the wrong man. As Pop tells this story, he cries a bit, and the combination of Pop’s tears and his admitted mistake makes Will disappointed in his father. Though the two embrace and Will seems genuinely interested in making sense of these additions to his Pop’s story, Will is caught off guard when Pop suddenly pulls Will’s gun out and puts it to Will’s head—only removing it after Will is afraid to the point of wetting himself. Though Pop never explains his reasoning for doing, it’s likely that he wants to make the point to Will of how utterly terrifying it is to find oneself in that position—something that might stir up Will’s sense of empathy and change his mind about killing Riggs. Following this incident, Pop’s ghost says little to Will for the rest of the elevator ride, and Will acts uninterested in trying to get close to Pop again.
Pop Quotes in Long Way Down
The Long Way Down quotes below are all either spoken by Pop or refer to Pop. 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:
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Five Quotes
BUT TO EXPLAIN MYSELF
I said,
The Rules are
the rules.
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He knew them
like I knew them.
Passed to him.
Passed them to his little brother.
Passed to my older brother.
Passed to me.
The Rules
have always ruled.
past present future forever.
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Four Quotes
I was only three.
And I don’t remember that.
I’ve always wanted to,
but I don’t.
I so don’t.
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A BROKEN HEART
killed my dad.
That’s what my mother
always said.
And as a kid
I always figured
his heart
was forreal broken
like an arm
or a toy
or the middle drawer.
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WHAT YOU THINK YOU SHOULD DO?
he asked.
Follow the Rules,
I said
just like I told
everybody else.
Just like you did.
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BUT YOU DID WHAT YOU HAD TO DO,
I said,
after listening to
my father admit
what I had already
known,
The Rules
are the rules.
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I didn’t know
he wasn’t the right guy,
Pop said,
a tremble in
his throat.
I was sure that was Mark’s killer.
Had
to
be.
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Two Quotes
I TOLD HIM
about the
drawer,
the gun,
that I did
like he told me,
like Buck told him,
like our grandfather told
our uncle, like our uncle
told our dad.
I followed The Rules.
At least the first two.
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Pop Character Timeline in Long Way Down
The timeline below shows where the character Pop appears in Long Way Down. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...return. Will says that the Rules didn’t come from Shawn, Shawn’s friends, Will and Shawn’s dad or uncle, or any of the guys outside. They didn’t come from Will, either. Will...
(full context)
Seven
...was like a big brother to Shawn, and Shawn knew Buck longer than he’d known Pop. On second thought, Will admits he is scared, and wonders if Buck came to get...
(full context)
Five
...Uncle Mark puts his hands on Will’s shoulders and says that he looks just like Pop.
(full context)
...happy. Will finds this silly. The boy is Uncle Mark’s little brother, Will and Shawn’s Pop. The girl is Will’s mother.
(full context)
...the Rules— he knows they were passed to Mark and that he passed them to Pop, who passed them to Shawn, who passed them to Will. Will tells the reader that...
(full context)
...his movie after his first day selling drugs, but he never shot anything again. Will’s Pop did, though. Will offers the anagram “cinema=iceman” and says that he’s not sure what an...
(full context)
Four
...he asks the reader to stick with him. As the door slides open, Will recognizes Pop immediately—he’s been waiting for Pop since he was three years old. Pop steps into the...
(full context)
Will doesn’t remember Pop. Shawn would try to get Will to remember Pop dressing up like Michael Jackson for...
(full context)
Will used to ask Shawn how he knew everything about Pop’s death. Shawn always said he heard it from Buck, since Pop died on Buck’s corner....
(full context)
Pop tells Will that he already knows. Will can hear the sadness and love in Pop’s...
(full context)
Pop says that after Uncle Mark died, his heart was shattered. Will and Shawn were little,...
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Pop raced the long way home and got rid of his gun. Back at home, Pop...
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Confused, Will asks if Pop didn’t kill Gee. Pop says he killed Gee, but Gee didn’t kill Uncle Mark—he was...
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Will thinks of how he used to see kids on playgrounds stand on their dads’ feet. The dads would walk with their kids on their feet, and the kids had...
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Will shrieks and asks what Pop is doing. A single tear falls down Pop’s cheek (which, according to Will, doesn’t really...
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Will allows that he should’ve been wondering whether Pop could actually shoot him, since the version of Pop in the elevator isn’t real. But...
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Will screams, pushing Pop away. He’s wet and feels weak and childish. Pop leans against the wall and stares...
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Three
At first, Buck sold drugs on the corner, but he stopped after Pop got shot. Then, Buck became Shawn’s stand-in big brother and started robbing suburban neighborhoods. He...
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...and says that nobody can fault him for trying to earn his stripes. He catches Pop and Uncle Mark’s eyes, and they both nod and agree. Frick continues his story and...
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Two
...He slaps hands with Buck, spins Dani around, and embraces Uncle Mark. Beaming, Shawn approaches Pop. They hug and then shake hands like men. Then, all the ghosts line up against...
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...to do, what their grandfather taught Uncle Mark to do, and what Uncle Mark taught Pop to do. Will says that so far, he’s followed the first two rules: he hasn’t...
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