After The First Death

Miro is the youngest member of Artkin’s crew and eager to prove he’s a man. At the book’s outset, he is undyingly loyal to Artkin and the freedom fighter’s cause. This eagerness and loyalty translate into Miro having a restlessness about him “like a dog straining at a leash” (32). Since he was very young, Miro attended a special school, where he learned how to blend in with American culture, arm bombs, and other clandestine terrorist skills. This training conditions him to be efficient and ruthless, and as a result, he tamps down his emotions so they don’t get in his way. Kate’s American beliefs threaten Miro. The emphasis she places on feelings and compassion make Miro question his training and cause. Kate’s death releases him from this confusion. Miro ends the book alone and with the goal of heading east to rejoin his fellow freedom fighters. His character arc comes full circle, only violence and emotionlessness come easier to him after he kills Kate. 

Kate is an American teenage girl who took over her uncle’s bus route the day of the hijacking because he wasn’t feeling well, and it is pure chance that she wound up on the bridge. Early on, Kate chastises herself for letting the hijacking play with her emotions, believing “she always dramatized situations” (32). As the situation becomes more dire, Kate understands she hasn’t overdramatized anything and that seeing the hijacking for the danger it is allows her to keep her wits. Kate has weak bladder muscles, which result in her wetting herself at times of heightened stress. Throughout After the First Death, the severity of Kate’s episodes corresponds to her level of fear and the amount of danger present.

Kate’s perspective allows the reader to consider how they might act in a dire situation and what courage really looks like. Kate often thinks of herself as a coward, but in the end, she proves herself to be quick thinking and heroic. That Cormier chooses to kill off one of the most empathetic, innocent characters develops the theme “Death Doesn’t Discriminate” and suggests that innocents will die in the name of conflicting ideologies, regardless of how human the victims are. 

General Markhand is Ben’s father and the leader of Inner Delta. Despite their familial relationship, Ben has only ever seen his father in uniform once and felt that the general wasn’t his father then, but that “an actor was taking his place” (13). Ben’s observation speaks to the two sides of General Markhand—the father and the soldier. In later sections, General Markhand’s point of view shows that these two sides are not so distinct. He is ruled by patriotism for America and willing to do anything, including put his own son’s life at risk, to defend his country. Part 11 is the result of Ben’s death by suicide on his father. The general feels overwhelming guilt for what he did to Ben and hallucinates his son as a presence in his mind. The book ends with Ben’s hallucination overtaking the general, which may mean the general has died or broken with reality.

Despite that they are on feuding sides, Cormier foils the general and Artkin. Both are so consumed with their own causes that they put their followers/son-figures (Miro and Ben) in danger, and both express that sometimes innocents must be sacrificed for the greater good. While Artkin considers the children on the bus a sacrifice, the general describes soldiers sacrificing their reputation for patriotism—in action, the general sacrifices his son to torture at the hands of Artkin. 

Artkin leads the team of hijackers. Throughout the book, he wears many metaphorical masks in addition to the real one he dawns to instill fear. Miro defines Artkin as “a superb actor” (27), able to switch from cheerful to sinister in a moment. Artkin’s death in Part 10 breaks a part of Miro. Artkin represents the endurance of the freedom fighters and, more specifically, a stable force in Miro’s world. Kate uses his death to get to Miro by telling him Artkin was probably his father, which ultimately leads to Kate’s death and Miro’s unchanged nature. Kate’s suggestion helps conclude the foil between the general and Artkin as well as a foil between Ben and Miro.