After The First Death

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1979

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 17-31 Summary

The first section of Part 2 leads up to the incident on the bridge. These pages follow Miro Shantas, a boy who believes he is about 16 years old. Miro works for Artkin, a terrorist. Miro is not his real name, but he refuses to think about his birth name. Like his homeland, his name no longer exists because it has been overtaken.

Artkin and his team orchestrate the bus incident. The plan is to hijack a bus full of children going to summer camp, kill the driver, and hold the children hostage until the government meets their demands. Miro is to kill the driver, and this will be his first time taking a life. Though he is nervous, he is determined to perform the act so he can “make his life meaningful” (18).

The day of the incident, Miro waits with the rest of his team for the school bus to reach their location. When it arrives, Miro boards with the rest of the team, but rather than the old man Artkin said would be driving, Miro finds a girl (Kate Forrester) around his age. Artkin passes out candy spiked with a tranquilizer to the kids and reassures Kate that no harm will come to them. Miro counts down the minutes until he will kill Kate, his gun under his jacket “like a tumor growing there” (31).

Pages 32-46 Summary

Kate follows the van Miro and Artkin’s associates drive. All the while, she thinks about how she just let the men overtake the bus without a fight, and she feels ashamed that she wet her pants, something that happens often when she’s nervous. Though Artkin is clearly in charge, she fears Miro more because he looks at her “as though he were measuring her for a coffin” (32).

The van leads the bus through the woods and up a hill out onto an old, abandoned railroad bridge. Miro calls to Artkin from the back of the bus. One of the kids looks dead, which disturbs Artkin. Though he’s seen more vile deaths, this one is different because this “death was without purpose” (38). The death also changes the plan. For now, Miro will not kill Kate, and they will use the child’s death to their advantage. Miro’s new orders are to dawn his mask and keep Kate busy.

Miro doesn’t put his mask on immediately. He feels talking to Kate will be easier without it. He explains that the child’s death was an accident and that it will delay their business, maybe by a few hours. After looking at the dead child, she realizes Artkin, Miro, and their crew are hijackers and will only return the bus safely if their demands are met. Miro and Artkin dawn their masks—hoods of black material with red around the eyes, nose, and mouth. Terrified of how they look in the masks, Kate wets her pants so much “that the trickles down her thighs were like the caresses of moist and obscene fingers” (46).

Part 2 Analysis

The child who dies from the drugs is the first death to which the book’s title refers. This death marks the moment where the hijacking plan diverts from its original form. Originally, the bus driver should have been the first death, and the children would have only die if the terms of the hijacking were violated. Having a child as the first death immediately characterizes Artkin and his team as monsters. Rather than mourn for the loss of innocent life, Artkin uses the child’s death to further his cause, showing that the hijackers don’t value life. The first death is the catalyst of the conflict between the hijackers and Inner Delta, subsequent deaths, and Ben’s trauma.

Kate’s entrance into the story represents a few things. First, she was not supposed to be driving the bus, and her presence shows how even the best laid plans can be fouled by factors outside one’s control. From the child’s death to the attack at the book’s end, events do not go according to Artkin’s plans. Kate also presents a personal conflict for Miro. Prior to Kate’s appearance, Miro began questioning Artkin’s plans and logic. Kate instigates more questions from Miro. Her emphasis on empathy and emotions makes Miro wonder if something is wrong with him, questions that plague him until he dismisses them at the book’s end. Kate and Miro’s relationship symbolizes how others make us think about our beliefs.

At the beginning of Part 2, Miro longs for the bus incident to begin so he can kill the driver and enter manhood. When the child dies, and Miro is not required to kill Kate, he feels robbed of his chance for growth. He focuses on how he remains a child, even as he makes decisions that show he is coming into manhood. His decision not to put his mask on immediately shows he thinks independently of Artkin’s orders and makes his own decisions based on what seems best. Miro also likens his gun to a tumor, showing his sudden discomfort with a weapon he has used many times, but also indicating that he thinks of it as a part of him, regardless of his discomfort. These changes in his thoughts show growth, but Miro doesn’t recognize them for what they are because he obsesses over the single action he believes will make him a man in Artkin’s eyes.

Kate’s shame and questions of her courage arise early in her characterization. She wets her pants, comparing the sensation to “obscene fingers.” This simile uses the language of a sexual assault, but Cormier is indicating that the hijackers are violating Kate’s sense of security rather than her physical person. Kate also notes Miro’s tendency to dehumanize her, looking at her as though she’s already dead. Later, Miro will consider that she’s pretty, but in the way a flower or inanimate object is pretty, confirming Kate’s assessment that Miro is objectifying her.