After The First Death

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1979

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

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

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 57-67 Summary

Back on the bus, Miro goes about his duties, sealing the windows and covering them with masking tape. One of the children tries to get his attention, but Miro brushes the boy away. He doesn’t want to get involved, and he feels uneasy about the entire situation. He realizes Artkin didn’t go over the entirety of the hijacking details. After a certain point, all he said was that they needed to wait and be patient and that their “patience will be rewarded” (60). He wonders if Artkin has been lying to him with the same ease he lied to Kate earlier.

Meanwhile, Kate waits, sick with fear. She spends some time tending to the kids, but she can’t stand to look at them anymore. She knows she won’t make it out alive because the hijackers let her see them without their masks, and they won’t let her live to identify them. She waits in the driver’s seat, thinking about the different parts of her personality and the disguises she wears. Sometime later, she hears a helicopter approach. She tries to escape the bus so she can let whoever’s coming know she’s in trouble, but Artkin pushes her back, telling her things are only beginning. Kate tends to the children again, secure and terrified in the knowledge that they “were still trapped here despite the helicopters and the policemen and the soldiers” (67).

Pages 68-78 Summary

The approaching sounds of the helicopter and police sirens alert the children something is wrong, and they all begin to cry. While Kate calms them, Miro observes the police and armed forces arriving and setting up their positions with practiced precision. Artkin warns Miro to be careful, especially of the snipers. Though he offers reassurance that the plan is on track, Miro feels uncomfortable with the entire mission. He questions what they are doing, comparing it to past missions where they only did what was necessary. Artkin explains this mission is different and more dangerous but encourages Miro not to worry because the police and army are “powerless while we have the children” (71).

A second round of sirens comes, followed by the arrival of more emergency responders. Artkin takes the dead child outside. He holds the dead boy up and spins him around in a type of dance. Miro explains to Kate that the dance is a show, meant to tell those watching that “life is not precious to us” (76). When Kate asks why no one shoots Artkin for his actions, Miro explains that for each of the hijackers harmed or killed, a child will die. Sickened and unable to watch anymore, Kate goes back to tending the children.

Part 4 Analysis

Miro continues to question his beliefs in Part 4. His conversations with Kate expose him to new ideas that contradict everything he has learned. As a result, Miro becomes agitated and uncertain, which ultimately leads to greater strength in his beliefs. Miro’s journey through questioning and affirming his personal truths shows the harm of living in a mental echo chamber where our views are repeated back to us without outside influence. Hearing only one way of understanding the world makes Miro closed-minded and resistant to change. When new ideas are introduced, they threaten Miro’s carefully constructed view, which only takes so much before it snaps. Kate’s influence leads to Miro rejecting her ideas and returning to his beliefs, never wanting to stray from his views again. Briefly, Cormier lets the reader wonder whether Miro might change his mind and preserve Kate’s life, but in having Miro revert back to his conditioning, Cormier clarifies his theme that—unlike in fiction, but in reality—death doesn’t discriminate, and personal perspective usually wins out over empathy.

Artkin’s dance with the dead child appears to reinforce that the hijackers don’t value life. In truth, it shows that they don’t value life other than their own. Later, when American forces attack, Artkin and Miro fight to survive, proving that they value their lives and that they want to live. Miro’s training taught him that death is glorious and that it is an honor to die for his cause. Despite all the years of hearing this, Miro doesn’t believe it when his life hangs in the balance. The will to live is stronger than teachings to the contrary.