We All Fall Down Book Report

We All Fall Down is about a 9th grade student named Will Fuller. Will is a typical American teenager. He’s an average student who has set his hopes of starting a band with his friends. He’s got a crush on a girl in his class, and doesn’t see much of his dad, a CEO who spends more time at work than at home. Personally after reading halfway through this novel, I feel that Will and I are connected very closely and he reminds me of myself a few years ago. Early in the novel, Will tries to stay under the radar in school, but his ability to learn and speak his mind caused him to stand out rather than fit in. This relates to me because when I transferred schools last year, I wanted to stay low key and under the radar just like Will, but my strengths academically

pushed over my wants and caused me to stand out. Will’s father also seems to be at work away from home more often than not, and even though he understood that he had an important job, he was saddened by the fact that he couldn’t spend more time with him.

This again forced me to relate myself to Will because my dad is a superintendant at his job, and whenever he is not home, he’s on call and will have to be on the phone 20 hours a day to sort everything out, just as if he is at work. Even though I know my father has an important role at work I wish that we were closer and I could spend more time with him, just like Will and his father. Throughout this first half of the novel, Will is easily relatable to me, which makes it super easy for me to like him. We live similar lives at school and at home, we follow the same characteristics, and even enjoy the same things. At school Will is an average student who enjoys maths, sciences, and speaking his mind, while at home he stays segregated to himself and follows similar routines to me by helping out our mothers due to the fact that our fathers are never home. Will is a very relaxed teenager who seems to have no cares in the world, and would rather stick to himself rather than do something that he is not interested

in. The way that Will feels in these parts of the novel is a main characteristic I see in myself. In the story we saw Will feel this way when he stated that he’d rather be home doing nothing than spending a full day at his father’s workplace, observing him in action. At the beginning of the novel Will was a typical teenager, no cares in the world and really didn’t feel necessary for him to do things that he wasn’t interested in. For Will’s grade nine “Take your kid to work day” he shadows his father, the vice president of a trading company based in the World Trade Center. With his father always being very focused on his work, he worries that his father will not bother to make time for him. Shortly after being in the World Trade Center, a shake occurs, danger is sudden, and Will needs to mature and develop quicker than any fourteen year old ever has. Will’s mind completely changes from not caring at all, to survival and being completely caring to everyone around him because they are all feeling the exact same fear as he is. Based on the part of my book where I am at now, Will has had to develop super quickly because, first of all his own life is at danger, and secondly his fathers is as well. Another reason why Will had to develop very quickly, was because Will's best friend James's father works as a New York firefighter, who was working on the scene at the trade center. The feeling of guilt that Will would feel, when telling his best friend that his father died right while being with him would be impeccable, which has forced Will to mature and take responsibility to care and help all of the people around him so far.