48 pages • 1 hour read
Downsiders
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Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Surface Tension”
The narrator says that tourists are typically easy to identify, but Talon navigates Coney Island with such extreme bliss that people assume he’s “mad” rather than a tourist. He notices people leaving their coats on the hooks at restaurants and assumes the coats are up for grabs. He takes a puffy jacket, finding “wads” of cash in it. He admires the Wonder Wheel and goes on the Cyclone. The wonder, fear, and joy intoxicate him.
Ever since Becky told classmates that Lindsay crawled into a storm drain and disappeared, Lindsay has become the center of Icarus Academy gossip. As she lets her hair grow “wild” and wears the earrings from Talon, people think she’s an “Albanian princess.” Girls with manifold piercings try to befriend her, as do boys who dress in all black and read The Catcher in the Rye (1951). Lindsay only wants to be with Talon. Holding hands with him in a dark sewer felt much more “natural” to her than a traditional date.
When Todd and Lindsay come home from school, they find a “bum” sleeping on their stoop. The “bum” is Talon. To fool Todd, Lindsay pretends he’s Charlie from math class. As Lindsay whisks him up to the third floor of the new brownstone, Talon brags about riding the Cyclone and sleeping in a “green room” (a dumpster). He doesn’t care about Downsider “rules,” and he and Lindsay kiss.
Anxious to complete the aqueduct, Mark pushes the foreperson, who, in turn, pressures the workers, causing a big dump truck to crash into the Downside’s Brass Junction. The only Downsider in the Brass Junction is Robert Gunderson. He sings and works hard, so Railborn decides he deserves a new name. He names him Flake because they caught him during a snowstorm.
Chapter 12 Summary: “The Null Tunnel”
The discovery of the space beneath the aqueduct makes Mark famous and attracts scholars from Columbia University and New York University (NYU). The site’s exploration dominates the news cycle, and Talon watches the TV coverage in “horror.” He broke the law, and the world is over. Lindsay thinks the world is fine, so Talon clarifies: Her world is okay, but the Downside is a mess. He runs through the streets, into a subway station, and down a train tunnel (a Null Tunnel).
Lindsay follows, and Talon saves her from an oncoming train. The train scrapes Talon’s back, and he bleeds. Talon tells Lindsay they can’t be together: “[E]verything we do together, we do in danger” (156). Lindsay thinks she can prove that Downsiders and Topsiders can be together.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Countermeasures”
To keep Topsiders away, Downsiders boobytrap the tunnels connected to Brass Junction. Fearful that the chaotic circumstances will produce heroes who challenge their authority, the Wise Advisors train Railborn to become Most-Beloved, knowing they can manipulate him to do as they wish. Railborn feels guilty about what he did to Talon, but an Advisor dismisses his guilt and orders him to focus on the future. If Railborn follows the Wise Advisors, glory will be his.
During breakfast, Lindsay’s dad can’t control his excitement over the discovery of the Downside. There’s an underground tunnel running from the tip of Manhattan through the Bronx, so Mark and his team don’t need 15 years to construct an aqueduct—someone already made it.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Earth”
Alfred Ely Beach developed the influential magazine Scientific American and allegedly inspired the creation of Captain Nemo—the engineer who appears in Jules Verne’s works, including his science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870). Beach also invented the first functional typewriter, the cable car, and New York City’s first subway. To avoid dishonest Mayor “Boss” Tweed, Beach hired struggling people and transformed them into effective night workers. No one noticed that Beach was making a tunnel. In 1870, Beach unveiled the first two train stations. The main station featured chandeliers, a grand piano, and a fountain filled with goldfish.
The subway was a hit, but people in power didn’t like Beach’s surreptitiousness and stopped his trains. Beach died on New Year’s Day in 1894. In 1904, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) launched a much less spectacular subway system.
Thanks to a broken pipe, Champ’s pool is filled with water again, so he puts his belongings in a shopping cart and prepares to move. Lindsay catches him and tells him her discovery: Beach built the Downside. New York City betrayed him, so he invented a world for himself and his workers; all Downsiders are “fallers.” Champ admits he knew but didn’t tell Talon—it wasn’t his “place.” Lindsay argues it is their “place” to tell him the truth. Champ says that if Lindsay wants to wreck Talon’s world, he won’t stop her.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Who Died and Left You Most-Beloved?”
In 1904, the City Hall subway station was to be the MTA’s “crowning glory,” but it had a circular platform, and straight train cars couldn’t navigate the curves, so authorities shut it down. Downsiders took it over, and it became their Hall of Action––a space reserved for the most glorious or grim moments.
At the Hall of Action, the Wise Advisors debate the Topside “incursion.” Railborn worries about sounding smart, and an Advisor reminds him that “wisdom” means knowing when to stay quiet. Downsiders are divided: “Killthemalls” want bloody war, while “Welcomongers” advocate peace. The Advisors call on Railborn, who suggests cutting off the gas, stopping the electricity, and clogging the sewers—no more “generosity” for Topsiders.
While Downsiders applaud Railborn’s leadership, someone screams that they’ve seen the Topside. It’s Talon, and Downsiders are in shock; he’s supposed to be dead. Talon claims the Fates disrupted his death, and he explains the Topside. An Advisor orders the arrest of the undertaker, accusing him of “sabotag[ing]” Talon’s execution. The Advisor asks Railborn to decide Talon’s punishment, and Railborn sends him to the Chamber of Soft Walls, whispering “sorry” to his friend.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
These chapters foreground the motif of personal style to develop the theme of The Fluidity of Binaries. In Chapter 11, Lindsay adjusts her look: “She let her hair go wild and took to wearing the ruby earring Talon had given her” (139). The new style creates a new identity for Lindsay, with one student speculating that “she was a long-lost Albanian princess, and that the earring was all that remained of the crown jewels” (139). Lindsay’s appearance, with her “wild” hair and Downsider earring, emphasizes how being exposed to the Downside has changed her. Conversely, Topsiders impact Talon’s personal style when he grabs a random person’s coat. When Lindsay discovers him on her stoop, wearing a “bulbous Gortex parka, with the fur hood zipped all the way up” (142), she doesn’t recognize him. Through clothes, characters can change how they look and how others view them. In a mutable world, personal identity is fluid and changes along with one’s perspective on the world.
The narrator maintains a light tone. For example, Talon’s experiences on Coney Island and in New York City is comical: “[H]e flitted along the boardwalk of Coney Island with such hyperkinetic abandon, people merely assumed him mad” (134-35). Hyperbolic words like “hyperkinetic abandon” spotlight Talon’s intoxication in a comical way. As in the previous chapters, the dialogue also brings comedy, as when Talon tells Lindsay, “The street-beds in the park were too cold, so I found a green-room that wasn’t being used” (143). Typically, a green room is a space in a theater or studio for famous people to hang out in. Talon twists the term’s meaning to “dumpster,” generating irony and humor.
Talon relationship with Breaking Rules and Norms vacillates in this section. In Chapter 11, he kisses Lindsay, declaring, “[Downsiders] can stick their rules where the sun doesn’t shine” (143). One chapter later, Talon regrets transgressing the Downside’s laws. He thinks his disobedience led to the Great Shaft Disaster, telling Lindsay, “This is my fault […] I broke the law. The Fates brought me to the Topside to test me. I failed the test, and now the worlds will end” (150). Here Talon acknowledges that rules and norms are necessary for Downsiders’ survival. By breaking these rules, he compromises the Downside.
The motif of clashing civilizations supports the theme of Breaking Rules and Norms. As the Downside prepares for a possible war with the Topside, the Wise Advisors realize “that they themselves would never be mistaken for either heroes or leaders” so they “dredge themselves up a champion of their own” (158-59). Railborn becomes a potential Must-Beloved because the Wise Advisors can use him as their mouthpiece. Railborn follows their advice, perpetuates their doctrines, and preserves the idea that the Topside is a threat. Sounding like a war-bent demagogue, Railborn declares, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel too generous anymore” (175). He escalates the conflict with the Topside by cutting off their gas, electricity, and water and clogging the sewers.
These chapters highlight the theme of Compassion Versus Cruelty when Topsiders discover the Brass Junction. Their rush to explore the new space mimics the conduct of colonizers, who feverishly try to dominate and occupy new territories without considering the well-being of the people who already live there. Meanwhile, Railborn continues to muddy the distinction between compassion and cruelty. As he sentences Talon to the Chamber of Soft Walls, he whispers, “I’m sorry” (179). Railborn feels compassion and regret, but he doesn’t translate his emotions into action.
The narrator conflates fact and fiction in telling Alfred Ely Beach’s story. The account of Beach’s contributions to New York City’s subway system is relatively historically accurate. However, Beach’s role in creating the Downside is pure invention. The mixture of reality and make-believe doesn’t make the narrator unreliable, but it does contribute to the novel’s magical realism.
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