FREE ESSAY ON AFTER THE FIRST DEATH

AFTER THE FIRST DEATH

Book Notes
Title: After The First Death Author: Robert Cormier 
Date Started: 02/06/00 Date Ended: 03/06/00
The Characters:
a) Main Characters
Miro: Miro is a teen-age terrorist that came from another country know, in the story, as
their "Homeland". Even Miro himself is uncertain of his age because during the training
(Or as they call it, school) age is not important. Te training is preparing them for
terrorism. Miro is feeling less and has learned not to give in to the call of nature. For
example: Things such as hunger, Restroom needs and most important sleep and tiredness. In
the story Miro is a doubtful teen looking for action.
Artkin: Artkin is a very dark and dangerous man. He rescued Miro and his brother from the
refugee camps and took them to the school. Artkin is very educated in the sense of
terrorism. He taught Miro everything he knows and is the leader of that specific team of
"Freedom Fighters". His age and Identity is also unknown
Kate: Kate is the victim of the hijacking of the bus. She thinks that all of the
terrorists are monsters and don't deserve to live. Kate has red hair and has freckles.
She also has a very weak bladder and often urinates uncontrollably. Miro thinks that most
American boys would find her to be attractive. 
Ben: Be is the son of one of the head generals that are apart of the operation on
stopping these terrorists. Later in the story Ben is the one who is chosen to deliver a
message to the terrorist and doing so he barely escapes death. Because of that Ben and
his father haven't spoken for months and maybe even years. Also because Ben told all the
information to the terrorists he could no longer live with himself so he committed
suicide. There was no real description of Ben because the story was told from his point
of view.
Mark: Mark is bens father who feels guilty for forcing Ben to deliver a message to the
terrorists and as a result Ben kills him self. At the end Ben and his father has a very
deep conversation but of course it is in Marks imagination. Mark is a General for a
top-secret military force. He is part of a group know as Fort Delta. He has a very secret
life that he can not share with his family. 
b) Other characters
Antibee: Antibee is a very strong and buff man. He is the watchful eye for the group. He
is very skillful at his work. Later he gets shot be one of the snipers in the woods.
Stroll: Stroll is the best driver in the country. He is African American and he is very
quiet rarely speaks but when he dose it is very important. Most of the tome he uses
gestures instead of words. 
Sedeete: Sedeete is the leader of the Freedom Fighters. He is even greater than Artkin.
Later he is captured and that was the downfall of the operation.
Raymond: Raymond is a little boy who is on the bus. He is the only child who truly knows
what is going on because he is awake while all the other kids are asleep. And he also
refuses to eat any of the drugged candy and as a result he his killed by Artkin.
Setting: 
In my story there are two settings one is in a dormitory of castle high and the other is
the bridge where the hijackers take the bus. 
Castle High is the high school where the kids of people that are involved with Fort Delta
go. It is a very heavily secured area. That is also the school that Ben's father
attended. Ben room is one of the biggest in the school because the fast that Ben's dad is
one of the Generals.
My other setting is the bridge. The bridge is the place where the hijackers take the bus
full of children. The bridge is fairly big. It is about 300 yards, or as Miro describes
it, 3 American football fields. The bridge has railroad tracks so there are gaps in
between the bridge's floor. There is also the bus which has taped up windows to unable
the soldiers to see any one's face.
Plot 
The story starts off with Ben franticly typing on his type writer. He frequently stops
and looks out the window waiting for his dad because this would be the first time they
had seen each other or even spoken to each other since the "bridge". While Ben is waiting
the story moves into the terrorists point of view. The terrorists are standing in the
corner waiting for the last child to be picked up by the bus. When the last child is
picked up they will hijack the bus and take it to an abandoned bridge. But as they stop
the bus they notice that the bus driver is not the usually man who hates kids. Instead it
is the mans niece. Instantly their plan is disrupted but they decide to treat the girl
the same way as they would to her uncle.
Meanwhile Ben is still waiting for his father who has yet to show up. Ben promises him
self that he won't do anything stupid until he discusses it with his father. While Ben
waits for his dad he is still frantically typing his journal and thoughts of the whole
situation.
Now the terrorist have hijacked the bus and gave the driver directions as to were she
should go. The girl follows the orders as given but tries to find some way to escape.
When they reached the bridge Artkin, the leader of the group, instructs Miro, A teen
apart of the group, to give the kids drugged candy they had prepared before hand. Miro
does as instructed by the leader and a while later the kids all fall asleep. Miro was
suppose to kill the bus driver as soon as they reached the bridge but since the bus
driver wasn't the regular man who hated the kids Artkin told him to hold off. The reason
her did that is because he thought the girl would be useful on tending the kids. Also she
would make a good hostage. Miro was instructed to get close to the girl and gain her
trust. As Miro talked to her he discovered that the girls name was Kate. Kate also had a
few secrets of her own. She had a very weak bladder and she also had a spare key to the
bus ignition so that once Miro took his periodic breaks and stood outside the bus she
would try to drive the bus off the bridge and by doing so save both her and the children.
While all of this was going on the police and the soldiers started to move into that are
and the woods around the bridge. The woods were swamped with some of the best snipers
fort delta had. And as soon as the Generals arrived they made their demands. There
demands were: "Number one, They are demanding the release of fifteen so-called political
prisoners serving various sentences in this country. Two, they are asking for ten million
dollars in cash. Three, they're demanding the dismantling of what is know to some people
as Inner Delta." By dismantling they mean reviling the name of all the agents involved to
the public. The people are given 24 hours to meet their demands are they will kill all
the children. Also they said that for every crew member that is killed they will kill a
child.
Meanwhile Ben's father arrives only to find an empty room with some typed sheets of paper
left next to the typewriter. Mark (Ben's father) immediately knows where Ben went and he
prepares himself for any tragic news that will be delivered to him. While waiting for Ben
to arrive he sits down n and reads the pieces of paper that are left next to the type
writer. The paper said that he will no jump off the bridge until he discusses it with his
dad so that gives him some hope.
After the long 1st night Kate finds out that one child did not eat the candy. That
child's name is Raymond. Raymond provides some help and hope to Kate but both soon run
out when Raymond is killed because one of their men was shot and killed. That man was
Antibee. After that occurs Kate decides to use the spare key and drive off the bridge.
When she dose the engine dies out and she is stopped. Then Artkin and Stroll (the driver
of the van) Receive the news that their leader Sedeete was captured. Artkin doesn't
believe it so he asks for proof and wants on of the generals sons to deliver a rock that
Sedeete had from their home land. The child chosen was Ben and was given false info
without knowing it. When forced by Artkin to tell them everything he knows he tells them
false info without knowing that it is not true. He tells tem that they are planning an
attack at 9:30 AM tomorrow morning. When the attack finally comes it is at 8:30 am so
stroll and Artkin were killed and Miro killed Kate ad escaped.
After completing Ben's Journals Mark find out that Ben jumped off the bridge because he
couldn't live with the fact that he was given false info because he was expected to let
down his country.
The Conflict
In the book I read the characters have a lot of conflicts to overcome. The characters
that have conflicts in the story are:
Miro: Miro is the one that has the most conflicts in the story and he overcomes most of
them. Some conflicts that he has is when Artkin gives him a mission and he fails it or
leaves it incomplete. For example Miro was told to keep an eye on the girl but the girl
nearly escapes. Also he has to overcome the calls of nature, but fortunately he has
trained his body to handle that kind of things. He also has to overcome the periods of
time spent in the bus just waiting. Miro hates waiting he likes action. He also has to
overcome the sexual feelings for Kate because he doesn't want to become involved with her
because his mission is to kill her.
Artkin: Since Artkin is the leader of the group he really has no problems to deal with.
There is only one problem he approaches and that is the negotiations with the generals. 
Ben: Ben really only has one big problem. That is that he was expected to let his country
down and that eventually lead him to his death.
Kevin: Kevin also has the problem of talking to Ben and thinking that he was responsible
for him committing suicide. He never really overcomes that. 
Kate: Kate has to overcome a lot in the story. She has to overcome the fact that she is
eventually going to die. She also has to overcome her own far and tend the children. Also
it took Kate a long time to dig up the courage to try to drive the bus off the bridge.
The Theme
The theme of my story is fairly simple. What Robert Cormier is trying to get across to
the reader is that even thought the crime is planned well you'll never get away with it.
I think that this is very true. I also share that feeling. 
Rating
On a scale from 1 to 10 this book gets an 9. The this book gets a ten is because this
book was basically the master of suspense. This book kept me interested from the first
word to the last page. However the reason this book gets a less than a perfect score is
that the ending could have been better. 
On a scale form 1 to 10 the character get a 9 also. My favorite character was Miro
because I can relate to many of his feelings and thoughts of fear and failure. I don't
really have a least favorite character all the characters in this story were really
good.