We All Fall Down

We All Fall Down is a novel written by Robert Cormier.

Main characters

The most important characters in We All Fall Down are Jane Jerome, Buddy Walker and Mikey Loney (called ?The Avenger?). After the trashing, the story splits up into three main storylines: one from the view of Jane, in which we get to know how she and her family feel after the trashing; one from the point of view of Buddy, in which we get to know abut his problems and also about his family and friends; and the third point of view is the Avengers?, in which we get to know all about his cruel past and also his revenge-plans for the future.

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Jane Jerome: Jane is a 16 year old girl. She is the sister of Karen Jerome who lies in a coma. Until the trashing of her house she has been popular in the school and has been satisfied with her life. Although she has got two very good friends, she feels completely unsafe after the vandalism. Her life changes and her friends can?t understand her anymore. Everyday, after school, she visits her little sister at the hospital and she spends the whole day alone, going to the mall or elsewhere. After meeting Buddy her life changes again, she falls in love with him and is very happy about the fact that she actually found somebody to talk to. In the end she finds out about Buddy?s background by being kidnapped by Mikey Looney. After that she hates Buddy for what he has done and doesn?t want to see him anymore.

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Buddy Walker: Buddy is a 16 year old boy. He takes part at the trashing and ruins the upper floor, including Jane?s? bedroom, but doesn?t do anything to Karen, actually he tells his ?friends? to stop it.

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His parents get divorced, because his father goes out with another woman. After his father leaves the home he is very depressed, because his father doesn?t communicate with him any longer, except for sending him pocket money. He starts drinking alcohol and soon gets addicted to it. He hides his attitude from his mother, but his sister soon finds out that something is wrong with him. He meets Jane because he follows her on her shopping trip on the mall. When he is together with Jane he hides the trashing and also his alcoholism from her.

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The Avenger: He is a 41-year-old man called Mike Stallings with his real name. Mike is the neighbor of the Jeromes. He does gardening as a job. From Jane and Kate he got the name Mikey Looney, because he seems to live in his own little world.

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Actually he does live in his own world, because he is mental sick and thinks he is an 11-year-old boy called the ?Avenger?. Mickey and his mother were left alone by his father. When he really was eleven, he committed murder twice. He killed the school-bully by shooting him in front of his house and he also killed his grandfather, a former policeman, because he thought that he knew something about the murder. He stepped him down the balcony of the grandpas flat. He planned these two murders perfectly and that?s the reason, why he got away with them, without being caught.

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He calls himself ?The Avenger? because he saw the group of boys trashing the Jerome?s house and he plans to revenge everything they?ve done only for his secret love Jane.

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But when he finds out that Jane is going out with Buddy he gets really crazy and kidnaps Jane trying to kill her. But when Jane persuades him that he isn?t eleven years old, he commits suicide.

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