After the Shot Drops

“A lot of people hate that we’ve got these jets flying past every few minutes, but I don’t mind. It’s like God’s constant reminder that there’s more out there than this.”

This quote exemplifies Bunny’s optimism and ambition. Unlike others, he is consistently on the lookout for ways to improve his lot in life by finding opportunities and capitalizing on them. It also includes the simile “like God’s constant reminder.” Both protagonists often use similes and metaphors to relate their personal feelings to the reader.

“You wish the world would throw him a break. Instead it keeps trying to break him.”

Nasir is reflecting on the many disadvantages and hardships Wallace faces and concludes that the world is a hostile place for him and people like him. It also uses the rhetorical device antanaclasis, using the same word (“break”) in two contrasting ways. In the first instance, a “break” is a positive instance of good luck or a respite from hardship. In the second, “break” refers to metaphorically destroying a person.

“Matibay ang walis, palibhasa’y magkabigkis…A broom is sturdy because its strands are tightly bound.”

This is a Tagalog proverb related by Nasir’s mother. It uses the metaphor of a broom and its bristles to emphasize the importance of a strong community, one of the central themes explored in the novel. Since Wallace and other citizens of Whitman lack this community support, they are bound to fail. This quote also uses Tagalog to demonstrate part of Nasir’s background—he is half Filipino from his mother.

“People always assume they know what others are going through, that they know what’s best for them. But they almost never do.”

This is part of Nasir’s internal monologue in response to Keyona’s criticism of Wallace. It exemplifies the lack of compassion and often paternalistic and condescending attitude people have toward the poor, even among those who have contended with poverty themselves.

“I feel like I’m in one of those movies where I can see the future coming from a miles away but I can’t do a damn thing about it.”

Nasir uses the simile of feeling like he is in a movie to communicate his sense of helplessness. Throughout the novel, Nasir struggles with the question of how to help his cousin break the cycle of poverty, which seems scripted, predestined, inescapable, and inevitable.

“Anger course through me. Anger at Wallace’s landlord. Anger at his shitty parents. Anger at my own parents, my own small house. Anger at Bunny, St. Sebastian’s, and the unfairness of this world that tells us to help each other but thrives on us not helping each other.”

This is part of Nasir’s internal response to his parents’ unwillingness to help Wallace and his grandmother in any meaningful way. He feels an overwhelming sense of anger toward individuals who refuse to help others and the world at large by providing incentives for individual selfishness. The repetition of “anger at” in this internal monologue elucidates the many struggles Wallace and other Whitman residents are up against, illustrating not only the volume of disadvantages but also that they are interconnected struggles.

“Never underestimate anybody. They come back hungrier each time, since they’ve got nothing to lose.”

Bunny shares this insight while preparing to play against an opposing team. It encapsulates part of his worldview, which is that people, especially those on the bottom rungs of society, have to be ever-vigilant. Although he is directing his comment toward another team, he is also speaking about himself and his own work ethic and ambitions.

“We all stay separate, divided by the color of our skin like the civil rights movement never happened. I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks that’s messed up. Never used to. But when you’re suddenly one of six Black kids in a school of about a thousand, you start to feel some type of way about these things.

“We all stay separate, divided by the color of our skin like the civil rights movement never happened. I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks that’s messed up. Never used to. But when you’re suddenly one of six Black kids in a school of about a thousand, you start to feel some type of way about these things.

“The machine makes that sad, digital whomp whomp kind of sound, and I can’t help but feel the game is rigged.”

Bunny attempts to win a stuffed panda for Keyona at a popular claw game machine. The machine is a metaphor for society in that it is designed to make people believe they have a chance at winning when, in actuality, they rarely do.

“Money isn’t everything, but only people who’ve never lacked it think it’s nothing.”

After coming across some of his parents’ unpaid bills, Bunny muses on the role of money in society and its ability to establish a sense of well-being. The financial precarity he experiences drives him to succeed since he has learned that a lack of money causes psychological stress and deprives people of opportunities.

“I usually won, but that never mattered. It was always about making it to the top together.”

Here, Bunny is reflecting on his relationship with Nasir when, as children, they ran or rode their bikes up a tall hill. Despite Nasir’s insistence that Bunny cares only about himself, Bunny experiences feelings of loyalty to his friends and family. His desire for those in his inner circle to succeed along with him also drives him.

“‘Catharsis, cuz.’ He’s still grinning, but his tone’s gotten real serious. And for a moment, it’s like he’s no longer my goofy cousin, but already another ghost on the corner.”

Wallace, despite a lack of book smarts, intuits the meaning of the word “catharsis,” which is an emotional release. He achieves catharsis by egging Bunny’s house, which does nothing to improve his situation in any material sense but provides a fleeting sense of pleasure. In noting Wallace’s change of tone, Nasir uses a simile and compares him to a ghost. This foreshadows Wallace’s eventual fate; although he does not die in the novel, he disappears from the world when he is incarcerated.

“Everyone’s so worried about helping Bunny. Why’s nobody but me sweating Wallace’s situation? Bunny’s fine. Everyone’s handing him the future on a silver platter.”

This quote encapsulates one of the novel’s central themes, Personal Versus Social Accountability. Society has determined that Bunny deserves help because of his awesome athletic prowess but that Wallace does not because he has nothing to offer in return. Nasir uses the metaphor of a “silver platter” to describe Bunny’s relative advantages in life compared to Wallace; however, throughout the novel, Nasir contradicts this because he acknowledges that Bunny works very hard to achieve all his successes.

“I’m thinking about how funny it is that people can act so hard and then turn around and give you a glimpse that there is more to them. I know some people around our way have it rough and have to toughen up to survive, but my theory is they’re putting up the same front as Wallace. I wish we could all agree it’s dumb and drop the act. Then everyone could go around doing stuff like saving stray kittens instead.”

Wallace’s rescue of the stray kitten gives Nasir a chance to reflect on the aspects of Wallace’s character that struggle and deprivation have suppressed, probably as a survival tactic. Nasir realizes the skills and gifts that people lose as a result of struggle and imagines a more ideal society.

“Team photos propped up against the sparkling bases track the racial history of the city: all white from the first half of the century, a truck of color in the middle, and then nearly all Black or Puerto Rican or Dominican in the newer photos. All connected across race and time by nothing but a game.”

While viewing the photos in Whitman High’s gymnasium, Bunny has a visual representation of the country’s changing racial landscape. He reflects on the capacity of a game like basketball to unite people and reward them for their abilities, regardless of their racial or economic backgrounds. He sees basketball as a true meritocracy after it became fair and allowed non-white players to compete.

“I may not know if I made the right decision about transferring and all, but I know this is right, that this feels like that moment after the shot drops.”

Bunny shares this insight after hugging Keyona. The quote is significant because it contains the novel’s title. The moment after the shot drops is a metaphor that represents the eventual outcome of one’s efforts. Once a player throws the ball, it is literally and figuratively out of his hands. When Bunny shoots and waits for the ball to whoosh through the net, he feels a sense of rightness, knowing that he did everything he could to achieve this success.

“That was it: control.

Bunny controlled the ball, and he controlled the game. He was like an expert surgeon taking the scalpel with a steady hand and slicing it with laser precision. No wasted movements. No mistakes. Just control.”

Nasir uses a simile to compare Bunny’s skills at basketball to those of a surgeon, a professional who requires absolute precision in their movements. Bunny fosters control on the court because so many other aspects of life are out of his control. Basketball empowers him to rise above his given station in life, but only if he exhibits total discipline.

“Borders are kind of weird, huh?”

Borders are a notable symbol in the novel. Here, Bunny talks to Nasir about the borders separating Whitman from Philadelphia, noting that since Whitman seems more like Philadelphia than the other towns, it almost seems like “someone drew the lines wrong” (148). These borders are a metaphor for the arbitrary distinctions that separate one person or one community from the next, often established randomly or through human error.

“It seems backward that so many people want to help those who need it least and ignore those who need it most and then find a way to justify that in their own minds.”

Nasir considers the free shoes and other equipment that Nike and other benefactors give to St. Sebastian’s students. He does not explicitly quote Marx, who wrote in 1875, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” but his outlook and sensibilities seem sympathetic to that notion (Marx, Karl. “Critique of the Gotha Programme.” Marxists Internet Archive, 1999). However, the American ethos, exemplified in the microcosm of Whitman, does not distribute resources according to this maxim. Rather, people whom society values for their looks, athletic abilities, or other reasons are rewarded regardless of need.

“People don’t want to believe that they’re unsuccessful because they’re lazy. So they have to believe it’s luck.”

Coach Baum explains to Bunny why people might be jealous of his success and therefore try to sabotage him, explaining it is “human nature” to want to bring others down. Coach Baum’s position is that successful people deserve it and that luck has little to nothing to do with it. This attitude contrasts with Nasir’s observations of Wallace, whose lack of achievement he largely attributes to his disadvantages.

“You’re safe here in your warm house. You’ve got a bed instead of a couch. A fridge full of food. A mom and dad who give a fuck about you…Shit, cuz. We’re living in the same city, but we’re in two different worlds. You may as well be on the moon.”

Wallace itemizes the various advantages Nasir has that he lacks. Some, if not all, of these basic necessities are often taken for granted by those who enjoy them, even those as self-aware as Nasir. Wallace metaphorically describes the distance between their respective worlds as Nasir living on the moon. It’s a comparison that illustrates the sharp distinctions between those who live unstable lives entrenched in deep poverty and those who experience basic comfort and security.

“‘I have this feeling that things can be better, but they’re not going to get that way unless we make it that way. It’s like doing good just for myself and my family doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.’

‘That’s easy for you to say. It’s only you and your parents, and y’all are doing okay. But for some people, just being able to help their family means everything.’”

This exchange between the two protagonists encapsulates one of the central themes of the novel and its conflicting theories. Nasir expresses the belief that individuals are responsible for changing society for the better by actively helping its most vulnerable members. Bunny expresses the opinion that for some, that might be too lofty a goal, and devoting one’s energies to one’s self and inner circle is the best option. Whereas Nasir is concerned more with social progress, Bunny is focused on individual success. Nasir acknowledges that Bunny might be correct in his approach.

“When I think of Wallace, I find I’m not even angry. Maybe I would be if he’d shot Nasir instead. More than anything, I’m sad for him. I’ll heal, but his life’s over. Even if it is his fault, that doesn’t make it any less tragic to me.”

Bunny expresses his feelings about Wallace after he shot him. To Bunny, Wallace’s life is tragic because of his personal failings and bad choices. However, Bunny still feels compassion for him regardless, demonstrating that it’s possible to sympathize with people even when they are the cause of their own suffering.