Little Brother

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008

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Study Guide

Before You Read Beta

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-14

Chapters 15-19

Chapters 20-21, Epilogue, and Afterword

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools Beta

Discussion Questions

Essay Topics

How does Marcus’s comment that he’s “one of the most surveyed people in the world” set the tone for the novel? Is the statement true?

In Little Brother, Doctorow enters a conversation with Nineteen Eighty-Four, a novel written by George Orwell that was published in 1949. How are the DHS like the Party from Orwell’s novel? How prophetic is Nineteen Eighty-Four?

How does Marcus’s concern with books—his moral dilemma of reprogramming RFIDs in library books and his wrapping the physics book in paper towels before nuking it— reinforce or dismantle stereotypes about gamers?