The San Francisco Alcatraz prison was built during the 1850's. It has been used as a lighthouse, a military fort, a military prison, and most famously a federal prison. The federal prison housed harden criminals that needed to harsher discipline than that given in traditional prisons.
After reading further about the Alcatraz prison, it was not difficult to recognize that there was a connection between Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and specifically this landmark. This begins when Marcus and his friends are taken away by the Department of Homeland Security and he senses that they could be on a boat. The Alcatraz prison is accessible by ferry, a boat that can transport people and vehicles across water. This explains Marcus' thoughts and also why the captured people did not have to be removed from the vehicle. As well, under sparse conditions, prisoners were forced to follow rules at the Alcatraz prison before being returned to their original prison. This connects to Marcus' treatment during his interrogation by the DHS, as they did not allow him many "privileges". Only when he chose to cooperate was he allowed to leave.
However, what was most interesting was the Battle Of Alcatraz. On May 2, 1946, six prisoners attempted to escape the prison by stealing weapons and keys, and overpowering guards. At the mention of keys, I immediately thought about the double-meaning of "keys". Of course, in the prison, one can imagine a keyring with many keys for the cells. However, I wondered about encryption keys that Marcus raves about when explaining cryptography. I also wondered about overpowering the guards. Marcus "overpowers the guards" by skewing the amount of encrypted data usage in the San Francisco area.
Could it be that San Francisco has become Alcatraz for its citizens, with the DHS as the jailers; and with Marcus' plans involving encryption keys and overpowering the city's surveillance efforts? If so, will a sort of Battle of Alcatraz occur? Unfortunately, most of the prisoners involved in the 1946 battle faced death one way or another. However, Alcatraz was also shut down due to operating expenses, as shipping to even an island as close to the city as Alcatraz is expensive. This presents a variety of fates for Marcus and his friends.
Wow, that was good, I really enjoyed the point you brought up about San Francisco becoming yet another Alcatraz, the Battle included. My question is do you believe that this will be the outline of the book, or near strict to it. If it is strictly to it the question would be what kind of point is Cory Doctorow trying to make about Alcatraz. That was an awesome view on that, I definatly could not of thought of that myself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other comment, the way you were able to relate the situation that San Francisco is in to Alcatraz was amazing. Im looking forward to reading the ending and seeing if human nature is true in saying that all events will usually repeat themselves. If so then I can see this book ending very badly, like the battle of Alcatraz did. Humans need to learn more from past mistakes, take those mistakes into account and learn from them, which is hopefully what will happen in Little brother.
ReplyDeleteThat was really good Leina, I liked the way you thought about every aspect in your topic. You thought of things I never would. I really liked your questioning if San Francisco will ever become like Alcatraz, and have a battle. It was thoughtful. I also liked your relation with the keys, and how you thought of the enccryption data involved in the book.
ReplyDeleteLeina, this is brilliant. I never really thought about the book in the way you explained in this post. It was quite fascinating. Having San Fransisco as another Alcatraz, is a very interesting thought, which I believe the book pretty much became, with Marcus trying all these ways to overpower the DHS and whatnot.
ReplyDeleteThis was fantastic, and I now want to know if you feel as thought the DHS created an Alcatraz in San Fransisco and ended up having another "Battle of Alcatraz" in the city, or if you feel like it didn't quite make it to that point.