Reading Response #3: Proxy

   

       Proxy takes place in a world where the rich could pay someone to take their punishments. The people who pay are called patrons while the people who take the punishments are called proxies. Some proxies are lucky. Their patrons hardly ever get into trouble. Those proxies get credit (their form of currency) for just being around. Other proxies are not so lucky. The main character Syd is one of the unlucky ones.

Upper City (where the wealthy live)

 

 

 

       Syd’s patron is an irresponsible boy named Knox. Knox lives in the moment. He gets into all kinds of trouble and Syd takes the punishment. One night, Knox gets into a horrible wreck and kills a girl. Syd, who is two years away from being free of his proxy life, is going to be sent to a harsh labor camp for sixteen more years because of the accident. Syd is angry with the system and decides that he will not go quietly.

        “He refused. It was that simple. He was not unredeemable and he was not a terrorist and he was not just a body they could discard and replace to teach some patron a lesson.
    He was Sydney Carton-or whatever his name had been before-and he was a human being and he wasn’t just going to lie down and take this. He had to do… something. He had to escape before they came to take him away.” (pg. 74)

    Knox usually didn’t care about his proxy being punished. It was the punishment from the accident that made him feel bad. He wanted to help his proxy. He went from a rich kid with no cares to a rebel who cared too much.

        “I’d tried it all those years with everything from stealing to getting tweaked out of my head, but it never really helped. I figured maybe sneaking Syd away would do it.” (g.351)
        “Now I want Syd to get to safety because he’s earned it.” (pg. 352)