54 pages • 1 hour read
Graham McNameeAcceleration
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
The Journal
Duncan finds Roach’s journal in the lost and found, it being a snapshot of a disturbed, incoherent mind. He describes much of it as gibberish, but behind the bile and rants is methodical cruelty. The journal is a record of Roach’s acceleration from animal killer to (future) murderer of women. Duncan describes the journal as having “a cover that feels like skin” (145) and being hard to kill, like a cockroach—thus birthing the killer’s nickname of “Roach.” It also becomes a reminder of how many people lack help in Duncan’s world (i.e., the Jungle). After all, the police treat it with a mix of indifference and skepticism. As for Roach himself, the journal speaks to his fear of getting caught, his forbidden thoughts, as he comes to the lost and found to find it. He either attaches sentimental value to it, values its research, knows this research could condemn him, or experiences all three.
Maya
Maya is the drowning girl whom Duncan failed to save a year prior to the present. There are few details about her death, but Vinny speculates that she drowned due to a cramp (rather than anything on Duncan’s behalf). She is a symbol of Duncan’s guilt. He hears her screams whenever he’s in water and has disturbing dreams about her. She also represents his need for redemption. Vinny recognizes Duncan treating the hunt for Roach as a “second chance” (103) to save Maya. At the end of the novel, Duncan swims to the bottom of the pool and Maya is not there; her absence now symbolizes his newfound ability to move on with his life.
The Jungle
The Jungle is Duncan’s neighborhood; some children call it “Welfare Towers” (14). Duncan often describes how suffocating it is to live in such a place: “Most of the people who live there have the doomed look of lifers. They move in slow motion, never picking up enough speed to escape its gravity” (126). He and Vinny equate the place to a prison camp, with the latter using the terms “dead end” and “sinkhole” (64). In its wilderness, the neighborhood symbolizes a constant fight for survival. Duncan believes he has a duty to escape and make a life for himself as if he were an innocent prisoner.
