Talon is a boy who lives in New York, but not where you would think. In this fiction novel by Neal Shusterman, The Downsiders, there are two types of people. The topsiders, who live in New York, and the downsiders who live under New York. In caves and tunnels forged by topsiders decades ago. Talon, the main character, is among the downsiders. However, he has always had an extreme curiosity for the topside, even though others frown upon that. He could be described as curious, independent, and daring. While many of the ‘downsiders’ usually enjoy being underground, Talon uses every chance he can to get a glimpse of the topside. It is because of this that he can be described as curious. While he was on his ‘catching’ rotation, where downsiders find topsiders who no longer want to live on the topside, he found three fallers with his two friends. After the catch he insisted that they should go and look at the topside before they went back underground. On page thirteen it is stated that, “Talon led his friend up to a sidewalk grate… they could see the soles of shoes hurrying past, on their way to whatever things those strange surface folk did.” This shows how Talon leads his friends to look, even if they do not agree with his curiosity to the world above. …show more content…
For example, even when he was exiled from his home, he did not try to get back. Rather he immediately went to his one topside friend, Lindsay, for assistance. On page 142 of the novel Lindsay and her brother, Todd, come home to find Talon sleeping on their porch. This being because downsiders usually sleep during the time topsiders are awake. This happened after he was quite literally ejected from the downside. Showing how not only he found his way to her house, even after only having been there once, and how he was not afraid to ask for help from his