58 pages • 1 hour read
Mateo AskaripourBlack Buck
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Epilogue Summary
Darren describes changes in penalties for drug possession charges enacted by various New York State governors over the years and how they have increased the numbers of Black and Latino men in prison. He has been sentenced to eight years, despite his lawyer’s efforts and protests demanding his release. Happy Campers continues to thrive, and Darren gets fan mail from people around the world. Despite being in jail, he feels that he “has never been freer” (380), and he appeals to readers of this book to learn how to be free and to pass on what they have learned to their friends. The book ends with a description of Soraya’s weekly visits, during which they pantomime picking up the phone and hearing it ring, bringing with it the possibility of “opportunity.”
Epilogue Analysis
By ending the novel with Darren in prison, Askaripour asks the reader to rethink the relationship between sales and success that Darren has promoted throughout the book. Though he claims to be free, he is, quite literally, “in a cage” (380). The context of his imprisonment—entrapment at the behest of a white man with law enforcement connections—is part of a long history of capturing and imprisoning Black men.
