Fake ID

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2014

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1–Rewind 1

Chapter 17–Rewind 2

Chapters 32-51

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Background

Historical Context: The Witness Protection Program (WITSEC)

WITSEC is a federal program started in 1971 that protects the identities of potential witnesses in federal criminal cases. Since its inception, about 19,000 different witnesses and many of their family members have been given new identities, new locations, and new careers so that those they testify against cannot harm or intimidate them. The Justice Department claims that about 90% of these witnesses’ testimonies have led to successful convictions.

The Pearson family, as portrayed in Fake ID, is typical of WITSEC families. First, they are in the program because of the father’s connection to a mob boss the government wants to prosecute. Second, they have been forced to give up all contact with people they knew before entering the program. Finally, while those who remain in WITSEC, which can last an entire lifetime, typically remain safe, leaving the protection of the WITSEC program can be fatal. Because being in the program results in a complete breaking of ties with one’s past life, Nick’s experiences are characteristic of those in the program who have to start different lives, learn new backstories, and never reveal their true origins. Those who grow up in witness protection are told not to tell even the people they marry about their origins.

However, in other ways, the novel takes liberties with reality. Although James is portrayed as returning to illegal activities repeatedly, this is unusual within the actual program, as only about one in five of people in WITSEC who were convicted of criminal acts returns to illegal behavior.

Genre Context: The High School Outsider Trope

Giles uses a trope from young adult fiction to portray Nick, writing him as the epitome of the new kid in a well-established high school community. From his first appearance at Stepton High School, Nick attracts attention. Reya wants to flirt with him, Zach wants to attack him, Eli wants to inculcate him in his journalistic world, and Dustin wants to make him part of his posse. Readers who have experienced moving to a new school during their mid-adolescence may recognize the angst expressed by Nick, who has never been to a real high school party, had a real girlfriend, or made a lasting friend.

In Nick’s case, these universal anxieties are compounded by the fact that in Stepton, he is a Black teenager in a predominantly white school in the South, a part of the US with a long history of anti-Black racism. Nick recognizes that his peers are nervous about his presence in ways that betray stereotypical assumptions about Black people: Some fear he will take their place in relationships or on a sports team, ascribing to Nick clichéd ideas about young Black men.

The novel cements Nick’s othered standing by making his family part of WITSEC. The witness-protection lifestyle has turned Nick into a perpetual outsider, never able to trust his environment or form lasting relationships.

Cultural Context: Racism in a Small Virginia Community

While Giles does not seek to overemphasize the racial aspect of the narrative, he makes clear that Nick’s anxiety about being in Stepton is in part because of Virginia’s history as a slave state. As Nick rides through town on his bike, he sees prominently displayed the Confederate battle flag—an emblem of the states that attempted to secede from the Union to preserve the institution of slavery before and during the US Civil War. The flag stuns Nick, who wonders why the local population still glorifies traitors from 150 years ago. Anti-Black bias in the South is embodied in Sheriff Hill, who makes an overtly racist comment about Nick’s family only to deny there was any bigoted intent in his words.

Racial prejudice extends to the Hispanic population of Stepton as well. The wealthy and white Dustin refuses to claim responsibility for being the father of Pilar’s child; his diatribe against Pilar’s family exposes his family’s racist and misogynist worldview: “Dad didn’t want to share a grandkid with the local Thug God […] Miguel handles whatever whore child his daughter squeezed into the world, leaving us out of it” (264). The Burkes see the Black and Latinx residents of Stepton as second-class citizens, people they are willing to discard when it suits their purposes.