Downsizing Name: Matt B. Period: 1
1. What challenges does the main character, Paul Safranek, face? Explain what decisions he
needs to make and why he might be making them.
He is in debt from school and his wife wants to move but they don’t have the money to.
He needs to decide if they are going to downsize or not. It is irreversible and there is no going
back. They have to sell everything they have except for some valuables. He decided to go
through with it even though he and his wife were separated and he didn’t know for sure if she
was going to downsize with him.
2. Who is Ngoc Lan Tran? And why is she important to Paul’s journey?
She is a survivor that was caught getting smuggled in through a tv box and she got
injured through transit. He wants to help her fix her prosthetic leg. He tries to help her
friends to get better. She changed his life and they went to Norway together. He fell in
love with her. She goes to Norway with him and they see the original colony and how
they are going to move into a vault with everything they need. Paul wants to move so that
he can live with the original tribe and help them. He wants Ngoc Lan Tran to go with
him, but she doesn’t want to. She talked him out of leaving and living in the vault.
3. What is the alternate plan from downsizing that people are considering?
They have a vault that leads to everything but also protects them from anything that could kill
them from the normal world.
4. What would you do? Would you downsize? Explain your decision.
I would downsize if all of my family and friends also decided to downsize. I think that it would
be normal if i still had all the people in my life but we are all smaller. I would do this because
you get a lot of money and it’s basically the normal world just smaller.
