55 pages • 1 hour read
Rick RiordanDaughter of the Deep
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | 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.
Chapters 58-63Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 58 Summary
Ana tells the Nautilus that she and Gem are headed to the Varuna, but then their suits run out of power. When they find the Varuna, it is pulling away from the dock, and they must jump onto it. The boat seems suspiciously empty, but suddenly Dev surprises Gem and knocks him out. Dev asks Ana if she is going to shoot him, saying “You’re really going to shoot me? Go ahead” (314). They both know Ana will not, and so Dev charges at Ana.
Chapter 59 Summary
Ana and Dev fight even though Dev is older and better trained. Ana tells Dev, “you’ve already lost” (315), but Dev does not believe he is a real traitor. He thinks that HP cause their parents’ deaths and deprived him of his inheritance. Ana responds by saying “the Nautilus isn’t our inheritance…the Nautilus belongs to herself” (317). Ana aims her gun at Dev, who does not believe she will shoot him, but she shoots, only with a non-lethal round. Gem wakes up, and Ana sees Ester on the boat, only to pass out herself.
Chapter 60 Summary
Back at Lincoln Base, Ana recovers in the Nautilus’s sick bay. Nemo’s alt-tech could be so useful to the world, but the LI proves how irresponsible people might misuse it. She thinks, “I’ve seen what Land Institute’s hunger for power did to my brother” (320). Ana tells Gem that he does not have to be her bodyguard anymore, so instead they decide to be friends. Ana also visits Romeo and Socrates, and all of the LI students except Dev are set free. A recovered Dr. Hewett tells Ana that she has done better than he ever imagined. He says that people focused too much on Dev, telling Ana that “you were the one we should have been preparing for command” (324).
Chapter 61 Summary
At dinner, Ana tells her classmates that they can leave to go to normal high school, or they can stay and help defeat the LI. She and Ester are planning to rebuild HP Academy better than before. The students all decide to stay, but Ana thinks “there’s one conversation I still need to have, and it will be the hardest of all” (328).
Chapter 62 Summary
Ana visits an upset Dev in his cell. He tries to convince Ana to release him, but instead Ana takes Dev to the Nautilus. Socrates also arrives and begins berating Dev. Ana shows Dev that what he tried to destroy “are not abstract things for Dev to have. We’re his family” (332). Then they go to the Nautilus.
Chapter 63 Summary
Aboard the Nautilus, Ana explains to Dev that the submarine is alive, not something to be controlled. Dev is bitter and sad, and when Ana gives him the opportunity, he is unable to control the submarine as it does not trust him. Dev wonders why Ana is so kind to a ship that killed their parents, but Ana empathizes with how the Nautilus had suffered. She tells Dev that the Nautilus “is grieving, just like we are” (334). Then Ana pilots the Nautilus to the underwater garden that holds Nemo’s ashes, and they scatter their parents’ ashes. Dev cries, and Ana thinks, “I can’t trust Dev. I don’t’ know if I’ll ever be able to, but I do love him” (335). Ana says goodbye to her parents and resolves to be strong for her brother.
Chapters 58-63 Analysis
These last chapters continue to explore the good and bad of advanced technology. By this point, Ana truly agrees with HP Academy’s approach to alt-tech. She thinks, “Humans are still not ready for all of Nemo’s advances. I don’t know what Land Institute’s school mott is, but I want it to be This is why we can’t have nice things” (320-321). Nemo’s advanced technology could help humanity so much, and Ana wishes that she could share it with the world. But her experiences with the Land Institute have proven to her that there are people in the world who are so irresponsible that she could not dare risk releasing Nemo’s tech to them. People like Dev are too entitled and selfish and would inevitably use the alt-tech to do wrong.
Selfish people would even use the Nautilus badly, treating it as an object, rather than as a living creature. Dev tells Ana that “HP could’ve used Nemo’s tech a hundred times to save the world. Instead, they kept it locked up. They shut us out of our inheritance” (316). By describing the Nautilus and Nemo’s other technology as an inheritance, Dev shows that he believes this technology was owed to him, rather than a privilege for him to earn. Ana responds, “the Nautilus isn’t our inheritance […]. The Nautilus belongs to herself” (317). The submarine is not a piece of property to be handed around but a living creature, deserving of respect and autonomy. The Nautilus shows that autonomy when it does not listen to Dev’s order to dive in the last chapter. No one can force it to do anything, they can only give commands that it will either respect or not.
Just as Ana and Dev have opposing viewpoints on Nemo’s technology, they also have different ways of Coping with the Loss of One’s Parents. Dev asks Ana, “have you really forgiven the ship?” (334). In this sense, he treats the Nautilus with some level of autonomy, since blaming the ship for their deaths imbues it with some ability to make decisions. However, he lacks the advanced empathy that makes Ana such a good leader. He cannot comprehend how Ana might have forgiven the Nautilus because he does not truly respect technology or even life. Still, he is not entirely lost to Ana because she can empathize even with Dev. She has hope that the brother she believed she had might return. She thinks, “I say a prayer for my brother, and for the future. I will not give up on either of them” (336). Even though Dev has done many terrible things, including risking Ana’s life multiple times, Ana understands that this comes from a place of extreme grief and anger, and she is willing to help her brother learn to be better in the future.
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