The City of Ember

“This was where she wanted to be, up here where everything happened, not down underground.”

Lina’s interior monologue is full of irony; as the city of Ember is all she knows, she thinks she is aboveground under a dark sky. The bustle of the city feels busy and interesting, prompting her desire for a role as a messenger. Ironically, Lina will eventually learn that the secrets of Ember and the solution for their plight are deep underground.

“The city of Ember was made for us long ago by the Builders […] It is the only light in the dark world. Beyond Ember, the darkness goes on forever in all directions.”

Lina, Doon, and all children in Ember grow up reading and learning from The Book of the City of Ember, in which this line appears. At the start of the story, Lina cannot see any symbolic or double meaning in the lines, but DuPrau indicates to readers that Ember is full of secrets. The “darkness” around Ember represents a void of knowledge. The city’s citizens believe that they exist as the only light and life in the world, when in actuality, the darkness around Ember is smothering the city like a candle under a glass.

“I have to find something important down there, something that’s going to help. I have to. I just have to.”

Doon’s thoughts to himself end Chapter 3, the first chapter limited to his third-person viewpoint. Doon is complex; he angers easily and shows his frustration in temperamental outbursts, but Doon also envisions himself as a savior to Ember and wants to use his mechanical inclinations to fix the generator. Here, he reveals the quiet desperation about Ember’s impending disaster that motivates his exploration of the Pipeworks.

“Something in this seed knows how to make a bean plant. How does it know that?”

Lina’s friend Clary offers a bit of philosophical comfort to Lina in the Greenhouse after Sadge returns from the Unknown Regions. Clary talks in broad terms about the miracle of life within a seed, unintentionally offering a symbolic interpretation of Ember, a city buried underground to populate the future. The seed also underscores the ways in which Lina’s character is associated with hope and change for Ember and symbolizes new growth and transformation.

“They were hers now; she felt a fierce, defiant joy.”

Lina purchases two expensive colored pencils in Looper’s shop after debating with her conscience over saving the cash for a new coat for Granny. The word choice of “defiant joy” connotes a tone of rebelliousness in the purchase of a luxury item, and DuPrau encourages the reader to wonder when the last time was that Lina might have bought something solely from desire, not necessity. The line also provides clues to Ember’s setting in terms of currency, price, and hoarded goods.

“But I stand here today […] to reassure you. Difficult times will pass. We are mayg effn effuff.”

At a town gathering after the record-breaking seven-minute blackout, Mayor Cole attempts to calm the fearful Emberites. His misleading information and lies are directly symbolized by his messy speech and inarticulate words, made incomprehensible by the crackling, blurring loudspeaker he holds. His attempt to say “We are making every effort” is ironic considering what Lina and Doon later discover: The mayor is accumulating a stash of provisions solely for himself.

“There was something called pineapple, I remember that one especially.”

Lina recalls her grandmother’s words as she waits to see Lizzie in the Supply Depot. The line serves as a clue to the reader that many canned goods in Ember ran out long ago, for Granny is very old. The tone of her words is wistful as she continues about the sweet taste of pineapple. The line also serves as a planted detail for the moment in an upcoming scene when Lina realizes Lizzie is taking advantage of her position and relationship with Looper in stealing rare commodities like pineapple.

“The word door jumped out at her from line 4, whole on its scrap of paper. Lina took a quick breath. A door!”

Lina realizes that a whole word, door, is encapsulated by white space on either side in the line. Combined with her decryption of Pipeworks and riverbank, she plans to find Doon and share the information with him. This moment is an important discovery in the rising action after several complications (Captain Fleery and Lizzie’s inability to help, no answer from the mayor), and helps Lina gain confidence in her own abilities and intelligence.

“The trick was to find a way to make the light last.”

In Doon’s interior monologue, he isolates the biggest problem preventing his quest out of Ember: lack of portable light. With a light that lasts and can be transported, navigating the Unknown Regions becomes a possibility. Readers learn through indirect characterization that Doon is clever, ambitious, and inventive; he is simply completely unaware of the existence of candles or batteries. However, Doon is smart enough to know the right questions to ask to lead him to a solution.

“Every few years, they say, someone falls in. If you fall in, there’s no hope of fishing you out. The river swallows you and sweeps you away.”

Doon is blunt with Lina as she sees the fast-flowing river for the first time. The warning foreshadows that the river will play an important role in the story; it also draws attention to one of the many things folks in Ember say. DuPrau also creates a sense of mystery about the river. The reader might question the validity of this statement, as DuPrau has established that lies, secrets, and theft are rampant in Ember. This narrative strategy indicates the river’s importance to the plot while maintaining a sense of narrative suspense. 

“Though she didn’t want to, she also remembered the evening when her father let out one last short breath and didn’t take another, and the morning a few months later when Dr. Tower emerged from her mother’s bedroom with a crying baby and a face that was heavy with bad news.”

Readers get a rare piece of backstory regarding the loss of Lina’s parents. It is also notable that the same doctor attempts to treat Lina’s Granny; though six or seven years have passed, there is no new doctor, updated treatments, or new medicines. The sad tone of loss foreshadows Granny’s death at the end of the chapter.

“Methodically, as Poppy scratched and scribbled beside her, Lina colored in the space above the buildings, her pencil moving back and forth in short lines, until the entire sky was blue.”

Imagery that involves color is rare in descriptions of Ember, as everything in Ember is dimly lit, old, and overused. Shades of neutrals and grays fill Ember, not bright colors; even most of the vegetables are wilted. The juxtaposition of the blue colored pencil underscores Lina’s role as a symbol of hope, brightness, and color of a new day. Indirectly, Lina’s propensity to think about the strange beauty of a blue sky shows a strong imagination and hints that she is closer to discovering the truth than she assumes.

“He shouldn’t be giving you anything–or selling things. Don’t you think everyone should know about this food he found?”

Lina tries to talk some sensible morals into her friend Lizzie, but Lizzie replies that everyone would fight over the rare canned foods Looper finds. She also connects Looper’s thievery to his store, suggesting that Looper charges unvirtuous amounts of money for special finds. Lizzie represents a youthful, unthoughtful selfishness here, whereas Lina goes home without any goods coming her way. This line and the scene in which it is found contribute to the theme of “The Dichotomy of Selfishness and Selflessness.”

“If this were an ordinary situation, the mayor would be the one to tell.”

Lina and Doon are shocked to learn about Mayor Cole’s greed and wrongdoing. Their discovery increases the stakes of the plot, provides the narrative with a clear antagonist, and shows a loss of innocence in the two main characters. They want badly for adult authorities to handle the problem, so they tell the guard about the mayor’s secret. This line represents a conundrum for Lina and Doon in that as much as they would like some credit in outing the mayor, they also want to abide by the rules of order with which they are familiar.

“It means ‘the way out.’ It means ‘the exit.’ The title of this document is ‘Instructions for Egress.’”

This crucial discovery by Clary sends Lina to Doon, who then move forward together in deciphering the numbered steps. Structurally, this moment initiates the most important sequence of rising action.

“What does ‘Candles’ mean?”

Doon seeks a transportable light for much of the novel, but his search is frustrated by a taboo against fire in Ember and lost knowledge. The light he seeks symbolizes the exciting but steadying illumination of information and knowledge.

“Spreading vicious rumors!”

Doon is incensed to overhear the charge laid upon Lina and him when he eavesdrops on guards looking for him. Situational irony exists with this line and the reactions of other guards, as they are accusing Doon of lying when in fact he and Lina are the only people in all of Ember who seek, watch, and comprehend the truth about their future.

“I’ll deliver it […] I’m the messenger after all.”

The line indicates indirectly how Lina’s increasing resiliency and maturity bloom despite the stressful choice she and Doon must make. Her role as a messenger to the people of Ember is symbolic and significant; that she forgets to follow through with the delivery represents her youthfulness and how much more she has to learn.

“Curiosity […] A dangerous quality. Unhealthy. Especially regrettable in one so young.”

Mayor Cole lectures Lina for attempting to disturb the status quo. Mayor Cole here represents ignorance and avoidance, insisting that Ember’s populace cannot handle the truth. He selfishly decides to keep his citizenry in danger instead of facing the problems of the city with them, then creates lies and propaganda to make his self-serving outlook seem community-oriented. 

“For a second, a picture of herself arriving in the bright city of her dreams flashed into her mind, and then it faded and was gone. She had no idea what lay ahead.”

While Lina’s dreams of a city bathed in light motivated her to decipher the Instructions, she admits here at the start of the journey out that her vision may mean nothing. It is a key moment in her coming-of-age in that Lina’s own courage propels her forward instead of the hopes and dreams of the little girl who drew the city pictures.

“It felt like being swallowed, this rushing through the dark, with the river roaring like a thousand voices.”

Sensory imagery and two similes are notable in this line that describes the feeling of riding the boat down the wild river in the dark. Because of the dark, DuPrau relies on touch, sensation, and sound to get across to the reader what Lina and Doon experience. After a lifetime of walking and running to get around, the boat ride is a sudden and jarring struggle that loosely befits the idea of new birth.

“By the time they are twenty or so, we’ll be gone. They’ll be on their own, making a new world.”

The first-person viewpoint of an unknown older woman is evident in the journal Poppy finds. Lina and Doon learn the truth about the origin of Ember and clues to the past history of the above-ground world they are just beginning to discover. DuPrau employs the journal to introduce a knowledgeable viewpoint character who can bridge the gap of centuries and satisfy her characters’ (and readers’) curiosity.

“I think they will. People find a way through just about anything.”

The pilot of the journal writer’s boat to Ember speaks these prophetic words about those who would eventually discover the egress from the city. His words also apply to the increased hardship the people of Ember withstood when the seventh mayor greedily prevented everyone’s knowledge of the Instructions at the pre-determined time, leading to years of unnecessary shortages, blackouts, and stress.