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Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The City of Ember, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age
Selfishness, Greed, and Corruption
Family and Community
Censorship
Summary
Analysis
Doon hurries to Lina when he sees her. Lina asks him to come right away to look at her document, since it has to do with the Pipeworks. He agrees. At Lina’s apartment, Lina is surprised to see the yarn shop closed. Upstairs, Mrs. Murdo explains that Granny doesn’t fell well and is asleep. In Lina’s room, she feels self-conscious as Doon looks around at the pot with the bean seed, her disorganized messes, and her drawings of the imaginary city on the wall. Doon asks about the pictures and shares that he draws pictures of insects he finds. Lina doesn’t think this is interesting, but says nothing. She directs Doon’s attention to the box on top of the document.
Lina’s choice to not say anything to Doon about his uninteresting bug drawings shows again that she’s a kind individual, which allows her to rekindle her friendship with Doon rather than pushing him away with her rudeness. Censoring herself, in this case, leads to more meaningful connections, showing that censorship has its place, especially in situations like this where saying the wrong thing could leave Lina even more alone in the world.
Themes
Doon inspects the box, but Lina motions to the paper underneath. She tells him that she thinks it’s called “Instructions for Egreston” or something similar and says that she wrote to Mayor Cole about it, but the mayor doesn’t seem interested. When Doon says nothing, Lina points to the few words she can decipher—Pipeworks, river, and door—and says she thinks they’re instructions to reach another place. Doon is confused about the mention of a small steel pan, but he agrees that the document is important. Lina is relieved and says that she knows now that things are as bad as Doon said they were on Assignment Day. He admits that he found a door, but it’s nowhere near the river. Lina insists it has to be the door out of Ember. Doon is unconvinced, but he agrees to sneak Lina into the Pipeworks after work the next day.
That Lina leaps on Doon’s discovery of a door that doesn’t make sense—either in terms of how the Pipeworks works, or really, in terms of whatever the Instructions are setting out—is, first and foremost, an indicator of how little Lina understands about the Pipeworks. While she may know intellectually that they’re as big as Ember itself, it’s telling that she jumps on this one door as being the right one when, in all likelihood, there are others. Doon again looks like the sensible, pragmatic one, while Lina looks childishly idealistic.
Themes
The next afternoon, Lina rushes to the Pipeworks and accepts a slicker and boots from Doon. Doon leads her down and Lina is dumbstruck by the sight of the river. He leads her to the appropriate tunnel, assures her they’ll be fine without lights, and shows her where to put her hands out and feel the door and its keyhole. They rattle the knob, but it won’t budge. The turn to go, but they hear scraping nearby and race out of the tunnel and around the corner. They hear more thudding, scraping, and muffled words—and then the sound of a key turning. Lina and Doon peer around the corner. They hear the door closing again and hide from the quick footsteps. When they peek, they see an untidy, lurching figure walking away. He looks vaguely familiar.
When Lina’s reaction to the river is so similar from Doon’s, it shows again that the people of Ember are seriously cut off from the natural world—they don’t understand it and so it’s scary for them. The reader will likely remember that Lina described Looper, the man whom she carried a message for, as “lurching.” Using that term to describe this person, then, suggests that this is Looper. He’s clearly doing something secret, which should raise the reader’s suspicions about his motivations. This encourages the reader to start asking these questions, along with Lina and Doon.
Themes
Lina and Doon leave the Pipeworks and sit on a bench. They reason that someone got there first, and that whoever got into the room walked as though they were looking for something and then found what they were looking for. Doon is confused, though, as he’s certain that the man doesn’t work in the Pipeworks, and therefore shouldn’t have a key. Doon says that regardless, this man got there first and he’ll be a hero for finding the way out and saving Ember. He sits glumly and says that it really doesn’t matter who figures it out first, but he’d hoped it would be himself and Lina. They decide to wait for an announcement and Doon mutters that the room is probably just a supply closet, but Lina isn’t convinced. Even if it’s not the door out of Ember, she’s certain that it’s somehow connected to the mystery.
Keep in mind that Lina and Doon’s interpretation of what they heard is majorly colored by what it is they’re looking for (a way out of Ember). Because they’re so intent on finding the way out, it’s inconceivable to them, at this point, that Looper found something that doesn’t fit in with this worldview. Doon’s glumness that he and Lina won’t be Ember’s heroes suggests that although Doon definitely cares about others, he also longs for glory and recognition—and in the future, may make decisions that ultimately hurt him as he tries to construct situations that will give him glory.
Themes
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