Censorship Theme Analysis

All of Ember’s residents learn the history of their city in school. They are told simply that, years ago, the Builders built Ember to last, with everything it would need to do so. For many in Ember, this knowledge is more than enough—it means that they should, in theory, be able to trust that the Builders left them enough food, light bulbs, and other supplies to live comfortably, presumably for the rest of time. However, unbeknownst to the residents of Ember, censorship and the control of information have been a part of Ember’s fabric from its very beginning, resulting in an underground society that is wholly disconnected from its history and from the knowledge that could save it from impending eternal darkness. Though the novel makes the case that this original instance of censorship was necessary to preserve the human race in the face of some sort of disaster aboveground, it nevertheless argues that censorship comes at a dangerous cost: in this case, inaction, complacency, and blind trust in leaders who continue to censor the population.

In Ember, there’s only one school, and all students—who only attend school until age 12—learn the same things, primarily from The Book of the City of Ember, the history of the city compiled and provided by the historical Builders. As far as anyone in Ember knows, The Book of the City of Ember contains all there is to know. It talks about the city’s history and how society is supposed to function. However, what the book doesn’t answer are any questions about why the Builders built Ember in the first place, how electricity works, or how plants grow from hard, seemingly lifeless seeds—all the things necessary to truly understand what Ember is and how it functions. Instead, the book asks residents of Ember to simply trust that everything is going to be okay, something that becomes increasingly difficult as rumors of light bulb shortages circulate and power outages become longer and more frequent.

In the absence of any of this knowledge, and in light of the very clear signs that everything is not fine in Ember, some people—including Lina and Doon—begin to ask these questions and search for answers themselves. Some people begin trying to construct portable light sources (flashlights and purposeful fire are unheard of in Ember) to explore the dark and uninhabited tunnels leading away from Ember to find a way to another city. Others, like the spiritual group known as the Believers, do little but sing and preach that the Builders will eventually return to save Ember. While the novel overwhelmingly suggests that this kind of curiosity displayed by many of Ember’s residents is a normal part of being human, it also shows how the government, led by Mayor Cole, does everything in its power to stifle questions and keep the population as benign as the Believers’ singing. One of Mayor Cole’s guards even tells Lina that “Curiosity leads to trouble,” a sentiment that authority figures echo again and again in attempts to convince everyone that they have the situation under control.

While the current situation in Ember is inarguably bleak because of the role of censorship, the novel also shows that censorship can, in certain circumstances, be somewhat beneficial. Censorship in Ember was supposed to come to an end a few decades before the novel begins, when a box that was supposed to be in the mayor’s possession opened to reveal instructions for leaving Ember. Further, after Lina and Doon do manage to decipher the Instructions and leave Ember, it becomes clear that it was absolutely essential to restrict knowledge of fire and electricity that might enable someone to create a torch or a flashlight, since the route out is not through the surrounding tunnels as many suspect—exploring further into those tunnels could’ve needlessly put people in danger while searching for a route that wasn’t there. The Builders’ original censorship efforts, then, can be read as efforts to essentially sacrifice knowledge and free thought for several generations for what the Builders hoped would be the good of humanity. The novel suggests that this is a more or less acceptable use of censorship; the real issue, Lina and Doon discover, is with Mayor Cole’s attempts to curb the citizens’ curiosity and his own, decades after Ember’s residents should’ve left the city.

With this, The City of Ember suggests that when it comes to censorship, what makes it acceptable or not is one’s intentions. Whereas Mayor Cole and his cronies seek to silence Lina and Doon so they can continue profiting while others starve, with no consideration as to how to solve Ember’s problems, the Builders instituted censorship in Ember to save humanity and planned for the day when censorship would no longer be useful or necessary. Though it’s still possible to take issue with the Builders’ actions despite their good intentions, The City of Ember nevertheless makes the case that censorship attempts, no matter their origins or intentions, will inevitably come to an end—curiosity, fueled by responsibility to one’s community, will always lead to more information and, hopefully, the truth.