Previous
Chapter 2
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Among the Hidden, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Propaganda, Fear, and Control
Privilege, Wealth, and Perspective
Protest and Resistance
Coming of Age, Independence, and Family
Summary
Analysis
Luke is on his belly in his attic bedroom, unhappily playing with a toy train. Once, he wanted nothing more than to inherit the train from Mark, but today, Luke just wants to play outside. These days, Luke can’t even be in the room with an open window—Dad shouted so loudly at Luke this morning when Luke peeked outside that Luke almost cried. Remembering this, Luke shoves the train off its tracks.
Luke is beginning to grow up: his train is starting to feel juvenile, and he longs for the outdoors, which to him symbolize independence and freedom. He’s feeling more constricted than usual these days with Dad so upset. And since Dad reacts angrily due to fear, Luke also feels like he’s being attacked for something that isn’t his fault.
Active
Themes
Mark knocks at the door and shouts, “Population Police!” Luke snaps that that isn’t funny, but Mark bounds up the stairs to Luke’s attic bedroom anyway. (Luke has the biggest bedroom in the family, but he’s jealous of his family members’ bedroom windows.) Mark teases Luke for jumping about the Population Police. He’s been joking about the Population Police for years and it doesn’t normally bother Luke, but with Dad so worried, Luke is more anxious than usual. Suddenly serious, Mark says he’s never told anyone about Luke, so Luke is safe. He invites Luke to play checkers, but Luke nastily spits that Mother probably sent Mark up to play. Offended, Mark leaves.
Making jokes about the Population Police shows that Mark doesn’t fully comprehend how much danger Luke is in (this seems a more likely explanation than just being a jerk, since he assures Luke he’s safe). But right now, Luke isn’t willing to accept an apology, especially from someone who seems to lord his good fortune as a legal person over him. This is another indicator that Luke is growing up: he’s starting to see and understand how different his brothers are from him, and he resents that.
Active
Themes
Luke feels bad for being mean, but he paces his room instead of apologizing. As he ducks under the rafters and catches sight of his model car collection, Luke realizes he hates everything in his room. He’ll never get to do anything and will just rot here. What if something happens to Matthew, Mark, Mother, and Dad, and Luke ends up dying in the attic? He’s read books about that sort of thing before.
Active
Themes
As Luke looks up at the roof, he realizes there’s natural light coming in from two vents at either end. Mother always gives Dad a dirty look when he grouses about them—the vents, he insists, make it wasteful to heat the attic at all—but now, Luke climbs onto a trunk by one. Through the vent, Luke can see the road and the cornfield. He moves to the vent at the other end of the roof. From this vent, he can see the area where the woods once stood. There are bulldozers digging, and more people than Luke has ever seen (aside from a starving homeless person who came and asked for food once, Luke has never seen people other than his family members). The sight is overwhelming.
Active
Themes
Get the entire Among the Hidden LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Hearing Mother calling, Luke moves to his bed and tells her she can come in. Mother sits down next to Luke and says she understands how upset he is. Luke considers telling her about the vents, but deciding Dad might take issue with them, Luke keeps quiet. He leans into Mother as she says that things could be worse. This isn’t comforting—it seems like she means that things will get worse.
