The City of Ember

by

Jeanne DuPrau

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The City of Ember: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
The next day, everyone in Ember gets off work at noon so they can practice for the Singing. It’s a slow morning, so Lina sits at her station and thinks of Mayor Cole gorging himself on peaches and hoarding light bulbs. She wonders if he’ll enjoy sitting in his lit room when the rest of the light bulbs run out, and thinks that when the power does go out for good, his light bulbs won’t save him. Like Looper, he must want to live well while he can. Lina wonders if the guards will announce the mayor’s arrest at the Singing. After a while, Lina moves to an alley and studies the Instructions. Doon finds her there, right after coming up from the Pipeworks, and shares that he found the E. Doon pulls out the spare Pipeworks key and they decide to go check it out.
Here, Lina identifies the pointlessness of corruption, given Ember’s situation—light bulbs and food won’t do much for Mayor Cole in the long run, given what else is wrong in Ember. Piecing this together allows Lina to reaffirm her commitment to helping her community over helping just herself, as she’s able to see that the cans of peaches are pointless if, in Ember’s dark and dangerous future, that’s all they have.
Themes
Coming of Age Theme Icon
Selfishness, Greed, and Corruption Theme Icon
Family and Community Theme Icon
Quotes
Lina and Doon don’t grab boots or slickers, reasoning that wherever they’re going won’t be spurting water like the Pipeworks tunnels. Doon leads Lina along the river to where it ends and points out the E on a rock. He then lies on his stomach and hangs his head over the edge. From there, he can see metal bars bolted to the sheer rock face, down to what must be a ledge. Doon goes first and then calls for Lina. It’s terrifying climbing down, but Doon shouts encouragingly until Lina reaches the ledge. There, they find a space carved out of the wall with a door in the back. They puzzle over the next few instructions and get stuck on the mention of a “small steel pan,” but when they look to the right of the door, they find a small steel panel. Inside is a key.
Lina and Doon’s reasoning suggests that they’re both still pretty idealistic about what they’re going to find in the Pipeworks; there’s little evidence, from what Doon has described, that any part of the Pipeworks is in good repair. Lina is reminded again that she can trust Doon to help her, which he does by encouragingly talking her down the ladder. When they both look around the door and don’t get sucked into what exactly the directions say about the small steel pan, it shows that they’re learning to gather information from a variety of sources.
Themes
Coming of Age Theme Icon
Selfishness, Greed, and Corruption Theme Icon
Lina unlocks the door. There’s nothing inside but darkness, and no sign of a light switch. Cautiously, Lina and Doon step into the darkness, wondering if they have to walk out of Ember through a dark tunnel. Lina yelps when she hits two metal boxes, while Doon bumps into something big and curved. Doon helps Lina carry the boxes into the light. They open easily but the contents are disappointing: one is full of smooth rods with string on one end labeled “candles,” while the other is full of short wooden sticks with blobs on one end labeled “matches.” Doon wonders if he’s supposed to write with a match, so he tries to write on the Instructions and then on his arm.
Watching Lina and Doon struggle with candles and matches may be somewhat humorous for the reader, but their struggle drives home the very real consequences of censorship: Lina and Doon don’t understand that they’re holding the one thing that doesn’t exist in Ember (moveable light), and which will enable them to leave the dying city.
Themes
Censorship Theme Icon
Lina suggests he tries writing on the white stuff in the lid of the box. When Doon does, the match bursts into flame and he throws it in surprise. Lina lights a match too, but is only able to hold it for a minute. They’re excited, but confused as to how these useless fire sticks are supposed to save Ember. They wonder if the candles are match holders and painstakingly tie a candle’s string around a match and light it. To their surprise, the string catches fire. The candles, they realize, are moveable light. With a candle, they return to the dark room and inspect the large, rounded, metal object there. One end is pointed and the other is flat, and there are two poles in it. The thing is labeled “BOAT” and the poles are labeled “PADDLES.”
It’s important to keep in mind through all of this that had everything gone according to the Builders’ plan, this process wouldn’t be so painful and so late—they planned specifically for a future in which censoring methods of making moveable light would no longer be necessary. This drives home one of the novel’s main ideas: that censorship must inevitably come to an end, whether on purpose by those doing the censoring or by accident because those who are censored get curious and ask questions.
Themes
Censorship Theme Icon
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The City of Ember PDF
Lina checks the instructions and identifies part of the word “boat.” The next line says something about ropes and going down something. Doon realizes that the directions say to lower the boat with ropes and head downstream. The boat, they understand, is something to ride in: the way out of Ember is on the river.
Leaving via the river will dramatically reconnect Ember’s residents with the natural world and show them that while the river is something to fear, it’s also something that will very literally give them life as they leave the city.
Themes
Censorship Theme Icon