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
As the city of Ember is being built, the head Builder sits down with his assistant and discuss that the city’s future residents can’t leave for at least 200 years. The chief builder tells his assistant that they can’t know for sure that it’ll be long enough, but they’ll leave instructions for how to leave the city with the mayor in a box with a timed lock. The box will open at the appointed time. They decide not to tell the mayor what’s in the box, just to keep the box safe until it opens. Though the assistant is concerned the plan won’t work, the head builder insists that nothing about this endeavor is certain—there might not be a world for people to return to, anyway.
This conversation between these two Builders lets the reader in on the fact that Ember—the city they’re talking about—was created for a reason. However, it’s extremely important to keep this reason secret, which introduces the idea that censorship is an intrinsic part of Ember, whether future generations realize it or not. In this case, however, it seems that censorship isn’t a bad thing since it’s implied that those living in Ember are being protected from a dangerous outside world.
Themes
Things go as planned for many years and the mayors pass the box on to their successors. The seventh mayor, however, is dishonorable. When he comes down with the coughing sickness, he attacks the box, believing it contains a secret to the cure. He only manages to dent it and dies before he can pass it on. The box ends up in the back of a closet where it sits forgotten. One day, the box clicks open.
The first six honorable mayors show that, for the most part, those in charge of caring for Ember are good people who believe in the importance of doing the right thing. However, the consequence of the seventh mayor’s greed is that future mayors aren’t given the important instructions about the box.
Themes
