Jeanne Duprau's The City Of Ember

Often times people describe the end of the world as the sky falling down or the sun never rising. But would that still be so bad if the dark was all you ever knew? Perhaps The City Of Ember—a 270 page long dystopian fantasy novel by Jeanne Duprau—could help you figure out your answer. The book was published by Yearling in May, 2003. This novel is set in (you guessed it) a city called Ember, where the sky is black and there is no sun. The only source of light for the people living there is the streetlights, which are only lit during the daytime. The beginning of the book is during the 541th year of Ember’s existence. They don’t keep time with months in Ember, simply the year.
The main characters in The City Of Ember are Lina Mayfleet and Doon …show more content…
There had been blackouts, power failures, such problems with the streetlights before, but only for mere seconds. This one was seven minutes, and since Ember has no natural light, those seven minutes contain nothing but darkness. This starts a panic for all the citizens of Ember, and it makes Lina reconsider what Doon told her about the generator failing; “She understood now that Doon had been speaking the truth on assignment day.” (Duprau 85) She comes home to discover her sister chewing on pieces of paper, and she takes them away from Poppy when she sees the writing on them. Unfortunately, Lina finds it difficult to piece together the torn and chewed up pieces of paper to find out the message. However, she decides to continue piecing them together with help from Doon. Soon, they discover that the message is some type of instructions and, with help from another friend of hers, Lina finds out the instructions are for exiting Ember. These instructions lead Lina and Doon to to the pipeworks, where they open the wrong door and find the mayor, sleeping, in a room of stolen supplies. Disgusted, they report this to the guards. This plan backfires, as the city decides to lay criminal charges on Lina and Doon for starting a rumor about the mayor. Doon manages to escape, but Lina is caught and imprisoned. However, a blackout enables her to flee, and she goes to her house to get Poppy, and then meets Doon at the pipeworks to leave the city. They canoe across the river, ends at a steep wall that they must climb. This leads them to a place with a blue sky, grass and a bright light from the sky. “But with this silver lamp in the sky, maybe they don’t need lights.” (Duprau 254) This is the first time they ever see the sun. They walk for awhile, trying to find people, and then stumble upon a hole in the ground. From this hole, they can see Ember, with its flickering streetlights glowing yellow. Lina considers shouting, but they agree