The city of Ember

Jeanne DuPrau

By Matija

The main conflict in the novel “The city of Ember” is that the city is getting quite delapidated meaning it’s losing its resources and falling apart. Without resources Ember will soon be destroyed. Lack of food and light makes a normal life impossible. The conflict is man vs. society.

Lina faces many obstacles along the journey. The first one is that she cannot decipher the letter she feels is important for the survival of the city. She asks friends for help and one of them realizes the letter was instructions from the builders how to find the exit from Ember. With the help of her friend Doon Lina deciphers the whole letter which leads two of them to face another obstacle that are devious city guards looking for them with sham accusations.

Lina and Doon were deciphering the letter for number of days. They realize the answer is in the pipeworks so Doon explores it every day. When they finally decipher the instructions Doon finds the E letter in the pipeworks so they go together to search for the exit around that area. Along the way they find a mystery door. The next day Doon finds out the Major of the city is sitting behind that door in the room full of canned food delicacies the citizens of Ember haven’t seen for a number of years. Doon and Lina decide to report to the main guard that Major is stealing supplies from the citizens thinking he will be sent to jail. They find the door mentioned in the instructions and figure out that the way to escape is by a canoe down the river. On the day Lina and Doon planed to go out of the city the guards start looking for them. Lina gets caught by the guards which threatens their plan for escape.