88 pages • 2 hours read
The People of Sparks
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Part 2, Chapters 14-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Travelers and Warriors”
Part 2, Chapter 14 Summary: “What Torren Did”
That night, Mrs. Murdo finds the note Lina left for her. In a rage, Torren runs to the farmlands and throws two crates of tomatoes at a shed, breaking the window and wasting food. Back in town, Dr. Hester runs into Doon and tells him about Lina. He knows she’s just curious, but he’s upset that she went without him. On his way back to The Pioneer, Doon sees the commotion around the ruined tomatoes. The group work leader is blaming the Emberites, and the Emberites are protesting. Torren blames Doon; the group leader believes Torren without a second thought because Torren is from Sparks and Doon is not.
Part 2, Chapter 15 Summary: “A Long, Hot Ride”
Lina emerges from her hiding spot on Caspar’s truck when they stop for the evening. She’s feeling scared, hungry, and doubtful of her decision. It is a five-day journey to the city, not a single day as Lina had thought. Caspar wants to leave Lina behind, but Maddy insists that she’ll be useful and privately assures Lina that she will take care of her. Lina is frightened of the open spaces and the fire. As they are heading to bed, Caspar throws another log on the fire and scatters sparks. One of the sparks burns Lina on the ankle, and despite Maddy’s rudimentary first aid, it hurts Lina all night.
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary: “The Starving Roamer”
As they continue to travel, Caspar, Maddy, and Lina meet a few other roamers. They all advise not to bother with the city. One night, Maddy tells Lina her hometown was “ending” due to poor growing conditions and inner conflict (184). Lina and Maddy connect on this level; both left their crumbling hometowns behind in search of a place to grow. The next day, the group comes across another roamer who begs for food. Caspar refuses, and that night, the roamer returns to steal traveler’s cakes and dump dirt on what he doesn’t take. Maddy grows angry with Caspar, pointing out that he made an enemy of the starving roamer simply by treating him like one. Caspar pays her no attention, instead focusing on his imagined quest in the city to find treasure.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary: “Doon Accused”
Doon and his work group eat another tense lunch at the Parton household. Neither group will take responsibility for the incident with the tomatoes. In the first blatant act of antagonism, someone scrawls “they must go” (197) on the plaza cobblestones. Kenny reveals to Doon that the leaders of Sparks are knowingly setting the Emberites up for failure. That night, a soot-stained Tick wakes up everyone in the Pioneer to show them more vandalism, this time written in ash on the front of the hotel: “go back to your cave” (203). Tick tells the Emberites that the people of Sparks hate them, but that the Emberites won’t leave quietly.
“The Second Town Meeting” Summary
The town leaders meet again to try to figure out how to improve the situation. Ben is aggressively hostile toward the refugees from Ember, Mary is pragmatic, and Wilmer simply wants things to improve. Ben decides that the Emberites will no longer eat lunch with the families from Sparks; they will instead take their rations and eat elsewhere.
Part 2, Chapters 15-17 Analysis
This section explores the idea that perceptions and treatment of others can shape their actions. DuPrau also continues to discuss the idea of violence and retribution as cycles that can only be broken by making the difficult choice to respond with kindness.
The divide between the Emberites and the people of Sparks continues to deepen, culminating in an act of vandalism that is blamed on a member of the opposing group. The fact that the townspeople believe Torren without proof is an example of a powerful confirmation bias against the “others.” The people of Sparks have believed that the Emberites are thoughtless and destructive since the beginning, so they are quick to accept any evidence that supports their viewpoint, no matter how tenuous. We see this in the interaction between Doon and the group leader when Torren blames his destruction on Doon.
When Caspar turns away the starving roamer, Maddy tells Caspar that he “turned [the roamer] into an enemy” (192) simply by treating him like one. Caspar pays no attention to Maddy’s chastisement. This mirrors the relationship between Ember and Sparks; the people of Sparks have always mistrusted and resented the Emberites, so they treat the outsiders like bad people. In turn, this treatment leads the Emberites to lash out, effectively becoming the people that the citizens of Sparks have cast them as. Here, Maddy gives voice to a pervasive problem, both in the current world and in the world of the past—the world of violence and war.
Maddy also tells Lina about revenge and retribution in this section of the novel. Lina repeatedly returns to her conversations with Maddy throughout the rest of the novel, referencing them while she and Doon are trying to figure out what to do about Tick’s threats of violence and Sparks’ threats of eviction. That Tick is covered in ash is the reader’s first clue that Tick is the one inciting disagreements between the two peoples by vandalizing the town. DuPrau uses dramatic irony here, in that the reader understands Tick’s true nature while the characters do not, to show the reader small falsehoods can have devastating results.
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