Older Does Not Always Mean Wiser

Author’s Note: The purpose of this essay is to critically analyze the theme of “adolescent heroes and ignorant adults” in the novel City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau. I also used of a few key quotes to support how the incompetence of the adults in Ember is a big reason why the kids need to be heroes in this story. I would love to hear any comments from people who have read this novel and/or other stories that share this universal theme.

People often joke that teenagers act like they know more than their parents. However, in many young adult novels, this opinion is proven true. Books like The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan and The Giver, by Lois Lowry focus on the children knowing vastly more than their parents--in fact, these teenagers often are the saviors of their families or society. Such is the case with teenagers Lina and Doon, the main characters in City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau. From the time this underground society was first created, the ignorance of adults is a major cause for the city’s current state of impending doom and complete darkness. This cause is clearly shown through the narrator’s explanation of how all of the mayors have blindly forgotten to take care of the box that held the only set of instructions out of the city until it was lost due to the greed and ignorance of the seventh mayor:. “The box ended up at the back of a closet, shoved behind some old bags and bundles. There it sat, unnoticed, year after year.” (p. 3) This quote is a great example of how, from the beginning, the adults in City of Ember have led the town toward disaster, and, without the logic and courage of the teenagers, the city would have been doomed for total darkness forever.

This story begins by explaining how the incompetence of Ember’s leaders is the reason its in a disastrous situation. Set in a city underground, Ember’s history and and location are unknown to its citizens due to the miscommunication and absent-minded actions of its ancestors. Therefore, when the lights start to go out, no one knows what to do or where to turn for help. All of the adults, including the mayor, act like helpless fools, leaving the fate of the world to teenage Lina and Doon. Everyone blindly believes that the ancestors and the current mayor know all of the answers, trusting in the idea that the city’s elders (and the government) know how to fix anything. This, however, is not the case, as the mayor is quickly shown as a complete idiot, and their past mayors haphazardly lost the one key to survival for Ember: the box with instructions out.

Though it is clear from the start that the naivete of the city’s ancestors is the reason for it’s current dilemma, most of the adults they encounter, including the workers that maintain the generator for the city, certainly add to the opinion that the kids in Ember are smarter and more ambitious than their elders. When Doon first saw this contraption, which was the main reason Ember was able to function, he “wondered if anyone understood how it worked. It looked as if all they were doing was trying to keep it from falling apart.” (p. 47) This quote perpetuates the fact that the kids in the novel are skeptical of how intelligent the adults are in Ember.

While the workers underground aren’t depicted as the brightest bulbs in Ember, Lina’s family isn’t any better. After all, her grandfather was the last one to see the instructions box, and it’s been sitting lost in a junk-filled closet in her house for decades! This not only shows his stupidity, but the carelessness of her parents and Granny, as they hadn’t even bothered to keep their house clean and organized. Even when they did find it, though, no one knew what it was because the mayors never kept track of their most prized possession.

Finally, the clearest example of the adults being irresponsible is the current Mayor. Slowly throughout the novel, Mayor Cole is revealed to be one of the most selfish, daft, and ruthless people in Ember. Not only does he show no ability to do anything for Ember, he keeps resources and valuable information from the citizens for selfish reasons. To keep his secrets and naivete hidden, he even tells Lina that “curiosity [is]... a dangerous quality.” (p. 217) It is clear that he doesn’t have the intelligence to help Ember survive, yet he also is unwilling to reveal this weakness to the citizens--even if it means total darkness and death.

Blind faith and trust in experienced people isn’t always a good thing. While elders tend to have a large amount of wisdom, young adults have the gift of curiosity, seeking logic and answers more than those who unquestioningly believe in their government and traditions. In City of Ember, the idea that teenagers do, actually, know more than their parents is one of the central ideas and is proven through many encounters between Lina and Doon and the adults around them. As the description of what happened to the instructions shows, all hope was lost and forgotten, until it came into the hands of kids. And, once they finally saved Ember and found a way out, it was the kids who, once again, saved their naive elders by becoming their saviors. “Lina took aim at the heart of the city, far beneath her feet. With all her strentgh, she cast the message into the darkness...” (p. 270)