City Of Ember Light Analysis

A key symbol in the City of Ember is light. Without light the city would not be able to survive. Doon stated, “The lights go out all the time! And the shortages, there’s shortages of everything! And no one does anything about it, something terrible is going to happen!”(13). Doon worries that the civilians will run out of everything and he is angry because no one realizes it.There is only unnatural light in the city so if the lamps go out the people would not be able to see since they are living underground. Light symbolizes the issues in Ember, and how it is a dystopian society.

Imagery

The City of Ember has a key image of greed. For example, the mayor steals food from the citizens of Ember. Doon declares, “The mayor has a secret treasure room in the pipeworks.”(158). Doon discovered that Mayor Cole was stealing the city's supplies for himself. The mayor is doing things for the wellbeing of himself. We can infer that Mayor Cole is a greedy and selfish person that should not be trusted because of his secrecy. DuPrau is trying to explain that greed is an issue in the city of Ember. Narcissistic people like Mayor Cole, only think about themself and that is not a trait a city leader should posses.

Figurative Language
For example, the children would be hit until they would properly pronounce a word. Jonas recalls, “When the class took their seats at the conclusion of the patriotic hymn, Asher remained standing to make his public apology as was required.” (4). The community is very strict with their language and when something is not perfect they must punish the person by having them apologize to the community for the trouble. Asher had to apologize because he did not meet the expectations of perfection. People need to be different and have some freedom to show their personalities and type of person the are, sadly in this community is far from