The Cost of Revenge

The police brought him back with two broken arms, his face bloody and bruised. Several nights later, I dipped a ball of crushed ice into a can of gasoline ... and lit it. Then I launched it with a slingshot through the window of our local police headquarters. ... I had committed my first perfect crime.

In this quote from Chapter 3 titled “Day,” Day describes the first crime he committed. He was only seven years old. His father came home bloodied and bruised after being questioned by police. Even at seven, Day’s instincts were to retaliate, showing that his rebellious streak is a deeply ingrained part of his personality. Likewise, Day’s cleverness was there from the start. Day’s ingenious idea to use ice in his Molotov cocktail, knowing the ice would melt, made his crime almost untraceable. This will become Day’s trademark—a criminal who is impossible to find. This quote shows not only that Day was initially motivated by revenge but also how that initial act of revenge affected his life. It was just the first of many perfect crimes he committed. The desire for revenge and the need to act out that desire has made Day a criminal.

He’s also left-handed. Interesting. He’s ambidextrous.

June makes this observation in Chapter 4, “June,” when she is investigating the scene of her brother’s murder. June has discovered her brother died less than an hour before. Now, she’s the primary investigator. June is able to put aside her shock and grief quickly and begin her investigation. Yet she is not able to put aside her desire for revenge against her brother’s murderer. In fact, it affects her analysis of the crime scene. She notices that the knife lodged in her brother’s heart was wielded by someone right-handed, but the cover to the sewer where the assailant fled was turned by someone’s left hand. June takes these important details and assumes that the killer was ambidextrous when there were two people at the scene—Thomas, who murdered Metias, and Day, who only threw a knife at Metias and missed. Because June is motivated by revenge, she doesn’t even consider the possibility that there has been a cover-up. In effect, June’s obsession with revenge makes it easy for Jameson and Thomas to manipulate her. 

I will hunt you down. I will scour the streets of Los Angeles for you. Search every street in the Republic if I have to. I will trick you and deceive you, lie, cheat and steal to find you, tempt you out of your hiding place, and chase you until you have nowhere else to run.

In this quote from Chapter 4 titled “June,” June vows to hunt down her brother’s killer. June’s brother, Metias, is all the family she has. After their parents died, Metias stepped up to the role of primary caregiver and looked after June protectively and lovingly. Therefore, when Metias is killed, June’s first instinct is revenge on the person who murdered him. She tells herself she will harness all her skills—trickery, temptation, physical strength—to catch her brother’s killer. Furthermore, she will have no problem resorting to underhanded means, including deception, lying, cheating, and stealing, to avenge his death. June’s vow shows how the strong emotional impulse for revenge can be powerful enough to override any sense of morality or ethics. It can turn a person into a single-minded predator. June’s obsession with revenge becomes the inciting incident that sets her on her journey in the novel.

Logic versus Emotion and Instinct

Maybe Day didn’t kill Metias, I tell myself. Maybe it was someone else. God—am I making excuses to protect this boy now?

Up until this point in Chapter 18 titled “June,” June has been on a successful hunt for Day. She’s managed to locate him on the streets, which was no easy feat. Day is one of the Republic’s most wanted criminals and has evaded capture for years. It is June’s logical mind that has led her to this point. She was able to deduce that he broke into the hospital because someone in his family has the plague and needed a cure. She was also able to conclude that Day lives in the Lake district because he uses the moniker “cousin.” Now, however, June has gotten to know Day better. He is the one who saves her after the Skiz fights and takes her under his wing. June is trying to reconcile the person she is after, the criminal “Legend” who she believes killed her brother, and the person Day, who has shown nothing but kindness to her. June struggles between her logic and instinct, a struggle that will continue.

I have to do something. ... A memory of my seven-year-old self launching the flaming snowball into the police headquarters flickers through my mind.

In this quote from Chapter 21 titled “Day,” Day reveals that he is cornered and desperate. June has betrayed him and ambushed his family. Now Day is on the roof of his family’s home, watching them being dragged out into the street by patrol soldiers. He is running out of time and ways to save them. In a moment of fear and anger, Day has a flashback to the time when he was seven years old and retaliated against the police force for beating his father. Day, who is usually logical, decides to start sling-shotting bullets at the soldiers, a move that clearly will not be enough to subdue the heavily armed force. The act also alerts them to his location. When Day is ordered to reveal himself, he refuses. As a response, Commander Jameson orders Day’s mother to be shot. Day’s choice to act out of emotion rather than logic causes tragedy and loss. 

Logic above all else, I tell myself. Logic will save you when nothing else will.

In this quote, which occurs relatively late in the book in Chapter 26 titled “June,” June reveals that she is losing faith in logic and reason. Up until this point, she has relied on her logic to get her through problems. She has been able to maintain a cool head in most situations, such as when she is ordered to analyze evidence at her brother’s murder scene only minutes after finding out he was dead. There have been many clues indicating that Day is not her brother’s killer, but here June tries to convince herself to follow her logic and not be swayed by a prisoner’s words. Day is trying to tell her about the Republic’s lies, yet June believes that prisoners are prone to lying and so is trying to ignore him. Ironically, Day is speaking the truth. This quote sums up the limitations of June’s relying on “logic” when the Republic has been feeding her misinformation her whole life.

The Harm of Prejudice

I wonder if I can catch the plague from these people, even though I’m vaccinated. Who knows where they’ve been.

June says these words in Chapter 10, “June,” when she is undercover patrolling a poor part of town looking for Day. She has disguised herself with thrift store clothes and scuffed boots, and she has even made sure to tie her laces as a working-class person would. June is disgusted by how filthy the area is. She notices how trash is piled up on the streets and every building is pockmarked and crumbling from continual flooding. This part of town is completely different from the wealthy sector June is from. A group of men passes, catcalling her. For a moment June worries about catching the plague from them because she has no idea where they have been, implying that they are somehow dirty. June judges the men simply because they are poor. She stops herself from continuing her prejudicial thoughts only after remembering that her brother once told her not to judge poor people like that. 

I snort at that. Labor camps. Yeah, right, and the Elector is fairly elected every term, too. This girl either actually believes all that made-up crap or she’s taunting me.

In this quote from Chapter 23 titled, “Day,” Day is being harshly interrogated by June in his cell after his and his family’s capture. June asks him why he chose a life in crime instead of working in the labor camps, like the other kids who failed the Trial. Day scoffs at June. He knows the truth about the labor camps. The kids who fail the test are exterminated, not sent to work. “Labor camps” is just a euphemism the Republic uses for death camps. June is naive and believes the Republic’s lie because it supports what she believes about the poor and those who are not intelligent enough to pass the Trial. Day judges her here, for her gullibility and prejudice. Still, Day does give June the benefit of the doubt by considering whether she is just taunting him. He can reserve some level of judgment.

This dress could’ve bought a kid in the slum sectors several months’ worth of food.

By this point in the novel, in Chapter 24 titled “June,” June has had some eye-opening experiences in her search to capture Day. She’s gotten a first-hand view of the slums that Day grew up in, watched Thomas and her other military colleagues dole out violent punishments and even kill without blinking an eye, endured nights alone on the streets, and engaged in Skiz fights. Her experiences have made her seriously question whether the Republic is indeed such a noble place. June has this quoted thought as she is attending a gala in her honor for capturing Day. She chooses an elaborate corseted dress to wear but is bothered by how expensive it is. She now realizes that the cost of her dress could be used to feed a child in the slum for several months. June’s experiences living on the other side of town have opened her eyes to the plight of people whose lives are different. She has become less prejudiced and more compassionate.

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