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Chapters 21 & 22 

Summary: Chapter 21, Day

Day races home. Without enough time to come up with a plan, he simply barges into the house. Day’s mother, who thinks Day has been dead for years, is shocked and confused. Day tells his family they all need to leave immediately because the plague patrol is coming for them. Eden appears to have grown seriously ill, and his eyes are dark with blood. They all hide under the porch, but Day decides to climb to the roof to get a better view. He notices there are far more trucks than usual for a routine plague check and that some of the members are dressed in official uniforms. 

Day also notices June among the crowd. In a moment of recognition, Day has a flashback to the eyes of the soldier he confronted at the break-in at the hospital earlier and realizes June has the same eyes. Day now knows June works for the government. Angry he let this happen, Day watches in horror as the soldiers pull his family from the floorboards. He starts sling-shotting bullets at some soldiers. June orders him to desist, promising that no one will get hurt, but Commander Jameson steps in impatiently and orders Thomas to shoot Day’s mother before Day can react. 

Summary: Chapter 22, June

Day jumps off the roof in agony, rushing toward his mother. Commander Jameson shoots Day in the thigh. Day is then taken into custody. Aghast, June asks Commander Jameson why she had Day’s mother shot. Jameson brushes her off, laughing, saying she didn’t want to spend all night negotiating with Day. Thomas congratulates June, but all June can think of is how easily he just committed cold-blooded murder and carried out Jameson’s command without thinking. Furthermore, June is disgusted to see how no one seems to be taking care of Day’s mother, who is bleeding out on the ground. June wants to be happy she avenged her brother’s death, but she can’t. 

Analysis: Chapters 21 & 22 

Chapters 21 and 22 form the crescendo point of Part One. June has discovered that the boy who has been helping her—and who she’s been falling for—is, in fact, Day. Day has discovered that one of his family members has the plague, as he feared. Furthermore, Day loses his mother, a devastating blow. The family he’s been working so hard to protect is now shattered. 

Several of the main themes of the novel crescendo here. One theme, of the pull between logic on one side and emotion and instinct on the other, reaches a pitch for both June and Day. For June, logic is to be placed above all. She has been able to put aside her growing emotions for Day to bring him to justice. Despite watching him demonstrate all the qualities of a caring, loving, and selfless person, June makes the call to Thomas to send in the patrol members to capture Day and his family. She truly believes she is doing the right thing.

Day, who normally demonstrates more of a balance between logic and emotion, falters when he lets his sense of revenge get the better of him. Day survives on the streets so long and manages to avoid capture by the Republic so long because he’s intelligent and uses his sharp reasoning skills. Nothing escapes his eye, and he can surmise situations on the spot, as when he identified June by her Canto knot. However, after meeting June, Day’s emotions begin to be stirred. Even though he knows it’s a bad idea, he leads with his heart and kisses June. Day takes a risk, a risk that June may not have made because she’s not used to taking risks with herself or her heart. When Day becomes cornered at his family’s house, with no way to defend himself or his family, he acts rashly. He knows it’s illogical to slingshot bullets at the police, who far outnumber him and will easily overcome him. This rash act out of a sense of revenge leads to his mother’s death.  

The novel shows how both blindly relying on logic and indulging intense emotions can have bad consequences. June, by following her logic slavishly, leads an innocent boy to capture. She ignores her instincts, which are beginning to tell her that Day is more complex than he appears and may not have been the one to have murdered her brother. After all, she knows that Day never kills his victims. At the other extreme, June’s overwhelming desire for revenge leaves her vulnerable to manipulation by Thomas and Commander Jameson. They know they are using June to lead Day into a trap, which will help cover up their murder of Metias. By indulging his emotions, Day leaves himself vulnerable to June and his family’s attackers.

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