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Chapters 28–32 

Summary: Chapter 28, June

June and Thomas watch the riots. June can’t believe how many people have shown up. Thomas insults the rioters, saying they’ve chosen a poor hero in Day. He cruelly remarks how Day will be dead in a few days and that the protesters’ efforts are in vain. June remains quiet. She notices that some soldiers are carrying guns to disperse the crowds instead of tear gas and dust bombs. June realizes in horror that Jameson has sent the soldiers to kill the protesters, not subdue them. Just then, Thomas gives an order for the soldiers to fire at will. June tries to interfere, but Thomas shoves her to the ground. Over 100 protesters are killed. 

Summary: Chapter 29, Day

Thomas comes into Day’s cell to interrogate him. He shows Day photos of people who are suspected to be Patriots and asks Day to identify them. Day tells him he would never help the man who killed his mother, but he doesn’t know the people anyway. Day works alone and has no affiliation with the Patriots. He does recognize Kaede, however. Showing little emotion, Thomas ends the session in frustration. Day taunts Thomas to get a rise out of him, calling him a coward and saying he should fight Day like a man. Thomas punches Day, exclaiming that he was out of line for trying to kiss June, someone far outside his rank. Day now realizes Thomas is jealous of him. Day taunts him more, and Thomas beats him again. 

Summary: Chapter 30, June

Thomas goes to June’s apartment later that night to apologize. June refuses to let him in, disgusted that he carried out the orders to kill the protesters. She falls asleep on the couch reading Metias’s journals and has a dream that Day holds her hands, swearing he did not kill her brother. Waking up, June considers the idea that Day might be telling the truth. She reviews the crime scene photos and notices that they were all taken at an odd angle so that Metias’s wound can’t be seen clearly. June realizes that Commander Jameson is likely trying to cover something up. She also observes that the knife in Metias’s heart has rifle grease on it. She remembers that the night Thomas brought her to the crime scene, he had rifle grease smudged on his forehead. 

Summary: Chapter 31, Day

June visits Day in his cell. This time, she asks for the surveillance cameras to be turned off. June asks Day if he killed Metias. Day confirms he did not. June collapses in tears, knowing in her heart Day is right. Day wants to hold her. He suggests that they have a common enemy and should help each other. June, still confused, hands Day back his pendant. He remembers how one day his father, who had secret ties to the Colonies, returned from work with a U.S. quarter from 1990 he found in a swamp. The coin proves that the Republic and the Colonies were once one, a fact the Republic denies to stay in power. The coin, now dangerous, was made into a pendant for Day to make it less conspicuous. Day’s father disappeared shortly after. 

Summary: Chapter 32, June

Thomas asks June about her secret meeting with Day. June replies she’s just trying to understand her brother’s killer. Thomas suggests she stop seeing Day to preserve her emotional health. Later that night, June pores over Metias’s journals again. This time, she notices several misspelled words, which grab her attention because Metias was too intelligent to make such simple mistakes. She figures out the misspellings form an anagram that leads to a secret website with entries Metias wrote for June. They detail how Metias discovered that their parents were killed by the Republic. They were murdered after their father, a medical researcher, discovered that the Republic engineers the plague and spreads it intentionally to the poor sectors. It also deliberately infects children who fail the Trial to test new strains to be used against the Colonies. Metias wrote that Thomas found out what he knows. June doesn’t report for duty the next day, and she turns Thomas away when he comes to check on her, saying she isn’t feeling well. Disgusted with newfound contempt for the Republic, June vows to help Day escape. 

Analysis: Chapters 28–32 

Just as Legend has two main protagonists—Day and June—it also pairs two main antagonists, Commander Jameson and Thomas. Jameson, however, is far more a one-sided flat character than Thomas. Commander Jameson is a symbol of pure totalitarian authority. Lu doesn’t give much opportunity for readers to sympathize with her. The commander is impatient, does not like to be criticized, and tortures and murders without a blink of an eye. When Jameson orders Day’s mother to be shot, she simply laughs and explains that it was quicker to just kill Day’s mother to lure him out rather than waiting all day to negotiate with him. When protesters gather to demonstrate against Day’s arrest and upcoming execution, she simply orders them to be killed rather than using tear gas or some other nonlethal method to disperse them. Jameson is, above all, expedient—humanity be damned. She is also a character who demonstrates what happens when authority has too much power. The result is an inhumane, compassionless view of reality that values practicality and power over human life and emotion.

Thomas is more complex than Commander Jameson, both as a person and as an antagonist. Thomas holds his position in society as a badge of honor. He not only holds it: he clenches it. Thomas is extremely disciplined, so much so that June envies him for his ability to endure. He grew up poor and had to work hard to gain an opportunity to become a member of the wealthy class. Thomas does not question the Republic’s authority because he realizes the opportunities the Republic has given him. More importantly, he knows what it is like to live outside of the Republic’s upper classes—the desperation, suffering, and poverty. For these reasons, it may be easier for the reader to understand and in some cases even sympathize with Thomas. No reader could feel the same way about Commander Jameson.

Through Metias, however, the novel shows how an inner moral compass can allow one to withstand the seductive forces of wealth, power, and aversion to struggle. Metias has been given a lot of opportunities by the Republic and stands to lose a lot if he rebels against it. He holds a high position in the military and came from wealthy parents. He strives to carry out his duties in the military honorably and be a loyal citizen of the Republic. Metias doesn’t allow his loyalty to his government, however, to supersede his moral judgment. As he tells June earlier in the novel, breaking the rules is sometimes acceptable. Metias carries a healthy degree of skepticism about law and order, guided by his moral insight. 

Thomas, in contrast, isn’t willing to risk his position, at any cost. As June suspects, Thomas is the one who killed Metias. Even though Metias is his friend, and is the one who allowed Thomas to be a part of the military, Thomas doesn’t let that stop him from carrying out Jameson’s orders to kill his friend. Thomas fails to let his moral compass, if he has one, guide him. He’s more scared of losing his position in society than losing his humanity. Thomas’s character shows how tightly the poor may hold onto position if and when they happen to attain it. The harsh realities of poverty can make one morally vulnerable and corrupt one’s spirit, just as the extravagances of wealth and power can to those like Jameson. Wealth, power, and aversion to struggle are all capable of making a person willing to lose their humanity to hold onto what they have.

In these chapters, the novel sharply criticizes technology, specifically the abuse of technology to enhance power. Technology not only affords the Republic greater advances in warfare like the electro-bomb, which can be used to control the population, but it also makes members of the society more vulnerable to exposure and tracking. Metias, for all his semblance of being a law-abiding member of the Republic, knows the value of maintaining privacy in a totalitarian society. An expert hacker, he tells June at the beginning of the novel that anything online can be traced and compromised. Once Metias stumbles upon information about how his mother and father were killed by the Republic, he knows he must find a way to communicate this to his sister without being traced. Metias’s journals, written with simple paper and pen, become the tool by which Metias can communicate with his sister in code. Old technology like paper and pen, therefore, maintain some power over more advanced technology, which is made at once invincible and vulnerable by its pervasiveness.

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