Legend: Themes | SparkNotes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Cost of Revenge

Revenge is a powerful motivator for both Day and June. Day is motivated to avenge his family’s treatment in the hands of the law, and June is motivated to avenge her brother Metias’s death. Revenge sets both characters into motion and leads them down a similar destructive path. For Day, his retaliation starts early, when he throws a fireball into a police station at age seven to avenge his father’s beating. For June, rebelliousness is only something she does for fun, to keep from being bored at school, where she is far ahead of her peers. June has nothing to avenge in her early years because she lives a life of privilege and ease. Revenge, therefore, takes hold of June more strongly because it’s a new feeling for her. June’s obsession with hunting down her brother’s killer makes her vulnerable to Commander Jameson and Thomas, who manipulate her to keep her from suspecting them. It’s only when June releases her feelings of revenge that she can see things more clearly and heal herself emotionally. For Day, revenge motivates him to make a rash move that leads to his mother’s death. In the novel, the desire for revenge destroys both the lives around a person and the person themselves.

Logic versus Emotion and Instinct

The pull between logic on one hand and emotion and instinct on the other plays a central role in the novel, most notably within June, one of the novel’s main protagonists. June prides herself on being logical. She is the Republic’s only prodigy who has scored a perfect 1500 on the Trial. When June is asked to investigate her brother’s murder, she suppresses her emotions so that she can investigate with reason and a cool, level head. June values logic above everything else because she feels she can depend on it more than anything else. She has been taught that emotions are untrustworthy and that one should never be led by emotions alone. Throughout the novel, however, June’s emotions and instincts tell her that everything might not be as it seems. Day’s caring behavior is at odds with what she’s been led to believe about him by the media—that he's a dangerous, ruthless criminal. In addition, the people she’s always trusted, like Thomas, are showing themselves to be ruthless murderers. In the end, June’s emotions and instincts turn out to be right. Logic, the novel shows, is not always the way to the truth.

The Harm of Prejudice

Prejudice and the harm they cause form a central theme in the novel, in both sectors of the Republic—poor and rich. Day, who comes from the poor sector, has disdain for everyone in the government, which manipulated, lied, and cheated his family out of a decent life. For June, who has grown up wealthy and privileged, the slums are full of unintelligent people dirty with the plague. Thomas, who grew up poor, has turned his back on his beginnings, claiming that people who don’t rise in society like him must be lazy when in fact, it was hard work and luck that got him help, from Metias. In the end, Day and June find that they have both been deceived. Day learns that not all government officials are bad, and June learns that the poor have it much harder than she ever imagined. She believed the Republic’s lies and never questioned its claims about, for example, the labor camps. June has been told that kids who fail the Trial are sent to perform labor in camps; in reality, these are places where the children are put to death. Through meeting each other and seeing what people on the other side are actually like, Day and June overcome their prejudices to form more complex opinions of the world around them.

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