104 pages • 3 hours read
Marissa MeyerCinder
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 17-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary
Awakening to the knowledge that Peony’s plague has progressed to stage three, and experiencing physical discomfort from moving the gasoline-powered car to the parking garage the previous night, Cinder goes to the quarantine area to visit Peony.
Cinder locates Peony, who exhibits symptoms of the disease. Cinder covers her with blanket, and while looking at the child in the nearby bed, returns her gaze to Peony, who wants to go home. Peony looks for signs of the plague on Cinder, assuming her presence in the quarantine indicates her letumosis illness. Cinder explains her immunity to Peony and the hope of finding an antidote. Peony conveys other desires to Cinder: a portscreen to communicate with her mother and sister, and the desire to attend the ball and meet the prince. Peony says, “I love you, Cinder. I’m glad you’re not sick” (150).
While leaving Peony and the quarantine, Cinder stops at the sound of her name being called. Chang Sacha—the baker from the market—asks Cinder to bring her son, then dies after relaying her request. Following Chang Sacha’s death, Cinder observes what happens to those who die of the plague: a med-droid removes their ID chip, leaving the person without an identity.
Chapter 18 Summary
Cinder’s attempt to leave the quarantine is first obstructed by a med-droid that assumes Cinder is ill. Following the med-droid’s testing of her blood—and initial fear that her blood may indicate letumosis—Cinder is deemed free of the plague and allowed to leave. She makes her way to New Beijing Palace for her second day as a research participant.
Cinder’s elevator ride includes one other passenger—Prince Kai. He is also en route to visit Dr. Erland. She learns of the emperor’s passing and offers her condolences. Prince Kai requests that Cinder refer to him as only Kai. He mentions another piece of bad news—the arrival of Queen Levana—and requests that Cinder expedite the fixing of his android, Nainsi. Cinder wonders, “What information could that android have that was so important?” (161).
Kai and Cinder reach Dr. Erland’s office, and at Kai’s disappointment, Dr. Erland maintains that he does not yet possess solid information regarding a letumosis cure. Prior to leaving, Kai asks Cinder to accompany him to the ball. Cinder declines, knowing that as a cyborg, she cannot go with him. Further, the night of the ball is when she plans to escape.
Chapter 19 Summary
Dr. Erland and Cinder discuss the prince’s request of her while Cinder’s “retina scanner informed her that her body was producing mass amounts of endorphins and she should try to calm down” (166). Cinder questions the doctor about his reasons for not telling Prince Kai about her role in a possible antidote and that she is a cyborg. Erland responds, “Ah. And that is what you’re most concerned about?” (168).
The doctor abruptly changes the topic from Kai’s “interest” (168) in Cinder to her DNA. Cinder takes the opportunity to inform the doctor about her visit to the quarantine and asks him about the removal of ID from a deceased individual. He enlightens her to a practice of selling IDs for the purpose of assuming a new identity.
Discussing ID transfers and new identities opens a conversation about Lunars. Although illegal, Lunars that escape Luna need an identity and therefore an ID chip. Cinder’s knowledge of the Lunar ability to manipulate others creates a fear of Lunars on Earth, a fear Dr. Erland attempts to lessen. He educates Cinder about the manipulation—called glamouring—as “the ability to manipulate bioelectric energy” (171).
The conversation about Lunars reminds Cinder about Queen Levana’s trip to the Commonwealth, knowledge that she shares with Dr. Erland. He reacts with fear and the insistence that she flee the palace and not return until after the queen’s departure. The queen’s visit pushes Dr. Erland to be honest with Cinder about her nature: she is what’s known as a Lunar shell, which means the Lunar glamouring doesn’t work on her. A flood of additional information overwhelms Cinder. She now knows that she is: 1) both cyborg and Lunar; 2) immune to letumosis because she is Lunar; 3) is equipped with a stolen ID chip and false identity; and 4) risks death at the queen’s hand because she is a Lunar shell.
Chapter 20 Summary
Prince Kai, Torin, and Sybil welcome Queen Levana to New Beijing. Veiled and wearing a white dress, Queen Levana walks to Sybil, who relays her loyalty: “Our separation was insufferable. I am pleased to be in your service once more, my Queen” (183). The Lunar glamour that can create loyalty also tricks others into seeing Levana as beautiful. The veil lifts and Prince Kai views a type of beauty he describes as “unnatural” and an “illusion” (184).
Queen Levana and Prince Kai exchange insincere pleasantries, including the queen’s condolences for Emperor Rikan’s death. Although Prince Kai is cognizant of the queen’s ability to manipulate feelings, he finds himself thinking, “He loved her. He needed her. He would do anything to please her” (185) before shaking free of the mental deception.
The queen leaves for her accommodations with Sybil and some Lunar guards, allowing Prince Kai and his advisor, Torin, to discuss the effects of the queen’s glamour. At Prince Kai’s mention of his ability to withstand the control tactic, Torin cautions his feelings of confidence, stating, “It will get harder” (186).
Chapters 17-20 Analysis
Losing loved ones from letumosis affects both Cinder and Prince Kai. Peony’s disease progression causes Cinder to visit the quarantine—death’s waiting room for anyone unlucky enough to contract the plague. A message of empathy surfaces as Cinder attempts to comfort Peony and offer hope to a person who once treated Cinder with contempt. It is during this emotional time that information about ID chips and their meaning comes to be known by both Cinder and the reader. After death, med-droids remove the person’s ID chip, leaving them without an identity and signifying another way technology encroaches upon humanity.
Cinder and Kai enter one another’s lives during a period of loss and mounting pressures for both of them. They offer support to one another, with Cinder playing the role of confidant to Kai. Cinder harbors no expectations of Kai as the next emperor, thereby providing a safe space to share his concerns about his father’s death and Queen Levana’s manipulatively-timed visit. Cinder listens and tries to be fully human: “She mentally urged the robotic limb to go soft, to be pliant, to be human, as she watched Kai lift the hand and kiss the back of it” (163). Her feelings of like for Kai and fear at his potential rejection remain at the forefront of her mind.
The research participation transforms into a period of education for Cinder. Dr. Erland enlightens Cinder about the purpose of ID chips for survival for refugee Lunars, along with the fact that Cinder is herself a Lunar. Absent of an adult mentor, Dr. Erland’s role in Cinder’s life changes from uncaring researcher to educator. He is the gateway to Cinder’s past and present. This new identity bothers Cinder, and as her ingrained view of her self takes hold, even more so after learning she’s Lunar, Dr. Erland reminds her that she is special and has purpose.
Cinder’s new status as Lunar makes Queen Levana as much of a threat to Cinder as she is to Prince Kai. Lunars are disliked by humans due to their ability to manipulate others’ minds. Queen Levana represents the threat of war to Prince Kai and poses a danger to Cinder, should Levana discover that Cinder is Lunar herself. Queen Levana’s manipulation, or glamour, goes on a long toward helping her get what she wants.
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