79 pages • 2 hours read
Pittacus LoreI Am Number Four
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A 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.
Symbols & Motifs
Light
Light is used as a symbol in the novel for Four’s insight and connection to Lorien. The first Legacy that Four develops is the ability to generate light from his hands. In the beginning of the novel, Four is relatively in the dark—figuratively—about his past life on Lorien. He has been on the run since he was five years old, so for most of his adolescence, he has learned to adapt to life on Earth. The few points of connection Four has to Lorien are the scars on his ankles, which bind him to his fellow Garde members. Even so, Four does not know anything about the other members. At one point in the novel, Four asks Henri if he has ever considered settling on Earth and making a new life for himself rather than holding onto the hope that they will one day return to Lorien. Henri tells Four that if Four were able to remember any of Lorien, he wouldn’t be asking him that question. Four remembers little of Lorien, and what he does he may or may not just be remembering from their training, rather than from his own memories. Based on this conversation, as well as Four’s longing to finally settle in one place on Earth, Four does not feel as strong of a connection to his home planet as Henri does.
It is not until Four develops his ability to emit light from his hands that he begins to experience vivid memories of Lorien, especially during its final days in the battle between the Lorics and the Mogadorians. He sees his family, now dead, including his grandparents and his father. With Four’s new powers come new insight into Four’s past life, where he comes from, and who his family was long before he came to Earth. For the past 10 years on the run, he has not been able to develop a true sense of identity, nor has he even been able to use his own Loric name. It is significant that the first Loric Legacy he starts to develop is the power of light. Just as his natural abilities emerge, so too does his knowledge and connection to Lorien.
Names
Names play a significant role in the novel, especially for three of the novel’s main characters: “John Smith,” Sarah Hart, and Sam Goode. When Four and Henri arrive in the small town of Paradise, Ohio, Four chooses the name “John Smith.” The name is one of the most common, generic names in the English-speaking world, and Four’s choice to use it is a symbol of his lack of personal identity. He has never been able to stay in one place long enough to settle into an identity, nor has he ever been able to reveal his extraterrestrial nature to anyone. Without being able to share his past, and without being able to start anew in the present, Four lacks a proper identity, a status that is reflected in the name “John Smith.”
Similarly, Sarah Hart and Sam Goode’s names, particularly their last names, symbolize something important about their identities. Sarah acts as Four’s major love interest in the novel, and even though she is not a Loric girl, she has Four’s heart, and he has hers, even if humans and Lorics are not “meant to be.” Sam’s last name, “Goode,” symbolizes his selflessness and loyalty as Four’s first friend. He willingly puts himself in the line of fire to help his friend through several actions, from driving illegally to save Henri to joining Four at the end of the novel in the battle at the high school. Sam’s innate goodness is one of the reasons Four is able to trust him with the knowledge of his true identity. Sam and Sarah, Four’s first true companions, have names that symbolize the nature of their identities—loving and good hearted—and their relationship to Four.
Loric Pendants
The Loric pendants, the amulets the Garde members wear around their necks, are perhaps the most direct symbols in the novel, as Four states their significance early on in the novel. According to Lorien tradition, the pendants were given to each member of the Garde by one of the Loric Elders. Each pendant is unique in that each one has a different symbol, one for every individual number of the Garde. The pendants not only symbolize the identities of the Garde members, but also represent one of Four’s few connections to his Loric past and his connection to his fellow Garde members.
