88 pages • 2 hours read
Jeanne DuPrauThe People of Sparks
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2004A 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.
Part 3, Chapters 24-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “The Decision”
Part 3, Chapter 24 Summary: “What Torren Planned”
Torren is excited to finally see Sparks’ ancient weapon. However, he is nervous about being hurt. Dr. Hester tells him exhaustedly that if there is indeed a war, it will be everywhere. Torren is troubled by this, but he decides to hide in a tree next to the town hall in the plaza to watch what happens from somewhere out of the way.
Part 3, Chapter 25 Summary: “Dread at the Last Minute”
Lina arrives back at Sparks and immediately stops by the Pioneer to see Doon. They reconcile their friendship and update each other on the events of the past several days. Neither wants to fight, but neither wants to leave, either. Lina gives Doon a magnet and a magnifying glass that she found while roaming.
Part 3, Chapter 26 Summary: “The Weapon”
Doon and the rest of the Emberites return to the plaza. Frustrated that the two groups won’t try to talk to each other, Doon finds a vantage point in the town hall tower next to the pine tree. The Weapon, a mounted machine gun, is brought out. Ben fires it on the crowd, but Mary points it upward at the last second. It backfires, explodes, and catches the pine tree on fire. As the fire spreads, Doon rescues Torren from the tree, even after realizing that it’s the child who caused so much trouble. Doon and Torren escape the now-burning town hall just in time.
Part 3, Chapter 27 Summary: “Firefight”
Lina watches the events in the plaza unfold from her vantage point in the crowd. Frozen in place by her fear of the fire, she sees Tick and his cronies cheering and the people of Sparks forming a fire line. Lina realizes how to break the cycle of revenge and violence, faces her fears, and joins the fire line. Tick calls her a traitor while shying away from the danger himself.
Doon sees Lina helping the people of Sparks in the fire line and immediately joins in. Following Lina and Doon’s example, the rest of the Emberites (except for Tick and his cronies) join the fire lines, too.
Part 3, Chapters 24-27 Analysis
This section of the novel focuses primarily on the self-replicating nature of violence as well as the end of hatred between two groups. DuPrau also returns to the idea of “us” versus “them” through the near dissolution of these delineations.
The discussion that Doon and his father have emphasizes the ultimate futility of the cycles of violence and retribution, one of the central themes of the book. Dr. Hester and Mary, the town leader, also preach these ideas at various points in this section of the book; Dr. Hester tells Torren that “if there’s a war, it will be everywhere” (268), and Mary does her best to keep her fellow town leaders from going down the path of retribution that the pre-Disaster leaders chose.
In the climax of the novel, the fire in the plaza serves to dissolve the boundaries between “us” and “them” as both Ember and Sparks must join together to put an end to the destruction that their mistrust caused. In a physical sense, the fire serves to obscure many of the differences between the Emberites and the people of Sparks as well: Afterward, everyone is equally wet, exhausted, and covered in soot. This scene also centers on fire, one of the most important symbols in the story.
