80 pages • 2 hours read
Hugh HoweyWool
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapters 1-4
Part 1, Chapters 5-7
Part 2, Chapters 1-5
Part 2, Chapters 6-9
Part 3, Chapters 1-5
Part 3, Chapters 6-10
Part 3, Chapters 11-13
Part 4, Chapters 0-5
Part 4, Chapters 6-10
Part 4, Chapters 11-15
Part 4, Chapters 16-21
Part 5, Chapters 1-5
Part 5, Chapters 6-10
Part 5, Chapters 11-15
Part 5, Chapters 16-20
Part 5, Chapters 21-25
Part 5, Chapters 26-30
Epilogue
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Part 5, Chapters 26-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5: "The Stranded"
Part 5, Chapter 26 Summary
Sheriff Peter Billings escorts Lukas upstairs to cleaning. Lukas thinks that he now knows why people are sent to cleaning, that “if he sneezed the wrong words, it would kill everyone he knew” (486).
Lukas is considering jumping off the staircase to kill himself when he and Peter overhear Bernard’s conversation with Juliette on Peter’s radio. Lukas decides not to jump, while Peter questions his task of taking Lukas to his death.
Part 5, Chapter 27 Summary
intercept Lukas outside the silo when he is sent to cleaning. Although she figures it unlikely that they would survive being outside, she wants the others from Silo 18 to see her on the camera. The knowledge that she has survived, she believes, will lead them to revolt against IT and stop the fighting and mass executions.
She promises Solo she will come back for him and the children, though neither of them believe this. Solo tries to hide his tears from her. Juliette prepares to go outside, believing she will probably die. Solo asks her again to call him by his real name, Jimmy, saying: “I’m not going to be alone anymore” (492).
Part 5, Chapter 28 Summary
Juliette walks to Silo 18 with the heat blanket to save Lukas, passing the many bodies of dead cleaners on the way. At the top of the hill, she looks out at the “evenly spaced depressions” (493) in the landscape that hide the presence of the 50 silos. Believing that she herself is close to death, the insignificance of her own life humbles her.
The doors to Silo 18 open, but Lukas does not come out. She goes forward into the doorway and, still not seeing him, goes inside into the chamber, which is about to be consumed in a cleansing fire to rid it of the toxic air from outside. Lukas is on his knees in the airlock, and she realizes he has chosen to die by fire instead of going outside. She wraps them both in the heat blanket as the flames engulf them. Suddenly, Lukas pushes away from her, going into the fire and burning to death. Juliette, badly burned herself, studies his charred corpse and realizes it was not Lukas but Bernard.
Part 5, Chapter 30 Summary
Weeks later, Juliette is about to leave IT to descend to Mechanical when Peter and Lukas detain her. Nervously, they tell her that she was elected mayor when the silo found out about her “miraculous return” (504). Juliette agrees on the condition that they will no longer lie to the people of the silo, saying: “Instead of manipulating people, why not empower them?” (506). Peter and Lukas promise to consider her proposition. Peter leaves. Lukas pulls Juliette to him and finally reveals his feelings for her. They kiss.
Juliette then leaves for her trip, saying that she is going to see her father first.
Part 5, Chapters 26-30 Analysis
As Peter leads Lukas to execution, the theme of ideas as contagious is strengthened. Lukas, still somewhat sympathetic to the IT’s harsh laws, thinks, “he was the virus” (486). This turns out to be apt, as Lukas “infects” Peter with his ideas after they overheard Bernard on the radio, leading Peter to mutiny. On his way to what he thinks will be his death, Lukas also considers that “Juliette was like him in so many ways. Except he would not survive” (486). If it were not for Juliette’s determination to get to the radio on time, Lukas may well have not survived. This indicates the essential difference between Lukas and Juliette that has been present since the beginning of their relationship, despite their similarities and attraction to each other. Juliette is wholly independent and follows her own moral compass, such as when she had an unsanctioned relationship with George. Lukas, meanwhile, looks to established rules for guidance and finds himself swept along the tide of events. Even as Bernard sentences Lukas to die, Lukas sympathizes with the reasoning behind it.
Juliette’s dangerous proposition at the end of the book is to depart from Bernard’s style of carefully controlled, deceptive leadership and establish a more democratic society in which the citizens are fully informed. Her plan reflects the high value she places on independent thinking and also indicates an optimistic view of human nature. Rather than “lies, fear,” as she puts it, she believes the society can run well “full of knowledge, of purpose” (506). Her plan for being mayor also shows a change in her character over the course of the novel—in the beginning, she was reluctant to go up top to be sheriff and leave the confined space of Mechanical. Now, animated by grand plans for running the whole silo, she is more comfortable with leadership, having gained confidence from her new knowledge and experiences.
Lukas’s fear in the face of Juliette’s plan to reveal the truth to the whole silo further emphasizes the difference between them. Juliette’s stronger will seems poised to win over Lukas’s reluctance as the novel comes to a close.
