49 pages • 1 hour read
Marie LuProdigy
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 20-29Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 20 Summary: “Day”
Day remains on edge with the Colonies’ soldiers, wondering when they might turn on June and him after learning of their betrayal of the Patriots whom the Colonies fund. While June sleeps, a female Colonies’ soldier fawns over Day’s reputation and shows him the crowd of fans gathered outside the hospital celebrating his arrival. They revere Day as a celebrity for his rebellious acts against the Republic. In the crowd, Day notices Kaede holding a sign that urges him to return to the Patriots immediately.
Chapter 21 Summary: “June”
June dreams again of Metias. They walk the streets of Pierra as June reasons through the events of the assassination plot to determine Razor’s motivations. Razor’s decision to order the vehicles to continue upon the original route rather than obey Anden’s order to detour for a hospital would “put his position at risk” by revealing his involvement in the assassination plot (289). June wakes from the dream with a startling realization: Razor is not sponsored by the Colonies but was hired by the Republic’s Congress and the Senators to assassinate Anden.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Day”
Day puzzles over the meaning of Kaede’s sign while June sleeps. When Kaede leaves a message on the room’s balcony wishing to talk, Day sneaks out to meet with her. Kaede reveals how many Patriots have been captured by the Republic but indicates that Tess—along with several others—managed to escape. In the aftermath, the survivors have uncovered Razor’s lies; in actuality, the Republic paid the Patriots to assassinate Anden, and Razor aims to become the new Elector afterward. With Commander Jameson and Razor helping the Republic’s efforts to seize power from Anden, Kaede urges Day to return to rally the people and keep the government from falling into worse hands.
In the city, Day witnesses the dark side of the Colonies in which crime is not handled unless citizens have the money to pay. Kaede points out that all the Colonies care about is money; there is “no such thing as the stupid utopia [they’ve] been fantasizing about” (300). On the return to the hospital, Day catches a newscast from the Republic on one of the Colonies’ screens that reveals that Anden has freed Eden, along with many others, from military service and exempted him from Trials. Day realizes that while he hates the Republic’s leadership, he loves its citizens. Just as a plan formulates in his mind, Day notices all the Colonies’ soldiers headed toward the hospital for June.
Chapter 23 Summary: “June”
June wakes as a hostage to Colonies’ soldiers who have identified her as a Republic soldier and plan to sell her to DesCon Corp. June uses Day’s paper clip ring to pick the lock on her cuffs. She fights off the soldiers until Day and Kaede arrive. The trio escapes to the roof, where Kaede plans to commandeer a Colonies fighter jet.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Day”
Kaede is shot in the side during the escape but manages to shoot down the Colonies jets pursuing them, clearing a path back to the Republic. Day divulges his plan to return to the Capitol Tower in Denver and officially announce his support for Anden.
Chapter 25 Summary: “June”
After catching up on the news Kaede shared with Day earlier, June calculates next moves. Closer to the warfront, fighter jets from both the Republic and the Colonies pursue them once again, and Kaede deftly evades them before successfully crash landing in Denver. Day and June must abandon Kaede, who has succumbed to another gunshot wound from a stray bullet fired by a Republic soldier during their landing, and flee the approaching soldiers. The citizens of the capital city are rioting against Anden, giving them cover to escape. When June’s sickness slows them down, they split up, giving Day the opportunity to reach the Capitol Tower, where Anden is attempting to quell the rioters.
Chapter 26 Summary: “Day”
Day uses the Capitol Tower’s speakers to project his words across the city. He issues an ultimatum to the Congress, insisting that the Patriots hired to do the Congress’s dirty work be released from imprisonment; otherwise an uprising will ensue. Day then addresses the citizens, asking them to oppose the Congress—which aspires to keep the Republic’s oppressive way of life—and instead support Anden, who aims to implement positive change. Slowly, the citizens place their trust in Day and agree to support Anden.
Chapter 27 Summary: “June”
Two days later, June and Day are hospitalized and tested to check their health; they want to “make sure the Colonies didn’t impact any monitoring devices in [their] head[s]” (331). June’s illness is deemed harmless; after her release, she asks about Day. The doctor hesitates before answering that Day will be released after seeing his brother, Eden. June believes something about Day’s recovery is being hidden from her.
Anden visits June before her departure. He has been busy releasing the convicted Patriots from imprisonment and arresting the Senate’s traitors, including Razor and Commander Jameson. While Congress has agreed to reinstate June in her position as an Agent based in Denver, Anden offers her the opportunity to vie for the position as his Princeps—the Senate’s leader. Though the position is a significant opportunity to enact change, June worries that every moment of the decade-long training process might be spent shadowing Anden, which would cut Day from her life.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Day”
Day is given a full pardon from Anden and reunites with Eden, who is almost entirely blind due to the plague. During inspection, a doctor informs Day of irregularities found in X-rays of his brain, which indicate the cause of his recent headaches. The doctor reveals the experiments conducted on his brain after he failed his Trial created an incurable and worsening injury to his hippocampus that will eventually prove fatal.
Chapter 29 Summary: “June”
2007 Hours. 2 Days Post-Release. Oxford High-Rise, Lodo Sector, Denver. 72°F inside.
After her release, June settles into her new Denver apartment with her dog, Ollie. Day visits June and gives her a teardrop-shaped ruby and diamond pendant to replace the paper clip ring. They discuss the Princeps position, and Day urges June to accept, much to her surprise. Instead of telling her the truth about his terminal illness, Day breaks off his relationship with June to ensure she won’t hesitate in accepting the Princeps offer. They share one last kiss.
Chapters 20-29 Analysis
As the novel draws closer to the climactic scenes, the instability of the Republic’s power grows to uncontrollable proportions. In Chapter 11, news of Day’s “execution” was still being communicated as a way of “trying to convince people that it’s true” during rapidly increasing uprisings (159). Despite that earlier tactic, in these chapters, supporters of the rebellion grow swiftly in numbers, and the notion of dismantling the Republic and uniting with the Colonies becomes less a distant horizon. Day’s hopeful thinking in that regard, however, is destroyed by the reality he faces having escaped to the Colonies with June after the botched assassination attempt.
In the Colonies, individuals’ way of life is determined solely by money. Instead of news broadcasts, every available screen showcases commercials urging citizens to purchase items. The poor are forced to live in unlivable conditions that even Day was never subjected to; when they cannot make payments to the government, the poor are robbed of everything of worth. Day’s hopes are shattered by disappointment in the Colonies’ actual lifestyle; he realizes the “Colonies aren’t the shining beacon [his] father imagined. His dream of glittering skyscrapers and a better life was just that” (302). Through seeing the state of the Colonies, whose way of life seems even crueler than the Republic’s, Day begins to doubt all the hatred he feels for the Republic. Day’s character arc progresses most in this section as he comes to realize he loves his home and his fellow citizens—and that the answer cannot be found in destroying the Republic, but in fixing its foundation and rebuilding it better than before.
In a subtle use of irony, Lu reintroduces Kaede to the plot through her decision to follow June and Day into the Colonies and persuade them to return to the Republic. Until these chapters, Kaede has been the personification of the Colonies and everything they value; at every opportunity, she mentioned money as her sole motivator. At the beginning of the novel, she refuses to help June and Day further without payment. Later, she admits she does not particularly care for the Patriots’ cause, but rather serves their needs to obtain a hefty paycheck. In the last section, however, Kaede goes uncharacteristically out of her way to warn Day of the danger the Colonies pose. She even admits that “[M]aybe [she] was hoping that the Patriots could give [her] a nobler goal than making money” (296) by joining two flawed nations together. Before her death, her change of heart proves that even a character as cynical as Kaede has hope for a better world.
Even after June and Day escape to the Colonies, they still cannot decide who To Trust or Not To Trust. When Kaede follows, Day wonders if she is trying to trap him or warn him. After watching Anden claim on a national news broadcast that he is releasing his brother Eden, Day believes it to be a trick, theorizing that Anden is “probably announcing this publicly so he can lure [him] backing the Republic and into his service” (301). It is only once he realizes Razor’s betrayal and discovers the corruption of the Colonies that Day finally decides to put his trust in Anden and ally with the Elector for a better Republic.
June’s character has also changed over the course of the novel. When she is reinstated to her former position after Day’s alliance with Anden, she sees her luxurious items as unnecessary, things she “no longer feel[s] entirely comfortable owning” (343). When Day gives June an expensive necklace, she finally says the right thing, claiming that she likes his handmade paper clip ring best. His answering smile radiates happiness, conveying a tone juxtaposed with the beginning of the novel. Their relationship has officially overcome many of their earlier insecurities, and The Privileges of Wealth are now fully understood by June and seen for what they are, much to Day’s appreciation.
Lu often writes stories with bittersweet or tragic endings, and Prodigy is a case in point. Day’s chronic illness is determined to be an inevitable death sentence. The sequel ends in Day and June’s breakup as Day demonstrates The Compromising Nature of Love one last time; he sets June free to chase her aspirations and implement significant changes toward a new Republic as Anden’s Princeps.
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