Darkness
Darkness at Your DoorstepOur first clue that darkness is important in this book? It gets mentioned in the very first sentence, which reads, "In the city of Ember, the sky is always dark" (1.1). We'...
The Colored Pencils
Lina is so excited at the thought of getting some colored pencils to draw with that she follows a rumor to Looper's shop. Seeing them in person is totally exciting: "Inside the box were at least a...
The River
The River… of LifeThe river running under Ember gets top billing in the first chapter, as one of the big reasons Lina doesn't want to get a Pipeworks position on Assignment Day. As she puts it, "...
The Moth
What do you call a moth that's not yet a moth? A worm, apparently: "A few days before school ended, Doon found the worm on the underside of a cabbage leaf he was slicing up for dinner. It was a pal...
The Bean Sprout
The bean sprout first comes up in conversation when Lina asks Clary if Ember is really the only light in the dark world. Clary pulls the bean out of her pocket and says that something inside it kno...