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Study Guide
Burn Contrasting Regions
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Contrasting Regions
- Chapter 1
"We've never had strangers arrive. We don't know how to treat them, except as something foreign, maybe a threat." (1.47)
Another case of a Dome vs. Wretches; the Dome in Newgrange has no idea how to treat Bradwell, Pressia, and El Capitan because they've never been in contact with any wretches.
- Chapter 2
"They like normalcy, consistency. You can't barge into their lives and start ripping things up." (2.34)
The Pures are pretty much the opposite of the wretches; they don't want to admit to their guilt, and they don't like change. Partridge might not want to agree with this statement, but unfortunately, it's true.
The wretches, those vile blights on humanity, soulless, no longer human. (2.8)
This is the view of the wretches from the Pures' perspective. Pretty flattering, huh?
"I mean, do you want the wretches and the Pures to walk hand in hand into a beautiful tomorrow?" (2.26)
Yes, that's exactly what Partridge wants. But for people like Foresteed, this idea is absolutely ludicrous.
- Chapter 4
"Willux saved each and every one of us from death, from mutilation. We don't have to live among those wretches: murderers, rapists, monsters—all of them! We were chosen. Let us be worthy of that choice forever." (4.53)
The common idea that the Pures "were chosen" is the big reason why a divide between the Dome and the Wretches exist. There's no reasoning for why the Pures are "worthy," which creates this discrimination.
- Chapter 9
Has the Dome already made her weaker and more frightened? (9.6)
For Lyda, the sheer location and setting of the Dome has a negative effect on her person. She feels like she's been weakened just by being physically inside of it.
"The people of the Dome aren't rebellious by nature. That's how they got here, Partridge. You said it yourself," Beckley says. "They're sheep […] They want to restore the status quo." (9.23)
Ah, the status quo. See, that's what the wretches want to — but the status quo is different for the two opposing regions. For the wretches, the status quo would be going back to the Before.
- Chapter 11
If Partridge is in charge, will the boundaries between the two worlds—the boundaries of the Dome itself—be dismantled? (11.5)
Partridge might be the leader of the Dome, but breaking down boundaries is a tough task to tackle. Even if he can unite them physically, things like revenge and guilt and suffering would inhibit the two sides from becoming a single unit.
- Chapter 12
Now that she's been out in the wilds, could she ever survive here—even with Partridge at her side? (12.28)
Outside of the Dome is a sort of paradise for Lyda where she can be herself. Inside the Dome, she's just another pawn.
- Chapter 13
"I'm a wretch. That's what made me Pure. And now? With those chemicals pumped into me, what am I?" (13.47)
The people inside the Dome are seen as Pures, but Bradwell insists that only the wretches are Pures. Or maybe, everyone is Pure. Or, everyone is a wretch. The problem in this trilogy is that, like El Capitan says, everyone views the world in terms of "us and them."