The Institute

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7, Chapters 1-28

Part 7, Chapters 29-42

Part 8

Part 9

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “Shots for Dots”

Part 3, Chapters 1-5 Summary

Kalisha introduces Luke to the other Front Half children: Iris Stanhope is tall and thin; George Iles is energetic and talkative; and Nicky Wilholm is a fighter who resists authority, with the black eyes and bruises to prove it. Nicky challenges Luke to a game of chess, which the latter wins in four moves.

The other children give Luke more information on what happens at the Institute: They get tests and shots that make them see floating lights—dots called “Stasi Lights.” Those who cooperate receive tokens to buy treats—including alcohol and cigarettes. Luke reflects on addiction (to alcohol and cigarettes) being an effective way to keep the children compliant.

The other children tell Luke that after about three weeks, Front Half residents are moved to Back Half. The staff promises that after a few weeks in Back Half, the children’s memories of the Institute will be erased and they will be sent home to their families—but no one believes it.

The Institute’s Administrator, Julia Sigsby, and Security Chief Trevor Stackhouse observe the children via security system. Mrs. Sigsby is amused by the children’s guesswork, likening it to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.

Part 3, Chapters 6-12 Summary

Luke is taken downstairs by Gladys, a staff member. Gladys drops him off with Tony, a technician. Tony seems friendly at first, but when Luke refuses to cooperate, the man slaps him hard enough to knock him down. Luke watches Tony handle a strange device and asks if he is going to tattoo his arm (a practice often done in concentration camps). Instead, Tony inserts a tracking chip in Luke’s earlobe, administers a shot, and asks if he hears a hum or sees lights. Luke doesn’t, and Gladys takes him back to his room.

The next day, Luke finds a laptop in his room. He turns it on but can’t do anything else without a token. He helps Maureen make beds in exchange for tokens and notices that the computer’s security program prevents him from receiving news or sending messages—but he is able to access the internet. He remembers Maureen’s estranged husband and researches debt relief. Along the way, he learns that debt is a commodity that can be bought and sold.

Mrs. Sigsby summons luke. She tells Luke that he and the other children are heroes serving their country—but they are also soldiers, and soldiers must obey orders. She tells him that much of what he learned about the Institute via his friends is wrong, asserting that he will be returned to his family unharmed. Luke doesn’t believe her.

Part 3 Analysis

Luke winning his chess game against Nicky demonstrates that he is a good strategist, capable of thinking three moves ahead with three possible counters to every move his opponent might make. This ability comes to play when he goes head-to-head with Security Chief Stackhouse near the end of the novel.

Mrs. Sigsby incorrectly compares the First Half children to the children in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Golding’s story follows a group of children on an island with no adult supervision. The children’s society breaks down into warfare in imitation of adult society—the implication being that degradation and violence are endemic to humankind. The Institute children defy Golding’s philosophy and form a stable group that overcomes the chaos imposed on them by adults. Unlike the boys in Lord of the Flies, the Institute children have a mutual enemy to hold them together, but this alone isn’t enough, as will be proven by newcomers Harry and Frieda.

Mrs. Sigsby’s reference to Lord of the Flies echoes Luke’s earlier observation that the Institute is like Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island, where the children have fun all day. The first two rules of Golding’s island are to survive and have fun; on both islands, the boys revert to animalism. At the end of The Institute, Tim will assure Luke and his friends that their job is to survive and love each other—love being the difference between them and the other stories’ children.

During his first check-up, Luke asks Tony if he is going to be tattooed like a prisoner in a concentration camp—the first of many instances comparing the Institute to a concentration camp. Even the Institute employees acknowledge the comparison, but this doesn’t elicit doubt or hesitation. Later in the novel, Stackhouse says, “…suppose we needed—to use an unjustly vilified phrase—a final solution” (459) when contemplating using poison gas on the children. Considering the Institute is only one of many facilities in the world, the use of a “final solution” implies the murder of potentially millions of children.

The idea of debt as a commodity explains Maureen being trapped in the Institute in her own way. Because she works to pay off her estranged husband’s debts, her labor is bought and sold like the Institute’s weaponization of children. Perhaps Maureen’s ability to empathize with the children is influenced by their shared fate—that of a commodity used by an overwhelming force. When Luke sets her free with his research into debt relief, he also frees her from the Institute.