The People of Sparks

Doon is the other protagonist from “City of Ember.” He is 12, soon to be 13, and he used to work in the sewers of Ember. In this novel, he lives in the Pioneer with his father and a few other misfit men from Ember. He is just as curious and driven as Lina is, but he is more focused on knowledge and details than adventure. He is excited to find his place in the new world but has trouble finding a sense of belonging and struggles to keep his temper in check in the face of blatant unfairness.

From the beginning, Doon is excited about the opportunities to learn in the new world. While walking from Sparks to the Pioneer, he is awed by the novelty of it all, and thinks: “[t]here were a million mysteries here […] He would explore them all! He would learn everything!” (53). However, he has more trouble finding a sense of community. For a time, he believes that he has found this sense of belonging through his relationship with Tick, feeling flattered even by his backhanded compliments because “there was something about Tick that made it pleasing to have his good opinion” (87). Doon’s doubt of Tick culminates when he sees Tick “accidentally” kill a baby bird; Doon leaves Tick’s makeshift war council as Doon’s "vague, uneasy feelings came together into one clear understanding: Tick wants war. The thought of war excites him and makes him happy” (266). Ultimately, Doon realizes that he cannot simply follow someone else in hopes of gaining a sense of community and identity. He decides that uncertainty is better than doing what is easy: “[h]e still didn’t know what he was going to do [when the Emberites were evicted]. All he knew was that he did not want Tick for his commander. He would command himself” (266).

Throughout the novel, Doon also faces the challenge of keeping his temper in check in the face of injustice. His passion for fairness is what led him to Tick’s group in the first place, but it is also what led him away. Tick always moves immediately toward violence, while Doon is not as sure. Initially, “Doon admired Tick’s strength, and the way he always seemed to know what to do. He himself was never so absolutely clear. He saw too many sides of things; it confused him” (219).

However, Doon’s father shows him that it’s alright to not have all the answers by admitting it himself. He tells Doon that “I don’t know the answer. We’re in a tough situation here […] It does seem that something is called for […] The trouble is that violence just leads to more violence. So I don’t know” (233). By the end of the novel, Doon realizes that even though unfairness and injustice should not be allowed, violence is not the answer to these problems. He tries to convince both the Emberites and people of Sparks of this when he yells at them to “[a]t least listen!” (289) during the final confrontation. Though his plea for open communication falls short, Doon still ultimately manages to help put an end to the unfairness the Emberites are facing without resorting to violence.

Torren Crane is 10, younger than Lina and Doon. He is small, with “a strangely narrow face—as if someone had put a hand on either side of his head and pushed hard. His eyes were round blue dots. Above his high forehead, his light brown hair stood up in an untidy tuft” (34). He idolizes his older brother, Caspar, and wants to follow in his footsteps and become a roamer. He acts out because he never gets enough attention.

Torren mopes and makes trouble for much of the novel, seeming to resent his chores at Dr. Hester’s house even more than Lina does. However, he, like her, comes to realize his true feelings over the course of the novel. When Lina points out to him that he seems unhappy living with Dr. Hester, he tells her, “‘I like it here,’ […] and he [looks] up at Lina with his eyes all round, as if he had only just discovered this himself” (334). After Doon saves his life, Torren also seems ashamed that he blamed the tomato incident on him. When Lina questions Torren about it, he looks away, “slump[s] down into the sofa pillows,” and says it was a mistake. In this way, Torren also shows development.

Caspar is Torren’s older brother and a roamer. He and Torren have “the same small eyes and the same wispy light brown hair,” but Caspar is larger, with “a wide, round, rosy-pink face, with a glistening, round chin. It was almost a babyish-looking face, except for the tiny mustache on the upper lip, twisted at both ends into points” (140). His exact age is not specified, but he seems to be a young adult. Caspar acts as a foil to Lina and undergoes very little change over the course of the novel, only sinking deeper into his obsessions while continuing to be both inept and self-aggrandizing.

Lina and Caspar’s differences are apparent from the beginning. Lina is interested in roaming, but she quickly tires of Caspar’s stories:

[S]he wanted to hear what the faraway places were like, and how the old buildings looked, and everything that was in the buildings, but all Caspar talked about was how brave and clever he’d been to find the things he found, and what injuries he’d suffered in finding them (146-47).

Caspar is obsessed with finding the treasure in the ancient city for his own personal gain and glory, boasting that the ancient songs “make sense to me […] But that’s because I’ve studied them carefully and have found out their deeper meaning” (210). Conversely, Lina dreams of the city in hopes of finding a place and purpose for her fellow Emberites. In the end, Lina thinks that “[m]aybe someday the people of Ember—or the great-great-grandchildren of today’s people of Ember—would come back here and build the city again” (243). Lina and Caspar also differ in their approaches to scavenging things. Caspar only ever brings back interesting but useless items: artificial flowers, lightbulbs, and the like. In her short time as a roamer, Lina finds objects that are both interesting and ultimately useful: a rare old board game, a magnifying glass, and the magnet that serves as the catalyst to potentially bring electricity back to humanity.