Among the Hidden

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1998

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-24

Chapters 25-30

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

The Effects of Privilege

Privilege plays an important role in the lives of the characters in Among the Hidden, and the contrast between Luke’s family and Jen’s family communicates the idea that privilege has an impact on personal development, decision-making, and expectations.

Barons, the privileged class of Luke’s society, are introduced in Chapter 7, when Luke observes them looking at the houses in the new development. Luke doesn’t know much about Barons, but he soon finds out about privileges that separate them from ordinary people like Luke’s family when he breaks into the house next door. Inside the Barons’ home, Luke observes that “Nobody had ever stepped on these white rugs with manure-covered boots. Nobody had ever sat on those pale blue couches with corn-dust-covered jeans” (57). This imagery creates a contrast between what Luke is used to in his own home and what he’s observing in Jen’s home.

This contrast not only highlights the differences in material goods between the two classes but also the differences in working classes. While Luke’s family spends all day working in factories and farms, Jen’s family works jobs that they do not return home dirty from. The differences between Luke and Jen’s families become more pronounced when Luke learns about Jen’s life as a shadow child. Contrary to Luke, Jen has met people outside her own family and even gets to go to town to go shopping with her mother. Jen has a forged shopping pass that’s “good enough to convince the store clerks” but not the Population Police (77), so she must still hide in the car during the ride to and from town. Jen even complains to Luke about how much she hates shopping for dresses, while Luke has never seen a store in his life, showing how Jen’s privileged upbringing has led her to take advantage of the things she has that others do not.

Jen also has access to junk food like chips and sodas, which are illegal. Because Jen’s family are Barons, they can “get all the food we want, of course” (80), including special access to junk food. Jen’s family, being both Barons and government officials, have special privileges that separate them from other families. Jen explains, “Government leaders are the worst ones for breaking laws. How do you think we got this house? How do you think I got Internet access? How do you think we live?” (72). When Jen tells Luke about her playgroup with other third children of government officials, she explains, “I think some of the parents didn’t even like kids—they just thought it was a status symbol to break the Population Law and get away with it” (102). The carefree attitudes of Barons and government officials when it comes to their privilege contrasted with Luke’s parents, who hide him desperately at all costs, show how privilege impacts one’s sense of entitlement and one’s worldview.

Jen’s privilege is not always a boon, however. When Jen is discussing her planned rally with Luke, she comments that “[t]hey’re not going to do anything to a crowd of a thousand, especially not when lots of us are related to Government officials” (109). Jen believes this because of the privileged environment she’s grown up in. While Luke has been raised to fear what the government will do to him, Jen has always witnessed the adults in her life doing what they please despite the government’s wishes. During their final conversation, Luke tells Jen he still cannot go with her to the rally, explaining, “It’s something about having parents who are farmers, not lawyers. And not being a Baron. It’s people like you who change history. People like me—we just let things happen to us” (114). Luke understands that Jen has a better chance of not being killed by the Population Police because of her societal status.

However, Jen’s belief that the government won’t do anything to the kids at the rally is tragically proven untrue. In Chapter 27, Luke learns that Jen has been shot. Luke realizes that Jen’s reckless decision to organize a rally and her confidence that she wouldn’t get shot are a result of her privileged upbringing. When given the opportunity to get a fake ID, Luke muses, “Maybe he could succeed where Jen had failed precisely because he wasn’t a Baron—because he didn’t have her sense that the world owed him everything. He could be more patient, more cautious, more practical (146). Luke’s realization develops the theme that one’s privilege impacts one’s expectations of the world by showing the differences in Luke’s and Jen’s approach to the same goal. While Jen dove in headfirst and organized a failed rally, Luke chooses to be more cautious because of the fear he’s grown up in, which is a result of his family’s lack of privilege.

Overall, the positive and negative effects of privilege on one’s worldview, development, and choices are thoroughly explored through the way Luke’s life experiences differ from Jen’s despite both of their statuses as illegal third children.

The Impact of Propaganda

The impact that propaganda has on individuals and on society is explored through the attitudes, emotions, and decision-making of the main characters, developing the idea that propaganda can obscure the truth and lead to dangerous outcomes.

Luke first learns about propaganda in Chapter 16 during his first visit to Jen’s house. When he learns that Jen uses the phone, computer, and television, he recalls a time when “he’d reached one finger up and tapped the space bar, over and over again” on his father’s computer, leading his mother to panic “[a]nd for weeks after that, she’d hidden him even more carefully than ever, locking him in his room when she had to go outside” (68). Luke’s parents believe that the government is surveying them at all times through devices like the computer, telephone, and television. Jen believes the government “spent so much money trying to convince people they can monitor all the TVs and computers, you know they couldn’t have afforded to actually do it” (68), citing the fact that she’s used all these electronics her entire life and never dealt with any consequences. The differences between Luke’s family’s attitude and the freedoms they allow him and Jen’s family’s attitude about electronic usage show the way propaganda influences people’s actions by manipulating their perceptions of the truth.

Through his friendship with Jen, Luke becomes more familiar with the influence of propaganda. In Chapter 19, Luke brings home several books and printed articles from Jen’s house. The books have titles like “The Famine Years Revisited” and “The Population Disaster” (89), while the articles denounce the Population Law and detail the neglect, abuse, and poor conditions shadow children are subjected to. When Luke reads these books, he learns that the government had to make a Population Law because there wasn’t enough food after several years of drought on an already overpopulated earth. At dinner, Luke “felt pangs of guilt now” (92), worried that “someone was starving someplace because of him” (92). However, “when he got to the two computer printouts […] he [began] to feel better” (93).

The printouts help reassure him that the Population Law is unnecessary, but he’s still conflicted. Jen explains that the government permitted the books, and “probably even paid for them. So of course they’re going to say what the Government wants people to believe. They’re just propaganda” (93-94). She reasons that the articles are telling the truth because their authors “probably put themselves at risk getting the information out. So they’re right” (94). Despite Jen’s reasoning, Luke continues to feel conflicted about his right to exist because of what he’s read. Luke’s conflicted response to the propaganda shows how propaganda can manipulate emotions.

Jen’s response to the propaganda parallels Luke’s but on the opposite side. Because she thoroughly believes in the anti-Population Law materials she’s read while completely disregarding the government books, Jen is empowered to fight against the Population Law in a dangerous and public way. She shows near fanatical devotion to her plan to fight against the injustices she’s read about, saying, “There is no compromise […] I’ve got to convince these idiots that the rally’s their only chance” (97). Jen’s emotions are so influenced by the propaganda that she disregards the dangerous realities of her plan. After Jen’s death, Jen’s dad laments, “I’m afraid I encouraged her. I passed along some slanted information. I wanted to give her hope that someday the Population Law would be repealed” (134). Jen’s emotions and misconceptions about the government’s power and morality come from the propaganda that she’s consumed. Jen’s death communicates the idea that propaganda can lead to dangerous outcomes by manipulating people’s emotions and influencing their actions.

The novel overall communicates the idea that the impact propaganda has on people’s emotions and decision-making by manipulating the truth can lead to dangerous outcomes and create confusion about what is actually true.

Legality Versus Morality

The idea that legality and morality are two distinct concepts is developed through Luke’s shifting perspective on the government, his circumstance as a third child, Jen’s passion for her cause, and Jen’s father’s reaction to discovering Luke. At the beginning of the book, Luke never questions the government’s decisions, and he obeys every order given to him out of principle, despite the negative impact his life in hiding has had on him. It isn’t until Luke meets Jen in Chapter 15 that he begins to question the link between these two concepts and wonders if the government is doing what’s best for everyone.

Although Luke recognizes the inequity of his situation as a third child, he never displays any concern about whether it’s right or wrong for him to exist. However, once Luke meets Jen, she takes on the responsibility of educating Luke about the history of the Population Law and the impact it has had on the citizens of their country. During Luke’s second visit to Jen in Chapter 17, Jen asks if Luke goes hungry and informs him, “Some shadow children do because they don’t have food ration cards, and the rest of the family doesn’t share” (79). The starvation of third children is a direct result of the limits the government has put on its people. The Population Law and the government’s control of food rations create a situation in which shadow children must suffer. This information shows how the laws of the land do not make space for morality when it comes to ensuring no one suffers.

The separation of legality and morality is deepened as the novel progresses and Luke is exposed to history and propaganda. Luke begins to consider the morality of his own existence when he learns that the Population Law was put in effect to prevent people from starving. He observes, “So if I didn’t eat, my food would go to someone who was legal” (82-83), but Jen quickly clarifies that “That is what the Government thinks, but they’re wrong” (83). Jen buys into the concept that the Government is obligated to act out of morality, which leads her to believe that bringing the government’s attention to the plight of shadow children will cause them to repeal the Population Law. Jen pursues this belief to the extreme, going as far as to organize a rally for shadow children to demand rights. Jen’s belief that overturning the Population Law will be as simple as showing up at the president’s house to show him the law is morally unjust leads her into unsafe territory and ultimately results in her death.

The inhumane and immoral outcomes of the Population Law grow even clearer to Luke after Jen’s death. Instead of taking into account the suffering of shadow children and their need to be free, the government instead acted in its own best interest by murdering every child at the rally and hiding the events from the public. The disregard for human life shown by the government on the grounds of following the law illustrates the gulf between what is legal and what is moral. Jen’s dad explains his own perspective on the law, arriving at the conclusion that it’s wrong. Hearing this, Luke feels “a strange sense of relief, that it wasn’t truly wrong for him to exist, just illegal. For the first time since he’d read the Government books, he could see the two things being separate” (137). The affirmation of the immoral nature of the government from Jen’s dad, who works for the government, allows Luke to settle his internal conflict about the morality of his existence. In this same moment, Luke also acknowledges that Jen’s inability to separate the two was what led her to passionately and recklessly pursue her cause and get herself killed.

The idea that what is legal and what is moral are separate concepts is an important theme in Among the Hidden, and the conflation of the two impacts the actions of both Luke and Jen as they navigate the circumstances of their illegal existence.