52 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer A. NielsenWords on Fire
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Audra, the narrator, explains that her name means “storm” in Lithuanian. Under the Russian occupation, speaking in Lithuanian is illegal, which makes Audra think: “If my language was forbidden, then my name was forbidden.” (1) She is on an unknown journey to complete a task, and people’s lives depend on her.
Chapter 2 Summary
In a flashback to June 1893, Audra remembers the summer her life changed. At 12, shy Audra yearns to be more confident like her father, Henrikas, a traveling magician. Her parents have taught her to avoid drawing the attention of the Cossack soldiers occupying Lithuania’s territory. Audra overhears her parents’ conversation one night and determines that her father must do work other than magic shows.
On the night of the summer solstice, Henri suggests Audra join him in the village for the celebrations, which prompts an argument with Lina about keeping Audra safe. They compromise and decide they will all go together, but Henri reminds Audra to avoid Officer Rusakov—a soldier new to their area with “something to prove” (8).
While finishing her chores, Audra overhears Lina sharing with Henri that she fears they are being watched, and Audra is shocked to learn that her mother is involved with her father’s covert work. Audra’s parents agree to wait another year to share their secret with Audra. Audra leaves the house to hang up some laundry and sees Russian soldiers approaching the house quickly.
Chapter 3 Summary
Audra returns to the house, where she finds her mother and father packing bags. Lina and Audra run to the forest while Henri tries to stall the soldiers. While running, Lina gets tangled in some garden wire, and she demands that Audra go on without her. She instructs Audra to deliver the package hidden in Henri’s bag to a woman named Milda Sabiene in Venska. Reluctantly, Audra leaves her mother behind, witnessing the soldiers arrest her and set fire to their home. When she finds shelter in the forest, she is terrified that her parents may have been killed over this package she must deliver.
Chapter 4 Summary
Audra summons the strength to leave her hiding spot once she is certain the soldiers have left that area of the woods. With a sprained ankle, she limps toward the village and is shocked to see that the midsummer festivities are still occurring. She hears a group of young people approaching and quickly hides in some thick ferns nearby. Officer Rusakov approaches the group of youths, promising them a reward if they turn in a girl matching Audra’s description and explaining that her parents have been arrested. He scornfully allows the group to return to their celebrating, and soon after that, a girl Audra recognizes as the baker’s daughter, Violeta, discovers Audra in the patch of ferns.
Chapter 5 Summary
Audra waits in suspense for Violeta to decide what to tell Rusakov. Violeta tells her friends she found the mythological fern blossom and encourages them all to see it. The group goes along with Violeta’s story to keep Audra hidden from Rusakov.
Once the soldiers move away from this area, the young Lithuanians help Audra. A boy named Filip gives her directions for getting to Venska, a village 20 kilometers away. Audra does not take a girl’s offer to help her get there for fear of endangering them even more. Violeta gives Audra her shawl, and another person gives Audra some cakes. Audra heads down the forest path, “certain [she’d] never come back again” (29).
Chapters 1-5 Analysis
The novel begins with Audra in the middle of a vitally important task, but without providing any details about the mission, Nielsen creates a suspenseful tone immediately. Chapter 2 offers expository information regarding the setting of 1893 in Russian-occupied Lithuania and establishes the dynamics within Audra’s family. Audra immediately characterizes herself as being shy and meek, but given the resilience demonstrated in the first chapter, Nielsen implies that Audra will undergo a transformation throughout the novel.
Audra’s sheltered upbringing is a direct response to her parents’ secret book smuggling, though she only learns this in future chapters. Knowing how dangerous their work is and how much it risks their family, they do everything they can to keep Audra oblivious of their work to keep her safe. As a curious and observant child, Audra interprets this caution as a lack of trust, but when she finally gets it, she instantly learns why her parents kept their work secret and resents the danger they have left her in. Without knowing anything about the package she has been asked to deliver or the work that warranted her parents’ arrest, Audra is left feeling powerless, but she will soon learn how much power knowledge can hold. Audra’s powerlessness and her ignorance of her parents’ work are precursors to the theme of Knowledge as Power and Resistance. In this section, Audra—and the reader—are still in the dark about the secret resistance movement and her parents’ role in it.
Nielsen introduces magic as a motif early on as something that connects Audra to her father and something that will keep her safe in future predicaments. Additionally, the “magic” of the solstice and the ancestral traditions everyone is celebrating are examples of what could be lost if attempts at Russifying Lithuania are successful. Audra’s horrific experience of her parents’ arrest starkly contrasts the joyful festivities of the summer solstice celebration that night, a signal that violence is so commonplace in occupied Lithuania that it is not even disruptive.
The midsummer festivities and Audra’s comments about her name in Chapter 1 softly introduce the theme of Embracing and Defending One’s Culture and Identity, which will be magnified in future sections. By having Audra declare her name and its Lithuanian meaning and highlighting these age-old customs, Nielsen is building a foundation for the fight to save the Lithuanian language and culture at the center of the narrative.
This night is the first of many instances where Audra witnesses the Russian soldiers indiscriminately harming others to reinforce their power over the Lithuanians. Rusakov’s disdain for the solstice traditions and callous insults to the children characterize him as hateful and ignorant. Ironically, Violeta can use this ignorance against him to protect Audra in the ferns. The children in the woods are the first of many future moments where Audra must practice trusting others to help her. Nielsen crafts a suspenseful scene by ending Chapter 4 with a cliffhanger and drawing out the moments that Audra waits to be discovered. Violeta models quick and clever thinking to save someone’s life, which Audra later does for herself. Violeta’s choice also introduces the theme of the power of choice and doing the right thing despite its danger or difficulty.
This section also highlights the elusiveness of Justice Under Oppressive Systems, which will emerge as another primary theme in the narrative. In this section, we only see the injustice of burned homes, Lithuanians being arrested, and children being asked to turn in other children. In this section, Nielsen hints that however the Russians define “justice,” the Lithuanian people will suffer, and their national identity and culture will be suppressed.
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By Jennifer A. Nielsen
