98 pages • 3 hours read
Margaret Peterson HaddixAmong the Hidden
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 19-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
After confirming Luke can read (many third children cannot), Jen sends him home with books and articles to inform him about the government’s laws and regulations as well as the harm they’ve done. Several of the books detail the famine and the research surrounding the population laws. The articles tell the other side. They detail the ongoing horrors of the Population Law.
For a few days, it rains, so Luke stays inside, reading the books and articles from Jen. Dad is home too, with nothing to tend to on rainy days and growing bored without the hogs to care for. When Dad comes upstairs to see Luke, Luke hides the book he’s reading under his pillow. Dad offers to play cards with Luke. Luke wants to ask Dad about the things he’s reading, but he keeps it inside. When Dad expresses that he has nothing to do except figure out how to pay bills, Luke asks if it’s possible for Dad to grow food in the basement with special lights and setups. Luke doesn’t let on that he read about hydroponics in one of the books. Dad likes the idea, and he finishes the card game with Luke quickly so he can look into it more.
As Luke reads, he learns about a drought that caused a food shortage for several years. The government limited people to 1,500 calories a day and seized the means of production from the population to ensure enough food was created. They converted junk food factories to health food factories, and they forced farmers to move to land that’s better for crops. Luke wonders if this is why his family lives so far from his grandparents.
Luke now feels guilty when he eats dinner, wondering if there are people going without food because of him. He wonders if he should exist at all. However, he turns his attention toward the articles Jen printed out, and he begins to feel better. The articles detail the evils of the Population Law and the poor treatment of shadow children as a result.
When he manages to see Jen again, he asks about the readings. Jen explains that the government paid for the books to be published while the articles are from independent sources. The books are propaganda, and she believes they are full of lies. Luke isn’t sure, though, since both sides make sense.
Chapter 20 Summary
As winter comes, Luke finds it easier to go next door. He’s not worried about other Barons seeing him so much as he’s worried about Dad catching him. Dad doesn’t have much to do in the winter, but he’s started going into town to the library or hardware store most of the day. He’s excited about the idea of a hydroponic garden.
Luke tells Jen about the hydroponics idea, but Jen worries the government won’t let people grow food that way. In the chat room on Jen’s computer, the other shadow children discuss fake IDs. Jen tells her friends she won’t get a fake ID. She wants her first ID to have her real name. She hypes up the rally to her online friends. Luke asks about fake IDs. Jen explains that most shadow children eventually get one and go live with families that aren’t their own and live under the new identity for the rest of their lives. Jen sees it as just another way of hiding, and she doesn’t want to hide at all. The kids online joke about Jen needing to calm down.
Jen paces the floor, frustrated, lashing out at her circumstances. She thinks they’re being naive and don’t understand that the rally is their only hope. It’s coming up in April, and Jen plans to spend the next few months making sure everyone is ready to go. While Jen works on the computer, Luke sneaks out and returns home.
Chapter 21 Summary
In February, the government sends Dad a letter telling him to cease his plans for a hydroponic garden. The letter indicates the government believes Dad will be growing drugs with the equipment he’s purchased. Dad becomes stressed about money now. Luke wonders if they would be better off if they’d never had him, but Luke reminds himself that he wears hand-me-down clothes and eats very little.
Without the hydroponics idea to keep Dad busy, he’s home much more often. Luke only manages to visit Jen once in February and twice in March. Each time, they have fun either baking cookies or playing board games. Jen tells Luke about a play group her mom used to take her to that was all third children of government officials. There was even a family with a dog, which surprises Luke because pets are illegal now. He only knows about them from his dad’s stories of childhood.
Jen explains more about the government’s propaganda. In addition to banning pets to save food for humans, the government ran a campaign convincing women that pregnancy was evil and depicted pregnant women as criminals. Jen’s dad has told her that there are too few babies being born now. Luke wonders why the government keeps up the campaign, but Jen is exasperated with Luke’s naive worldview. Jen tells about how her mother went shopping when pregnant but just told everyone she was fat.
Jen believes her brothers don’t turn her in because then they’d be stuck shopping with their mom instead, but she’s joking. She asks if Luke trusts his own brothers. Luke does, but when Jen asks about further down the line, once their parents have died, Luke isn’t sure. Neither Matthew nor Mark has spent any time with Luke recently. Matthew is busy with his new girlfriend and Mark is wrapped up in basketball practice.
Luke enjoys distracting Jen from her talks of the rally. He’s looking forward to spring when the trees grow leaves again so his trip to her house is safer. He’s okay with his situation as long as he has Jen to be his friend.
Chapter 22 Summary
In April, it rains for two weeks before Luke has an opportunity to sneak over to Jen’s house. Once the fields dry, Dad returns to work, and Luke makes it to Jen’s. Jen is happy to see him, explaining that she was worried she’d have to fill him in when she picks him up the night before the rally. Jen plans to take one of her parents’ cars and pick up several shadow children on her way to the president’s house. Everyone is planning to meet there at 6:00am this coming Friday. Luke worries about Jen’s ability to drive and wonders if she’s thought through her plan.
Jen explains how she has learned to hack websites and has changed the schedules of several Population Police officers so she can avoid them on her route. She’s excited and fully believes in her plan. She tells Luke she’s going to pick him up at 10:00pm Luke asks what happens when they get to the president’s house. Jen says they won’t do anything in the face of a thousand children demanding rights. Jen believes this is about to be a revolution. All of Jen’s online friends are on board with her plan.
Jen asks what sign Luke wants to carry for the rally, giving him options that say “End the Population Law now!” or “Give me liberty or give me death” (110). Luke tells her he cannot go with her. Luke and Jen argue, with Jen trying to convince Luke that he’s brave and needs to join the rally and Luke responding that he can’t put himself at risk like her. Jen reminds him how much he hates hiding and asks him to come to the rally as a favor to her if he won’t do it for himself. Luke tells her again that it’s dangerous and he won’t be participating. Jen tells him to leave, adding that she doesn’t have time for him now. As Luke leaves, he tries to wish her luck, but Jen tells him only actions count toward anything.
Chapter 23 Summary
When Luke gets home, he’s angry. He slams the kitchen door and stomps to his room. He feels Jen thinks she’s better than him and he wishes he’d never gone to see her at all. He’s angry about her arrogance and wishes she’d get shot for what she’s doing just to learn a lesson, but he quickly takes back those thoughts. He’s actually terrified that Jen and the other children will get shot. He wonders if she expects to die. He puts his face in his hands.
Mother finds Luke sulking when she gets home several hours later. She asks if he’s okay because he looks pale. Luke manages to keep his emotions inside and says he just hasn’t been in the sun in a while.
Chapter 24 Summary
For the rest of the week, Luke worries about Jen, considering whether he can persuade her not to go. It rains the rest of the week, so he doesn’t have a chance to go see her again.
Late on Thursday night, Luke hears Jen sneak into his house and up his stairs to the attic. Jen finds Luke in bed with her flashlight, and then promptly turns it off. Luke tells her he still can’t go with her. He believes his parents being farmers, not lawyers, impacts his ability to stay safe during Jen’s plan. He believes Barons will have more power if something goes wrong. He says people like Jen change things, but people like him and his family just have things happen.
Jen tells Luke he’s wrong, but she admits that it’s a dangerous plan. She isn’t going to pressure Luke into joining her. She tells him he’s been a good friend and she’ll miss him. Luke assures her he’ll see her after the rally. Jen says she hopes so and tells Luke goodbye.
Chapters 19-24 Analysis
Chapters 19 through 24 explore Luke and Jen’s growing friendship and develop the main themes of the novel through Jen’s efforts to educate Luke and get him to join her rally for freedom. These chapters also give greater insight into the government’s authority and treatment of its citizens, developing the government further as the main antagonist.
Chapter 19 significantly develops The Impact of Propaganda theme when Jen sends Luke home with a pile of government-approved books and several articles she’s printed from the internet. Because Luke has not had the same exposure to the world as Jen, Jen feels the need to give Luke the means to educate himself on the causes and effects of the Population Law. Luke reads titles such as “The Population Reversal” and “The Famine Years Revisited” (89). After reading the dense, government-approved books and learning about his country’s famine and the reasons behind the Population Law, “Luke felt pangs of guilt now” (92). He wonders if “someone was starving someplace because of him” (92). Luke can hardly eat his dinner because he’s “worrying that maybe the Government was right and that he shouldn’t exist” (93). With the information in the books, Luke gains an understanding of the suffering his country went through before getting to the point of the Population Law, leading him to feel that perhaps it is not okay for him to exist illegally.
However, Luke goes on to read the articles Jen gave him, which give him another perspective on the issue. The articles feature lines like “The Population Law is evil” and “Hundreds of children are hidden, mistreated, starved, neglected, abused—even murdered—for no reason. Forcing children into the shadows can be counted as genocide” (93). These articles reveal a different side of the issue, saying that there is plenty of food for everyone and the shortages would be solved if Barons stopped hoarding food. These articles firmly oppose the Population Law and the cruelties that have come from it.
After reading these articles, Luke becomes confused. He’s never been exposed to multiple sides of an issue before. He asks Jen about the conflicting information, and she replies:
The Government allowed those books to be published—they probably even paid for them. So of course they’re going to say what the Government wants people to believe. They’re just propaganda. Lies. But the articles, the authors of those probably put themselves at risk getting the information out. So they’re right (94).
Luke’s guilt after reading the books and Jen’s passion about advocating for shadow children are both a result of the media they’ve consumed, with propaganda working from both sides to influence their opinions on the Population Law. Luke’s and Jen’s emotions show how powerfully propaganda can influence people’s lives and opinions. Additionally, these sources beg questions about Legality Versus Morality by showing how the Population Law, despite its good intentions, has had cruel consequences on third children.
Jen’s passionate advocacy for shadow children’s rights deepens as these chapters progress. Jen works tirelessly for several months to organize her fellow shadow children and make plans for the big day. Jen’s passion runs so deep that when one of the kids in her chat room expresses getting a fake ID at 18, she rages that they’re not taking the rally seriously. She expresses, “getting one of those I.D.’s—that’s just a different way of hiding. I want to be me and go about like anybody else. There’s no compromise. Which is why I’ve got to convince these idiots that the rally’s their only chance” (97). Jen’s intense reaction to her friends' attitudes shows how personally she is taking the issues of shadow children. She is unsatisfied with a life of hiding, and she firmly believes that holding a rally full of shadow children will convince the government to change the law.
As April approaches, Jen becomes more entrenched in her work, learning to hack government systems and planning rides and routes for her shadow children friends to make it to the president’s house. The stress of the ordeal begins to impact Jen. Luke observes “the fatigue in her eyes” (108) when he visits her in April, just days before the rally. Although Luke has told her he’s afraid to go, Jen pleads with him desperately, forcing Luke to make a choice: go to the rally to fight for freedom and support Jen, or stay home where he knows he’ll be safe.
Luke ultimately chooses self-preservation, causing Jen to lash out saying she doesn’t “have time for [Luke]” (112). Before Luke leaves, Jen’s parting words are “Hope doesn’t mean anything [...] Action’s the only thing that counts” (113). However, when Jen visits Luke the night before she leaves for the rally, she’s changed her attitude. She acknowledges that what she’s asked of Luke is dangerous and accepts his refusal to go. When Luke asks if he’ll see her the next day, she replies “We can hope” (118), revealing a less steadfast side of Jen. While before, she was so sure of her plan that she became angry at anyone who doubted her and denounced the idea of hope, Jen’s sobered attitude during her visit with Luke indicates the fear she has about her plan and foreshadows the consequences to come.
The differences between Luke’s outlook and Jen’s outlook come as a result of the propaganda they’ve consumed and the privileges they’ve had, further enhancing the themes of The Impact of Propaganda and The Effects of Privilege. While Jen has lived a relatively protected life as a Baron with government connections, Luke has been raised in complete fear of the government and its laws against him. Both of their worldviews are further validated by the propaganda they read, with Luke still fearing the government and Jen believing that her rally will liberate shadow children because it’s the morally right thing to do. Because Jen has lived a life of privilege, she does not fully fear the power of the government, and her optimistic worldview leads her to believe in her rally for shadow children.
However, Luke’s life of hiding and watching the government take things from his family has instilled fear in him. He does not have the privilege to be brave because he has a real understanding of the consequences that face him. He explains this to Jen in Chapter 24, when he tells her outright that he still isn’t going to the rally. Luke says, “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” (117). Through Luke’s observation of these differences, the idea that privilege impacts one’s options and worldview is communicated.
These chapters leave off with Luke staying home and Jen venturing into uncertainty as she leaves for her rally.
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