79 pages • 2 hours read
Pittacus LoreI Am Number Four
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A 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 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Four and Henri continue to practice using Four’s Legacies. During one of their practice sessions in which Four lies suspended over flames, Four has visions and images of the past, specifically of his grandfather, his father, and a creature called Hadley that transforms into different animals at will, like a dog, a monkey, and a bird.
Henri says that Four’s grandfather was the funniest person he ever met, while his grandmother was quiet but intelligent. His grandfather could turn invisible at will, which is one of the rarest Legacies there is. Henri briefly mentions his wife on Lorien, Julianne, whom he says was one of the kindest and most nurturing people he ever met.
As Four listens to Henri talk, he can see the battlefield. He sees the airship that carried the Garde and their Cêpan to Earth, but he also sees a second airship that uses fire for liftoff. This is unusual because Lorien ships use crystals, not fire, to power them, and Henri never mentioned anything about a second ship. Finally, he sees a man in a silver and blue suit who can control the weather, dead along with all the others on the battlefield.
When Four comes back to the present, he asks Henri why he never mentioned the second ship. Henri, completely perplexed, says that it is impossible that there could have been another ship. Four asks Henri why they were at the airfield on the day of the final battle. Henri replies that they were there for an air show, but it seems like he isn’t telling the full truth. He tells Four that they didn’t take off until three hours after the invasion started and that the underground compound underneath the airfield was a contingency plan many people thought they’d never need. One of Lorien’s Elders, Loridas, met them at the airfield and cast the Loric charm and gave all of them an amulet. They stayed in orbit for a week until it became clear Lorien was lost, and they went to Earth.
Henri tells Four that the man in the silver and blue suit was his father. Four asks him what hope there is if they were defeated so easily in the past. Henri tells him that there is always hope.
Chapter 12 Summary
On Saturday, Four and Henri attend the Halloween parade. It has been two weeks since they’ve arrived in Paradise, and Four can tell that they are both struggling with feelings of solitude.
Four introduces Henri to Sam at the fair. Henri and Sam trade rumors and conspiracy theories, and Sam asks him if he ever heard the theory that an alien race called the Mogadorians have already wiped out an entire planet and are on a quest for world domination starting with Earth. Henri and Four are shocked. When Henri asks where he heard that from, Sam says that he read about it in They Walk Among Us. After Sam leaves, Henri tells Four that he has to get a copy of that issue to find out who is supplying it.
Four spots Sarah, who asks if Four will be going to the haunted hayride tonight. Mark interrupts and taunts Four, who plays it cool but implies that he will fight him. Sarah gets in between them and tells them to stop before she gives up and walks away.
Chapter 13 Summary
Four goes after Sarah and finds her sitting alone on the swing. She shares that Mark frustrates her and that she has no interest in getting back together with him. Before she leaves, she says that she and Four should go on the hayride together.
Four heads back to the pavilion, where Henri is sitting with Bernie Kosar. He asks if Henri thought any more about the second ship he saw the last time they practiced. He replies that he still doesn’t know what it means, but it wouldn’t be possible for it to have traveled here.
Later Four meets Sarah and her friend Emily for the hayride. Four spots Sam and invites him along. While they are all standing in line, a football player named Tommy offers them four spots left on the wagon that is just about to leave. Four is suspicious, especially since he didn’t even ask them for tickets. A few minutes after the ride starts, the wagon pulls into a clearing and drops everyone off before riding away. As Four and the others start down the trail, something heavy falls on them. Someone drags Four away from Sam and the girls and attacks him. Four is enraged when he hears Sarah yelling, so when his hands light up, he flashes them across the trees and begins to sprint, ready to attack.
Chapter 14 Summary
One of Mark’s friends, Kevin, comes out from the trees. He is clearly the one who attacked Four. Four is furious, and his strength is out of control. He fights Kevin and sprints away before Kevin can even get up.
Four can see Sam up ahead, so he flashes his lit hands to blind the rest of Mark’s accomplices. One of them tells him that it was just a joke meant to scare them. Four fights them, grabs Sam, and sets off to find Sarah and Emily. He suddenly gets tackled from behind. He shines the lights from his hands in his attacker’s face and grabs him by the throat. He demands to know what Mark is planning, so he picks him up a foot off the ground with his hand on his throat. The boy admits that it was Mark’s idea to drag him to Shepherd Falls, where Mark took Sarah. From there, Mark wanted to beat up Four while Sarah watched. Four makes the boy lead them to Shepherd Falls. On their way, Four notices Sam looks afraid and confused while looking down at Four’s hands. Four tells him that he is just wearing costume gloves.
When they arrive at Shepherd Falls, Four is outnumbered, but he fights Mark’s friends with almost no effort at all. He makes Mark apologize and agree that he and his friends won’t tell anyone what happened tonight. Then he pushes Mark in the water.
Sarah asks Four where he learned to fight like that. He jokingly tells her that he trained in martial arts for 12 years in the Himalayas. Sam is quiet, clearly rattled, and says that he has to get home. He leaves, and Four and Sarah kiss and share their feelings for one another.
Chapter 15 Summary
Four and Henri have begun Four’s real training, as Henri is clearly impatient for Four’s other Legacies to develop. Every Garde member develops telekinesis, but Four still has not. Henri seems distressed, afraid, and disappointed.
When Four asks him what’s wrong, Henri says that he has a bad feeling that the Mogadorians are getting close, and he doesn’t know how much longer they should stay in Paradise. He also admits that he is worried because Four should have already developed his telekinesis. Henri is afraid that because they are no longer on Lorien, which is where their powers stem from, the rest of his Legacies may not come at all. Then they will truly have no chance at defeating the Mogadorians.
Four asks if Henri regrets sticking with him for so long. Since there is no family on Lorien left for them to return to, Henri could create a new identity on Earth and live his life if it weren’t for him. Henri assures Four that he isn’t missing anything; he tells Four that he is his life, his connection to the past. Without him, he tells him, he has nothing.
Henri finally shows Four what is inside the Loric Chest. Inside a velvet bag there are seven glass orbs of various sizes, a replica of their solar system. The orbs orbit around Lorien’s sun, the largest orb of them all. The fourth globe from the sun is Lorien. As it moves, the surface of Lorien takes the exact form of what Lorien looks like in present time. Four is amazed but crestfallen to see a grey and black landscape with no movement or hint of fertility. Still, there is a glow in the center, a sign the planet is still living, hibernating.
Henri breathes onto the globe or Lorien, making it show what the planet looked like the day before the invasion. It is beautiful and flourishing. As he shows Four the Loric Museum of Exploration, he tells him that he has been thinking that the second ship Four saw in his vision must have been housed at the space museum, but he still is having a hard time believing that they had a chance to get away.
Later that night Four can’t sleep. Bernie Kosar keeps him company. Four affectionately asks him if he has superpowers.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
Chapters 11-15 show Four gradually growing into his powers, but these poses a new set of problems for him when he is forced to fight back against Mark and his cronies. His strength is out of control, and he doesn’t seem to even try and hide the fact that his hands light up. Four is the hero of the story, but like everyone else, heroes are flawed. He is at a point in his journey where he is being tested by his enemies and forming allies. He may not have encountered the Mogadorians yet, but he gets to put his newly developed Legacies to the test against a lesser enemy: Mark and his friends.
He has also made a friend in Sam, who is beginning to fulfill his role as Four’s ally and sidekick. Unfortunately, Four and Sam are not at a point yet in their relationship where Four can be truthful. In some ways, inadvertently revealing his powers to Sam is another test for Four. Henri always cautions Four not to be careless because there is so much at stake. Four, in his rage in the woods, may have beaten his enemy, but he still failed the test of remaining inconspicuous in front of Sam, Sarah, and Mark and his friends.
This section of the novel introduces one of the novel’s recurring symbols, light. Four has mostly led a life of passivity, one in which he has been in the dark, figuratively, about his past. As his Lumen develops, he learns more about his past, so he is figuratively “enlightened.” He also uses his Lumen in the dark frequently throughout the novel when he shouldn’t because it calls too much attention to him, especially in the woods, where he is taking a major risk exposing his true nature in front of his classmates. This suggests that although Four is beginning to learn and grow as a Legacy and a citizen of Loric, he doesn’t yet know how to harness this knowledge. Instead, he often risks giving himself away.
