57 pages • 1 hour read
Olivie BlakeThe Atlas Six
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary: “Truth”
Nico
After the Alexandrian Society orientation, the candidates are given 24 hours to decide whether to accept the invitation. Nico walks home to his roommates, who are introduced as Gideon, a narcoleptic magical being who can walk through dreams, and Maximilian, a shapeshifter who can turn into a black Labrador Retriever. Nico tells them that he has been offered a new position, but he does not elaborate since he was sworn to secrecy. We also learn that Nico and Gideon are best friends, and Nico has been secretly protecting Gideon from his criminal mother Eilif and plans to use the Society’s archives to secure his safety.
Tristan
Tristan insists on speaking with Atlas after Dalton’s presentation because he wants to know why he was selected. He believes that his talent, although rare, does not match that of the others. Atlas responds that Tristan may not know what he is capable of. He demonstrates this by having Tristan describe the details he notices in a painting, proving that the latter’s power of deduction combined with his ability to see through magical illusions is extremely valuable.
Parisa
Parisa follows Dalton to glean information about his role in the Society (incidentally, we also learn that the building is slightly sentient). Dalton first proves unhelpful, so she kisses him to provoke a reaction and, as he is taken by surprise, she can read his thoughts and learns that he is afraid of something. She then leaves and meets Tristan waiting by the elevator. She decides to make him an ally and invites him to have a drink with her in London. Parisa is shown to be clever and calculating: “Dalton was chess; Tristan was sport. Importantly, though, both were games” (63).
Libby
Libby has a conversation with her boyfriend, Ezra, after telling him she is accepting what she evasively calls a “fellowship.” She mentions that Nico accepted the same offer and Ezra worries about his presence there, but Libby reassures him, explaining that she needs to prove herself against Nico. When she asks Ezra to support her, he eventually obliges but asks her to be careful.
Chapter 2 Analysis
The second chapter introduces more information about the Society, and questions begin to arise about reality and perception. As mentioned previously, “truth” is the main theme underlying the characters’ actions in this chapter. Both Libby and Nico, for instance, hide truths from Ezra and Gideon respectively, asking them to trust their decision to accept the “fellowship” because they have been sworn to secrecy by the Society. Additionally, Tristan asks Atlas for the truth about his selection but does not fully believe Atlas’s response, while Parisa attempts to find out information from Dalton, who is hiding important truths from her.
In the first section, Nico first hides the truth of Atlas’s invitation from his roommates Max and Gideon. Then, we learn that he has been concealing the extent of his care for Gideon.
Nico is motivated by a desire to protect his friend rather than to deceive or manipulate him. When Libby tells Ezra that she will accept the invitation, her protectiveness of her boyfriend seems to come second to her ambition. Her main objective is to be initiated into the Society and to prove herself against Nico once and for all.
Parisa attempts to glean information from Dalton, first by asking him directly about his role in the Society, then by kissing him to elicit an uncontrolled, genuine response. As his guard lowers when they kiss, she learns that he is afraid of something, although she does not know what. On top of creating suspense by foreshadowing Dalton’s secret, this moment highlights Parisa’s ability to use what she learns from people’s thoughts to gain power. She evidently does not object to using people’s vulnerabilities to serve her interests, but her morality is yet unclear to the reader.
Callum’s point of view is noticeably absent from this chapter focusing on “Truth,” already indicating that he does not have much concern for that concept. Indeed, in the following chapters, Callum is characterized as someone who cares little for truth as long as he gets what he wants. His moral code revolves around serving his own interests. In addition, his manipulation of people’s emotions corrupts natural, genuine feelings, a fact that will be revealed later in the narrative. As a result, Callum’s absence from Chapter 2 suggests that he reacts to the Society differently than the other five, who each struggle with moral crises.
As for Tristan, he struggles less with hiding the truth from others and more with being denied the truth. When he asks Atlas why he was chosen as a potential initiate, Atlas replies that Tristan may not be aware of his own abilities—a truth that is therefore hidden from himself. Foreshadowing his later experiments with time and space, his and Atlas’s conversation highlights Tristan’s ability not only to see through magical illusions but also to deduce information from observation. On a thematic level, Blake takes advantage of the pseudo-academic setting to explore philosophical and scientific questions about each of the chapters’ central concepts.
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By Olivie Blake
