The Girl Who Owned a City

This final section of Part 1 formally introduces Tom Logan, the leader of the Chidester Gang, as the primary antagonist of the novel. Notably, he makes the same proposal to Lisa that Steve Cole suggested at the militia’s first meeting, and the novel even portrays him as somewhat reasonable and sympathetic. Like the rest of the children, he and his gang are scared and hungry, and they’re surviving as they know how; he even apologizes for attacking Todd. However, Lisa declines his offer less on practical grounds than on moral ones, as she feels she could never trust someone who would betray their neighbor. In doing so, the novel expresses a more abstract concept of neighbor than its everyday sense: A neighbor is not only someone who lives near you, but also a member of a community to which you owe allegiance. The novel therefore reinforces a particular conception of an individual’s role in a community; it isn’t necessarily theft that is unforgivable but theft from one’s neighbor. (However, it’s worth noting that Lisa was able to forgive Charlie, and the novel makes no effort to differentiate between these two situations, both of which are betrayals, and both of which relate to the same event.)

The question of whether society is worth rebuilding and, if so, what form it should take becomes more prominent in this section as well. It’s important that the two de facto leaders of Grandville understand their situation very differently: Whereas Lisa seems to enjoy solving problems and wants to build back society, Craig is not thrilled about his role as Grandville’s militia commander and would strongly prefer to live on one of the Swift Road farms and fend for himself and his sister. This divide becomes more explicit in the first truly direct challenge to Lisa, which comes from Jill the night of the campfire. It’s hard for Lisa even to recognize Jill’s argument at first because she doesn’t understand why everyone doesn’t find these challenges to be enjoyable; as she later tells Todd, she feels that life would be dull if we were happy and comfortable all the time. However, Jill does help Lisa understand that not everyone feels the way she does—and, in particular, that she might be asking too much of small children when she expects them to relish their opportunity to contribute to the community and earn basic supplies by standing as night guards. In this exchange, the novel begins to depict Lisa as special and distinct from the rest of the children, suggesting that while all children may be capable of developing these skills, it takes someone special to lead them there.

Chapter 8 also gives us the novel’s first real shift in point of view in order to highlight the differences in characters’ mindsets. During Lisa and Craig’s run to and from the warehouse, we see Craig through his own perspective, as opposed to Lisa’s often unsympathetic perspective. This reminds us that the narrator is close to, but not one with, Lisa, which is an important reminder in a novel that employs a third-person limited point of view.

The conclusion of Part I—the burning of Lisa and Todd’s home—is significant for several reasons. It is of course devastating for Lisa and Todd to discover that the only home they’ve ever known has been destroyed in a fit of violence and revenge; Lisa had rejected the idea of living at the Swift Road farm precisely because she didn’t want to leave their home. Moreover, the home’s destruction sets up an important question about the value of material things that the next section will explore in more depth; Part I put a heavy emphasis on private property, and Lisa will now have to wrestle with the fact that her primary possession no longer exists, and that she is effectively homeless according to her own ideals and beliefs. Lastly, the fire also raises questions about Lisa’s approach thus far. Given the outcome, she was certainly correct to recognize the danger the gangs pose and to separate the supplies so that one loss wouldn’t be devastating. On the other hand, this attack was targeted: The gang didn’t burn the whole neighborhood, but only Lisa and Todd’s house, making it an act of retaliation against Lisa rather than a method of survival. One of the main objections other children have raised to Lisa’s approach has centered on avoiding violence—e.g., Steve Cole suggesting that they strike a deal with the Chidester Gang—so this act illustrates the risks present in Lisa’s more forward approach, which will only become more pronounced as the novel progresses.