The City of Ember Essay Questions

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Why do you think the Builders left instructions about how to escape the city of Ember?

There are a couple of main reasons for their leaving these instructions. The first reason is a practical one; the city is underground, and so the inhabitants of Ember have never lived above the ground. They simply have no idea about how the city was built, and so have no idea where it is, where it lies, or how to get from under to above the ground. It's therefore necessary for the Builders to give practical and geographical directions to those unfamiliar with the city's location.

The second reason has more to do with the predictable nature of power and of the people who have it. Although at first the mayors of Ember obeyed the instructions, inevitably a less trustworthy mayor came into power. Where former mayors had done whatever seemed best for the city, the current mayor, and most likely a couple of his predecessors, has only feathering his own nest in mind when taking office. The Builders most likely foresaw that there would be men like this mayor who would come to power and who would decimate the spirit and the purpose of Ember. They knew too that those good citizens of Ember would be threatened and would therefore need an escape route.

What could Lina and Doon have done differently to avoid becoming fugitives?

Lina and Doon are both very honest, upstanding citizens who believe that people should work together for the benefit of the city. They are disgusted by the actions of Loopy and the mayor and so report them because they believe the authorities to be upstanding citizens and honest leaders. This is an error in judgement; they are not sufficiently cynical as people to be able to deduce that the authorities are going to tell the mayor that they are the ones reporting him. To avoid being fugitives, they would have to be more worldly and therefore not assume that everyone is as anxious to weed out corruption as they are. They also would need to be more aware of politics, and of how a corrupt mayor is most likely to appoint corrupt officials to support him. They have a rose-colored view of human nature, which is laudable, but in order to avoid becoming fugitives they would definitely need to think their plans through more and consider what might happen if they are betrayed by those whom they trust in authority.

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The City of Ember Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The City of Ember is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

why do the people of ember how anger toward the mayer in the town meeting

Are you referring to chapter 6? The mayor's voice kept coming in blasts of incomprehensible sound, and the people in the crowd were either shouting angrily or yelping in fear of being squashed. Someone stepped on Lina's foot, and her scarf was...

What day did the book open up?

The book opens on Assignment Day, or the day the twelve-year-olds are given their jobs.

Describe Lina's classroom with three adjectives?

From the text:

Lina looked up and gazed around the schoolroom. She said a silent goodbye to everything that had been familiar for so long. Goodbye to the map of the city of Ember in its scarred wooden frame and the cabinet whose shelves held The...

Study Guide for The City of Ember

The City of Ember study guide contains a biography of Jean DuPrau, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

  • About The City of Ember
  • The City of Ember Summary
  • Character List

city of ember essay questions

city of ember essay questions

The City of Ember

Jeanne duprau, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The City of Ember: Introduction

The city of ember: plot summary, the city of ember: detailed summary & analysis, the city of ember: themes, the city of ember: quotes, the city of ember: characters, the city of ember: symbols, the city of ember: theme wheel, brief biography of jeanne duprau.

The City of Ember PDF

Historical Context of The City of Ember

Other books related to the city of ember.

  • Full Title: The City of Ember
  • When Written: Early
  • Where Written: California
  • When Published: 2003
  • Literary Period: Contemporary
  • Genre: Young Adult Fiction; Science Fiction
  • Setting: Ember, a fictional underground city
  • Climax: Lina, Doon, and Poppy make it out of Ember.
  • Antagonist: Mayor Cole and the Seventh Mayor specifically; greed in general
  • Point of View: Third-Person Omniscient

Extra Credit for The City of Ember

The Deepest Hole. The deepest manmade hole in the earth is the Mponeng gold mine in South Africa, which stretches two and a half miles underground. At that depth temperatures can reach 150 degrees Fahrenheit, so mine operators pump icy slurry into the tunnels to cool them enough for mine employees to work. Despite these inhospitable conditions, scientists have found microscopic life in water from the mine, which they suggest could offer clues as to what life on Mars might look like.

The Sun and Sleep. Without the sun (or set artificial lights) to dictate a person’s circadian rhythm—that is, the cycle of sleeping during the night and being awake during the day—it’s possible for humans to sleep for stretches of up to 48 hours.

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The City of Ember Essay Topics & Writing Assignments

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Essay Topic 1

Describe Ember. What are some important aspects of the city?

Essay Topic 2

Compare Lina and Doon. How are they similar? How are they different? How does each impact the other?

Essay Topic 3

How does Ember come into being? Why is it built? What are the Builders' plans for the city? How do those plans go wrong?

Essay Topic 4

Describe Assignment Day. How are jobs assigned? What's wrong with this method? What could have been done differently?

Essay Topic 5

Describe at least five inhabitants of Ember. How are each important to the city? How are each important to other inhabitants?

Essay Topic 6

Describe how Doon and Lina leave Ember. What are some of the major problems they encounter? How do they overcome them?

Essay Topic 7

What are some of the problems in Ember the year Doon and Lina turn twelve? How are these problems being addressed? What...

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The City of Ember

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44 pages • 1 hour read

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Final City Of Ember Test

Settings

Complete the quiz based on what we have read so far in the novel.

Students were assigned to their jobs for ________ years.

Rate this question:

What surrounds the City of Ember on all sides? 

The mayor and the police force

What happened to Granny? 

She fell and hit her head and beame very sick

She was angry at Lina and left the City of Ember

She yelled at Mrs. Murdo because she reopened the yarn shop

Doon is Lina's best friend.

Lina is content with the decision to live with mrs. murdo and has adjusted well to her new home., decide which of the following statements is incorrect based on what you have read..

Lizzie is helping Looper to eat up all of the extra food found in the storerooms

The mayor is stealing food from the city storerooms

Lina decided to be greedy and asked for Lizzie to get her the colored paper

The people of Ember are beginning to worry about food, supplies, and electricty

The guards are next in charge, behind the mayor.

Define egress according to clary. .

A way out or an exit

What is Lina's favorite day of the year? 

End of School

Singing Day

The first day of the new school year

The builders said the people must live in the City of Ember for at least _______________ years before leaving.

______________________ was to keep "the instructions" for the city of ember..

The oldest person in Ember

The commissioners

The Chief Builder

What happened on assignment day?

Students picked a job from a small cloth green sack as their new job

The mayor of Ember assigned jobs to the students based on their skills

Students were allowed to pick job assignments based on their talents.

The teacher and the mayor selected jobs for the students as they left school

Generator: _________________Builders: "Instructions"  

Greenhouses

Gathering Hall

Lina thought that the partial document was ______________________ (from the opened case)

Directions for building the city

Recipe from the first people of Ember

Instructions for saving the city

Poppy's homework

The Believers and Captain Fleery thought that __________________________.

The Builders were coming back to help/save the City of Ember

The magic of the box would save the people of Ember

The Instructions would be found and save the City of Ember

The people of Ember were too happy to leave Ember

Why was Granny tearing up the couch?  

Granny was looking for something that had been lost.

Granny's money had fallen into the couch and she was trying to get it out.

Granny wanted to use the stuffing to make a blanket for Poppy.

Granny was unable to recall her day with Lina

The people from Ember had never _____________

Used electricity before

Met someone from another city/place other than Ember

Climbed up a staircase

Ate vegetables

What does Lina purchase but then later begins to feel guilty about her purchase?

New coat for herself

More food for herself and Poppy

Yarn for the shop

Colored pencils

Who made the statement" Letting anger take over can lead to unintended consequences"

No one has been successful in creating a moveable light within the city of ember--- all lights are indoors or street lights. , select the person that would have stated this: " in my mind, i see another city. it isn't like ember, it is white and gleaming." , what event is described- " "shouts of alarm came from up and down the street, and then silence... terror swept through her. i must stand still, she thought..she took a step. when she didn't bump into anything , she took another step, and the fingers of her right hand crumpled against something hard.".

Lina running in the streets delivering messages

Lina was out in the street when Poppy was lost and the lights went out

Lina was searching for grandma

Lina saw Sadge in the street going crazy again

How long did the lights remain out in Chapter 5---the longest blackout ever in Ember?

What color are the messenger jackets in the city of ember .

Different colors depending on how long you have been a messenger

What did Doon's father tell him about his job after the first day? 

To notice what no one else does

Be good at what you do

He should change jobs after 3 months and work to repair the generator

He should not return to his job because the mayor will find out that he switched jobs

He said that he should help him with his job instead

What was different about the City of Ember?

The city was build on an Island

In the city the sky was always dark, since it is an "underground city"

The weather is always hot in the city

Everything in the city of Ember was built of steel.

According to Lina, which one of the following job assignments might have been considered a "Bad" job to have pulled out of the green bag? 

Greenhouse helper

Timekeeper's assistant

Pipeworks Labourer

Why did Doon want to trade jobs with Lina?

Lina had an easier job than Doon had drawn

Doon had a broken leg and would not be able to run all over Ember with messages.

Doon wanted to work on the generator near Pipeworks.

Doon's father did not want him to be a messenger in the city because it was too dangerous

Who did Doon see sleeping in the secret room within the Pipeworks?

Barton Snode

The guards from the Gathering Hall

The notice that greeted Doon, Lina , and Poppy after leaving Ember was written by The Builders.

Who found the note that was dropped into the city of ember by lina and doon at the end of novel , the molded  journal that poppy tried to eat,  gave lina and doon reason to believe that disaster was close at hand on earth before the volunteers moved into the city of ember. , what was the main reason that lina and doon decided to leave right away from ember.

They were being followed by the guards

Someone had told Mrs. Murdo that Lina was in danger

A reward had been posted for their capture

A mystery phone call

Granny ate Pineapple 4 times before the storehouses ran out of the fruit.  

Lina, doon and poppy first saw a deer in the open field after leaving ember and were shocked to see such a beautiful creature. .

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  1. The City of Ember Essay Questions

    The City of Ember study guide contains a biography of Jean DuPrau, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. About The City of Ember The City of Ember Summary

  2. The City of Ember Questions

    What could they have done differently? What does dividing the book between Lina and Doon's perspectives accomplish? In other words, what would The City of Ember have been like, if we only got the events through one point of view? Real talk: who's more selfish, the mayor or Looper? What makes you think this?

  3. The City of Ember Study Guide

    The City of Ember falls into a subcategory of science fiction and adventure fiction known as subterranean fiction, or fictional works that focus on life underground. The genre has its roots in the disproved 17th-century Hollow Earth theory, which proposed that the Earth is actually hollow. A variety of works can be argued to fall into this subcategory, from Dante's Inferno (in which hell is ...

  4. The City of Ember Critical Essays

    The City of Ember, published in 2003, is the first novel written by author Jeanne DuPrau. The book is part of a series of four Books of Ember, which also includes T he People of Sparks , The ...

  5. The City of Ember Essay Topics & Writing Assignments

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  7. The City of Ember Discussion Questions

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  10. The City of Ember Comprehension & Essay Questions (Editable Test)

    The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau literary analysis of: Setting Characters and Themes plus assessment activity for each one. plus a test that has 30 Reading comprehension questions + 10 Essay questions that cover many aspects of the book. The test is in word document and it is editable so that you. 2.

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  13. PDF T h e C i t y o f E mb e r

    Discussion Questions: 1. Kids in Ember stop going to school and begin their careers at age 12. Does the prospect of that responsibility and independence sound exciting or scary to you? What job in Ember would you like to have? 2. Lina and Doon are different in many ways. How do their differences help them as they work together towards a common ...

  14. City Of Ember Essay Questions

    4. At the end of the novel, Lina, Doon, and Poppy have discovered a new part of the world. Do you think that there are other people on the surface? Yes, I think the "surface" is the outer world because in the ending of the book they described how there are trees and sunlight coming from the sky. 5. What is the relevance of the title of the ...

  15. City of Ember Comprehension Questions

    Sharon has an Masters of Science in Mathematics and a Masters in Education. Cite this lesson. Help your students make sense of the book 'The City of Ember' with these comprehension questions. Dig ...

  16. PDF The City of Ember

    The City of Ember - Introduction and Chapter 1 - Pages 1 - 16 1. The builders said the people must live in the city of Ember for at least ____ years before leaving. a) 5000 b) 200 c) 60 d) 1000 2. _____ was to keep the instructions for leaving the city of Ember. a) The oldest person in Ember b) The commissioners c) The mayor d) The chief builder 3.

  17. City Of Ember Essay Questions Teaching Resources

    The City of Ember Google Drive Assessment Packet is an assessment packet to be used while students read the novel The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau.This packet which is in a Google Forms format only contains:Comprehension & vocabulary quiz after chapter 6 with matching, multiple-choice, and an essay writing question.Comprehension quiz after ...

  18. The City of Ember Lesson Plans and Activities

    City of Ember test. by Amy Hunt. The City of Ember Lesson Plans and Activities to help you teach Jeanne DuPrau's work. eNotes Lesson Plans are written, tested, and approved by teachers.

  19. Final City Of Ember Test

    A. Lizzie is helping Looper to eat up all of the extra food found in the storerooms. B. The mayor is stealing food from the city storerooms. C. Lina decided to be greedy and asked for Lizzie to get her the colored paper. D. The people of Ember are beginning to worry about food, supplies, and electricty. Correct Answer.