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Among the Hidden is a dystopian young adult novel by Margaret Peterson Haddix. This is the story about the main character, Luke Gardner, who is a third child. In the world that Luke lives in, parents are only allowed to have two children, and any additional children will be killed.
Luke is twelve-years-old, and for those years, he has had to hide from the world. His parents own a farm. For many years, Luke was able to go outside and help on the farm because they did not have any neighboring houses nearby. But then, houses were built next to them, and so Luke had to spend all of his time in his room.
One day, Luke notices that there is someone there during the day in the neighbor's house. He thinks it's a third child. Finally, he builds up his courage and goes over to the neighboring house. That is where he meets Jen Talbot.
Jen is also a third child. She talks to other third children in a chat room. She is obsessed with freedom, and she wants to protest to the government in a rally. She asks Luke to come with her to the protest, but Luke is too scared. At the protest, Jen is killed.
The day after the protest, before Luke knows what has happened, he goes to Jen's house to see her. Jen's dad is there and tells Luke everything. At the end of the story, Jen's dad gets a fake ID for Luke. This allows him to pretend to be Lee Grant, so that he can go to school and stop hiding in his room.
There are many themes in Among the Hidden but this lesson focuses on four main ones: friendship, family, freedom, and courage.
When the story of Among the Hidden begins, Luke does not have any friends. He has been hiding from the world for twelve years. Even though he loves his parents and his two older brothers, it's not until Luke meets Jen that he starts to learn about friendship. Their friendship is very important to Luke, which is why they visit so often.
Before Luke meets Jen, the only human beings he is able to interact with are his family. Although Luke doesn't always get along with his brothers and doesn't always agree with his parents, family is everything to Luke. It's also clear that to Luke's parents, family is very important. That's why they make such an effort to hide and protect Luke.
Because the setting for Among the Hidden is a world with a government that has taken many freedoms away, freedom is a main theme. People in this world are not free to have the number of children that they want. Jen is obsessed with freedom and with earning freedom for the hidden children. Her fight for freedom eventually costs her life.
For clarification, courage is strength in the face of fear and adversity. There are a few important examples of courage in Among the Hidden. It took courage for Luke to run to Jen's house to see if there was a third child there. He knew that if he was wrong, he could be turned in to the government and killed. It was also courage that helped Jen to be able to go before the government and ask for rights for third children. She also knew that there was a chance she would be killed, and she did.
Let's review. Among the Hidden is a dystopian young adult novel by Margaret Peterson Haddix and it's about a boy named Luke Gardner, who is a third child in a world where only two children are allowed per family. He lives in hiding and befriends a neighboring third child, Jen Talbot.
In the end, Jen is killed trying to fight for her rights, and Luke takes on a new identity. There are several themes that can be found throughout the book, including friendship, freedom, family, and courage, which is strength in the face of fear and adversity.
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9th Grade English: Help and Review19 chapters | 318 lessons | 1 flashcard set
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