103 pages • 3 hours read
The Last Book In The Universe
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Chapters 28-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 28 Summary: “When They Come for Us in the Apple Trees”
Jin embraces Little Face as his own child. Bree decides she will help him choose a new name when he is a bit older. Spaz, Ryter, and Bean spend their days in Eden outside in the grass, which they refer to as “grasswalking.” Bean has grown strong again, and she and Spaz spend time together in the apple trees, picking and eating them straight from the tree and sharing stories from their lives apart. One day while they’re doing this, a skyvee approaches and two enforcer proovs get out and call for Spaz and his companions to come now, as the Masters have summoned them. Even though they come down willingly, they are body cuffed and treated as criminals.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Say Good-bye to Eden”
After a flight in the skyvee, they arrive at a place called Stadium, which is drastically different from the crumbling concrete stadiums in the Urb and appears to be cut from the side of a hill with a spoon. Thousands of proovs assemble on the grass, and the trio’s handcuffs are removed so that they can stand in a smooth black circle at the bottom of the hill. Ryter is already there when they arrive, while Little Face was able to be concealed. Unlike in the Urb, where latchbosses make their own rules and decisions, they are about to stand trial in front of the seven Masters for breaking the rule that forbids normals in Eden.
The Masters appear from the ground on platforms, and the oldest one asks Lanaya why she brought normals into Eden. She turns to the crowd in an attempt to persuade them with her story, telling them directly about the current state of the Urb—the latches without bosses, and how probes are being supplied to the Urb from inside Eden—and she calls on the intelligence of Bean, a normal, who was able to pick up chess and surpass Jin. She goes on to tell of her own rescue and how Bean came to be in Eden and cured of her disease. She argues that the First Engineers were not preoccupied with altering for physical beauty but rather for survival; she asks that the crowd let the normals stay because all people are the same and Urb children do not need improving. She is met with a resounding "no" from the crowd. They are asked to leave if they disagree and stay if they agree, and the crowd quickly disperses, leaving the hill empty. The Masters confer and decide to uphold the laws as they stand. When Lanaya is a Master, things may change, but for today the rule remains.
Chapter 30 Summary: “The Sound of Jetbikes”
Bean, Ryter, and Spaz are sent back to the Urb immediately, without having a chance to say goodbye to Lanaya or thank her and her family for their support. First, they travel via takvee through the Zoneto drop Bean off—again, without any heartfelt goodbyes. Then Spaz and Ryter are left together at Ryter’s stackbox. Ryter shares that he does not think he'll be dying of old age. Writers are outsiders and outsiders get blamed, but he is happy to be home and to finish his book. He is still confident that Spaz has nothing to fear from Billy Bizmo, but Spaz still questions this. Spaz falls asleep and wakes to the sound of jetbikes in the night.
Chapters 28-30 Analysis
Chapter 28 exposes another difference between the Urb and Eden, in terms of their government. The latches operate as dictatorships, with each latchboss as commander and his or her henchmen serving the purpose of both military and police enforcement. Eden’s judicial system, on the other hand, operates by trial, where thousands of proovs sit and weigh in on the case at hand, like one massive jury, while the seven Masters still have the final say (as a kind of panel of judges). Bean and Spaz are body-cuffed for transport to their trial, despite being peaceful and compliant with the teks on the skyvee. When an enforcer tells Spaz that all the proovs waiting at the Stadium for the trial to begin have also been summoned, Spaz asks, “So they all arrived in body-cuffs?” (179). The answer is an obvious no, but the tek will not even acknowledge the question, implying that he thinks normals are that far beneath him. Much like in America today, class difference can play a huge role in police treatment and how one is treated when witness or participant to a crime. “Innocent until proven guilty” can easily be twisted into a privilege, rather than a basic civil right.
Despite having convinced her father, Lanaya is unable to convince her potential subjects (as a future Master) that normals deserve a place in Eden, beginning with Spaz, Bean, and Ryter. She conveys their story, Bean’s disease and the need for her to come to Eden for a cure, Bean’s natural-born intelligence, and the disintegration of quality of life due to probes in the Urb. The proovs still get up and walk away when asked to decide if the normals should be allowed to stay. She asks them to consider their points of similarity with the normals, but for many of the proovs it is far too difficult for them to check their privilege. They are far more comfortable ignoring what’s going on in the Urb and continuing to live their lives of safety and ease while changing nothing. The seven Masters’ final decision reflects this complacency: “Eden shall be Eden” (187), at least for the present. The leaders acknowledge a change may be coming, but they will not be undertaking it themselves.
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