Summer Reading Project- Legend
Dylan Armour
Character Analysis
June Iparis: June is the youngest student at Drake University because she was given the opportunity when she made a perfect score on her trial. She has an older brother named Metias who worked for the Republic. June's parents were supposedly killed in a car accident but later on in the book it reveals that they were killed by the government because her father questioned the true purpose of his research. She lives in one of the rich sectors of Los Angeles and also has a pet dog named Ollie.
Tess: Tess was a street orphan who was taken under the wing by Day. Day found her when she was 10 years old rummaging for food in dumpsters.
Plot
Rising Action: June goes undercover in order to find Day. She goes to a Skiz Fight expecting to find Day. Day bets on Kaede to win and she ends up beating her opponent. She asks the crowd who's next and Kaede scans the crowd and ends up choosing Tess. Before the fight starts; June comes forward to fight Kaede so Tess doesn't have to fight.June wins the fight and the crowd starts to get angry. Day then sets off a dust bomb and escapes with June and Tess. They then go camp out on a old abandoned library. After a few days; June starts to feel attached to Day and they end up falling in love when they kissed. June then starts to doubt Day killing Metias, but then thinks that she is just making excuses to protect Day. She then calls into Thomas to tell him that she has found Day. Thomas says that the 3-lined x means that the family has a special plague case that he is supposed to investigate the next morning. He then says that he will send medic trucks to Day's family's house to bring them to the Central Hospital. June tells Thomas to send for extra troops because she knows that Day will show up to protect his family. She asks Thomas to bring them to Batalla Hall hospital wing. June also tells Thomas that no one is should get hurt so she can have them for questioning. Day is woken up by a siren he recognizes to be from the plague control truck and knows that it is heading towards his house. He then rushes to their house before the plague control gets there and bursts through the door startling his mother who thought he was dead. Day and his family hide under the porch. The plague control arrive at their door and then Day decides to try to attack them by going up on top of the roof. Day then sees June standing next to some soldiers and realizes that the Republic has sent her to hunt him down. He also recognizes that she and Metias look similar and now knows that she is a relative of Metias. The soldiers find Day's family hidden under the porch and pull them out. Then a pair of medics come out last with Eden strapped into a gurney. Day pulls out three silver bullets from his pocket that he received from Tess and then fits one of them into his makeshift sling-shot. Day aims it at one of the soldiers restraining John and fires. It scrapes the soldier's neck spraying blood from the impact. June then steps forward trying to negotiate with Day by telling him to turn himself in so no one will get hurt. Since Day didn't turn himself and instead fires a bullet to one of the soldiers near her; a commander then steps forward and tries her tactic by ordering Thomas to shoot Day's mother in the head. Day launches himself from the rooftop and is then detained and is brought into a cell. Day June decides to look through Day's information and notices that he actually received a perfect score on his trial. Day goes to his sentencing for murdering Metias and his other crimes. An enormous crowd has showed up to watch Day be sentenced. There were many protesters and some of the protesters in the crowd were wearing a strand of hair that was dyed red to support him. While the other part of the crowd was cheering when the judge officially announced the exact date and time Day was arrested. Day expected the cheers but didn't expect to hear boos. He also notices that many of the people in the crowd don't have their fists in the air. Some of the louder protesters are even approached by the street police and arrested. The judge then sentences Day to death by firing squads four days from that day. The crowd erupts and the police holds them back. The judge then says that they will broadcast the execution live to the entire city to make an example of him. He also encourages civilians to stay vigilant for any possible crime to take place before or after Day's execution and to report any suspicious activity to the nearest police headquarters or street police. After the sentencing, instead of bringing Day to his cell, Commander Jameson brings him into an elevator to the roof of Batalla Hall. They then chain him up and the Commander tells the soldiers to keep Day up here for two days. Commander Jameson tells June to try and keep Day alive before his execution date. June talks with Day and asks him why he was at the lab when he was supposed to go to the "labor camps" on his tenth birthday.Day tells her that kids who fail their trial are not sent to labor camps but experimented on them. Day was experimented for the military by taking tissue samples from his knee, heart, and eye. The doctors force fed him medicine to see how low his heart rate could go and when his heart temporarily stopped; they thought he died. Then, protesters riot in the front of Batalla Hall and start attacking street police. Day then realizes that they are protesting because of him and that the military will not let this slide. June notices that the street police are trapping the protesters in and that the soldiers are carrying a gun around thier neck instead of dust bombs and tear gas. The soldiers then fire into the crowd killing 120 people. June tried to tell the soldiers to stand down but it was too late. June sees that all the photos of the crime scene were taken at one angle and sees what looks to be rifle grease, almost like the same grease she saw on Thomas's forehead. June looks through Metias's journals and sees something odd, a misspelled word. She finds more misspelled words and thinks that Metias wanted her to put together all the individual letters that either were missing from the word or not supposed to be their. June finds out that all the letters spell out a website. She goes to the website and finds Metias's blog which informs her that her parent's car accident wasn't an accident but planned by the Republic. June also uncovers that the Republic was using the plague to kill off people with "bad genes". June now knows that it was Thomas who killed Metias not Day. She then makes a plan to save Day from the execution by persuading the Patriots.
Climax: June persuades the Patriots to rescue Day from his execution. They end up setting off the electro bomb in the square where Day was going to be executed. The bomb went right before Thomas is able to kill June with his gun when he realized that June knows about him murdering Metias and setting it up to make it seem like Day killed him. The Patriots end up causing a lot of chaos which makes it easier for June to escape with Day. They also are showering money over the huge crowd which adds to the chaos. June tries to save Day and John but John realizes that there isn't enough time for all of them to escape the square. So, he ends up running towards the firing squad and sacrifices himself which will give June and Day enough time to make it out. Then, when the guns are reactivated, they reach the exits and burst into the streets. They are then met by Kaede and the other Patriots which grab June and Day and lead them to their motorcycles.
Falling Action: The Patriots help June and Day to Valencia which is as far away from Battala Hall as they willing to take them. Day is shocked by the headline that plays on the JumboTron which says that he was executed by firing squad. He watches the video recap to see that it was his brother John who was executed instead of him. June explains to him about John's decision.
Resolution: Day wants to head out towards Vegas to make sure Tess is safe with the Patriots. June thinks it would be insane for Day to head to a military city like Vegas, but doesn't tell him because she knows Day already lost his mother and brother and he can't loose Tess too.Then, June decides to accompany Day to Vegas for backup. Day wonders how would their lives be if he was born into a life more like June's and June born into a life like Day's. June reflects back on all the memories of her brother Metias; her favorite ones and ones that she would rather forget.
Theme:The universal meaning for Legend is that the people you trust the most or the government can be hiding something sinister that could change your life.
Tone: The tone for Legend is serious.