Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “June”
January 4. 1932 Hours. Ocean Standard Time. 35 Days after Metias’s death.
Nine days after escaping Day’s execution with the help of the Patriots, June and Day travel to Las Vegas, where they hope to officially join the rebellion and reunite with Day’s friend, Tess. The worsening gunshot wound in Day’s leg, acquired during his escape, is in dire need of medical attention. June and Day suffer from nightmares due to grief over their families’ deaths. Despite their mutual feelings, Day is distant from June. June believes the divide is her fault for many reasons: June comes from a wealthy family, whereas Day has only ever known poverty; she’s been overly loyal to the Republic until recently, while Day has always rebelled; and June is to blame for Day’s capture and, subsequently, the deaths of his mother and older brother. June struggles with permanently leaving “the comforts of her old life” and with deciding where her loyalties lie (6). While she no longer trusts the Republic, she harbors a level of distrust toward the Patriots as well, despite Day’s willingness to trust them.
After arriving in Las Vegas, Day and June disguise themselves as a Republic soldier and a sex worker to avoid being identified by their pictures, which flash on the JumboTrons above. Though the Republic pretends Day’s execution was successful, June is wanted as a missing person. June wears a necklace with 13 flashing charms, a symbol for the Patriots, hoping to gain their attention. A national announcement on the JumboTrons gains all of Las Vegas’s attention; it claims that the Republic’s Elector Primo has died and his son, Anden Stavropoulos, is taking his place. When Day collapses after the announcement due to his leg injury, it gets the attention of nearby soldiers.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Day”
Day and June fail to dissuade the soldier from calling in more help until Kaede, a member of the Patriots, steps in to get them to safety. They are brought to a luxury apartment in a high-rise set of barracks, where Tess waits. After Tess and Day share a teary reunion, June and Day meet Razor, a leader of the Patriots. Day asks for help for his leg wound and in locating his younger brother, Eden, who has been taken by the Republic. With no money to purchase the Patriots’ aid, Razor requests that they pledge their allegiance to the Patriots and help them assassinate the new Elector Primo.
Chapter 3 Summary: “June”
June does not trust Razor. The amount of wealth he displays in his apartment indicates two things to her: that he must be an undercover high-ranking Commander for the Republic, or the Patriots are being funded by someone wealthy. June has no choice but to agree to Razor’s terms, but dreads having a part in Anden’s death. Day has always avoided causing others harm but does not seem to be against the assassination plot. Though June chooses to join the Patriots to get Day the medical treatment he needs and an answer regarding his brother, when Day tells her he loves her, she can’t say it back. She wonders if she is staying “because [she] love[s] him, or because [she] owe[s] him” (36).
The pair joins Tess, Razor, and Kaede for dinner. Day is not allowed to eat due to Razor’s medics performing surgery on his leg, so Tess joins him in the living room before June can. June sits with Razor and Kaede at the table, where Razor questions June on her relationship with Anden. Though June’s only met Anden once at the ball to celebrate Day’s capture, Razor senses Anden has an interest in June. Razor reveals himself as a high-ranking Commander named Andrew DeSoto, who works in the capital city.
Razor has a connection to the Colonies, which fund the Patriots, and the rebellion’s goal is to reunite the Republic and the Colonies once again as the United States. Razor has overheard a rumor that Anden wants June to train as the next Princeps—a leader of the Senate who acts as the Elector’s partner in command. Razor plans to use June’s situation to the Patriots’ advantage. By reframing her as a hostage “forced to join Day against [her] will” (44), she can get close to Anden, tell him a decoy plan for how the Patriot’s plan to assassinate him, and lead him straight into a trap. He believes Day’s reputation will sway the public to the rebellion’s favor once things are set in motion by Anden’s death, and that they can remake the United States better—and freer. Day is completely on board, but June feels sick at the idea of the Republic falling and saying goodbye to the life she has always known.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Day”
Day wonders if Tess has feelings for him because she has been acting strange. He also worries about his relationship with June because they come from vastly different worlds; she grew up very wealthy while he was extremely poor. While Day undergoes leg surgery, he dreams. In one dream, June comes to his home and accuses him of murdering the Elector before shooting his mother and older brother. In another dream, he escapes experimentation at the Republic’s labs to find June waiting to help him flee. This dream ends with them finding Los Angeles devastated by the plague and his younger brother, Eden, sick and bleeding from his eyes.
Day’s surgery is a success; when Day wakes, he discovers his knee is now mostly mechanical. Tess is at his bedside and acts jealous when he asks about June. She warns him about trusting June completely, especially once she goes undercover to get close to Anden. Day snaps to June’s defense but understands where Tess is coming from.
Chapter 5 Summary: “June”
0545 Hours. Venezia. Day One as an official member of the Patriots.
While Day sleeps off his surgery, June worries over the plan to assassinate Anden. When the news on the TV speaks of victories against the Colonies at the warfront, she wonders “whether the Republic makes up those victories too, and whether [they]’re actually winning or losing the war” (61). June visits Day when he wakes, and he gives her a metal ring made of paper clips. While she is flattered that someone has made something for her, Day mistakes her silence as disappointment because she grew up rich and his ring is a gesture of affection made by the poor. They promise to find a way to communicate when June rejoins the Republic undercover just as Razor arrives to urge them forward with the plan.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Day”
The Patriots disguise Day’s appearance and dress him in an air force uniform. Kaede and Day sneak onboard the RS Dynasty where they meet up with Razor, who has reassumed his identity as a Republic commander. As they reach Razor’s office, Kaede and Day cross paths with Commander Jameson—June’s former commanding officer who ordered Thomas, a former family friend, to kill Day’s mother and June’s older brother, Metias. Fortunately, she does not recognize Day in his disguise.
Day spots June’s dog, Ollie, and Thomas searching the ship; according to the Patriot’s plan, Thomas will eventually find June hiding on board and bring her back to the capital where she will request audience with Anden to deliver the details of the false assassination plan. As the RS Dynasty heads for a northern warfront city, Lamar, Day hopes June’s role in the Patriots’ plan goes smoothly.
Chapters 1-6 Analysis
Much like the story structure in an individual novel, the broader Legend series has an overarching plot spanning all four books. Prodigy serves as the bridge that connects the series’ inciting incident in Legend (discovering the depth of the Republic’s corruption) to the eventual resolution found in Rebel. After the inciting incident, the protagonists are thrust into a new way of life from which they cannot return. This part of the story also develops into a B-story, which usually includes a romantic subplot. Prodigy highlights these plot devices through its exploration of June and Day’s relationship as they join the Patriots and decide where exactly their loyalties lie.
The opening chapters demonstrate conflict regarding the relationship between June and Day. When Day suffers from nightmares, June thinks: “[M]aybe his nightmare had been about [her]” (7). With their betrayals of the Republic fresh and their loyalties still up in the air, June and Day experience a subconscious distrust of each other in addition to their blatant distrust of the systems of power within their world. Marie Lu establishes this inner conflict of whether To Trust or Not To Trust through the two point-of-view characters’ dreams. Through nightmares or happy memories, Lu explores the subconscious thoughts and feelings June and Day are either oblivious to or too afraid to voice. June does not trust Day’s feelings for her after all the harm she has caused him, and Day doesn’t trust June’s ability to leave her privileged Republic past behind her.
The introductory chapters also quickly and effectively explore the recent instability of the Republic. The announcement of the Elector’s death following shortly after Day’s “execution” represents the growing influence Day has and will continue to have on the Republic and its leadership. The citizens of Los Angeles have caused enough unrest to prompt a city-wide lockdown, and the continuing threat of the plague and its new strain, continues to build upon this image. The wobbly table in Day’s dream from Chapter 4 symbolizes the current state of the government. In the dream, Day and his brother Josh work their living room table, which is “as wobbly as it’s ever been—one of the legs is rotting away, and every other month or so, [they] try to extend its life by nailing more slabs of cardboard to it” (51). The Republic is faltering like the table, and instead of fixing its foundation, they continue to add more slabs of cardboard to deal with the damage. The Republic is only prolonging its downfall, though it attempts to put off the inevitable by taking actions such as requiring that all portraits of the former Elector be immediately switched to ones of Anden and punishing people who dye a red streak in their hair in support of Day.
Wealth and class privilege are repeating themes throughout the series, and from early on, Lu realistically portrays their impacts on people, organizations, and systems of power. The Republic experiments on the poor and ensures only the wealthy get access to plague treatments. Slum natives like Day must excel in the Trials to crawl their way out of poverty, while people like Thomas can skirt by with mediocre scores and obtain a highly respected government position through personal connections. Even the Patriots only lend their help to those willing to pay for it. Though Kaede is an acquaintance of Day, she refuses to help him again “unless there’s money involved” (5). June quickly realizes that without bribery, the number of people willing to help others for nothing is few.
Day is aware of the power money holds, but June has been wealthy her entire life and does not understand what it is like to live without. In Prodigy, this difference in perspectives causes major resentment, insecurity, and distance between June and Day while also prompting major character growth for June. While Day resents the wealthy, he also finds himself envious of those who display that connection to June. He is threatened by June’s proximity to Anden, believing that compared to the Elector, Anden is only “some dirty street con with two Notes in his pocket, thinking [he]’ll actually be able to hang on to [June] after spending a few weeks with her” (49-50). While June spent her past mingling with the elite at fancy dinner parties, Day spent his nights dumpster diving for food to feed his family.
Similarly, June becomes insecure and ashamed of her wealthy past in interactions with Day, believing she comes off as entitled and disrespectful. When Day gifts June a paper clip ring, with “love and care in the twists of metal” (65), as a gesture of affection common amongst the people of the slums, her “honest question out of curiosity” sounds sarcastic rather than showing the extreme flattery she feels. Though June cherishes the ring because it’s been a long time since she’s been gifted anything handmade instead of bought, she becomes “angry at [her]self for slipping up again” with Day (65). In every interaction, she is hyperaware of the offense she might unknowingly cause because of offhanded class or money-related remarks.
Throughout all the conflict over their differences, Lu introduces a key theme, The Compromising Nature of Love, which allows Day and June to endure their brief separation: Day’s realization that while June “is from a different world […] she gave it all up for [him]” (50). June’s willingness to put herself in danger for Day’s sake, and vice versa, is the crux of their relationship. Even when everyone around them cannot be trusted at face value, they can trust in each other.
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