Among the Hidden

Jen is also a shadow child, like Luke, but she comes from a family of privilege. Her father works for the government, and in her family are members of the wealthy class known as Barons. Because of this, Jen has never had to fear for her life the same way Luke does. Jen has forged documents that allow her to visit the city, and she’s allowed to use the computer, phone, and television whenever she wants. Jen doesn’t buy the government’s propaganda about the necessity of the Population Law, and she often mocks the government’s incompetence. Jen’s confidence in her position as standing up for what is morally right motivates her to lead an effort against the Population Law by organizing a rally of shadow children to demand rights at the president’s house. It is this fatal flaw—her confidence in her cause and in her fellow shadow children—that leads her to fulfill the tragic hero archetype.

Jen’s role in Luke’s arc is to educate him on the history of the Population Police, give him a new perspective on his way of life, and create hope for him for a better future. When Jen first meets Luke, she is ahead of him socially, having met and spent time with other illegal third children. She introduces Luke to her chat room inhabited by shadow children, and she tells Luke of her plans for a rally. Jen believes she can change the Population Law by organizing her fellow shadow children in front of the president’s house to demand rights. As Jen and Luke’s friendship grows, Jen continues to put work into her rally plans, and she plans to bring Luke along with her. However, even after Luke consumes the propaganda that Jen gives him, he is unconvinced of the viability of her plan. He’s afraid to put himself at risk, despite knowing that Jen is fighting for his rights.

Jen’s steadfast attitude toward her cause only wavers in her final conversation with Luke. Although days prior, she told Luke “[h]ope doesn’t mean anything” (113) to convince him that he must take action and join her, she apologizes for being hard on him before saying goodbye. When Luke mentions seeing her after the rally, Jen responds with “[w]e can hope” (118), showing that her attitude about hope has changed. After Jen’s death, Luke believes “at first she thought the rally would work […] And then, even when she wasn’t sure…she still had to go. She wouldn’t call it off” (129). Jen’s dad reveals that Jen’s devotion to the cause and faith in her plan was likely a result of the propaganda he gave her to keep her feeling hopeful. In the end, Luke vows to continue to work on ways to undermine the Population Law and improve the lives of other shadow children, in Jen’s honor.

Outside of Luke and Jen, Jen’s dad is the most important character to the progression of the story, despite his late introduction in Chapter 26. Jen’s dad, who is actually her stepfather, works for the government at the Population Police headquarters. Despite Jen being an illegal third child, Jen’s dad ensures she lives a comfortable life at home with access to junk food, television, and the internet. He also supplies her with news articles that report on the unseen atrocities of the Population Law, hoping to give Jen optimism for change in the future.

However, when Jen’s dad’s plan backfires and Jen is killed by the Population Police during her organized rally, Jen’s dad must grapple with the consequences of losing a child no one was supposed to know about. He describes not being able to tell anyone “why we’re going around with red eyes and aching hearts” and having to “pretend to be the same old family of four we’d always been” (128). He confides his grief in Luke, who is one of the only people outside his immediate family who knew and cared for Jen. Despite working for the Population Police himself, Jen’s dad “[doesn’t] agree with what they do” and makes efforts “to sabotage them as much as [he] can” (133). Although he doesn’t agree with Jen’s actions, he does believe the Population Law is wrong.

Jen’s dad follows his moral compass and helps Luke obtain a fake ID. He believes Luke will be on the Population Police radar after he uses the chatroom, so he does what’s necessary to keep Luke safe. Despite the enormous risk to his life and status, Jen’s dad follows through and winds up being the one to drive Luke to his new life.

Luke’s mother is Luke’s primary caretaker, and she has been overprotective of Luke since he was born. Mother believed that “the Government would get over their foolishness, maybe even by the time [Luke was] born” (10). She wanted four children, but she is satisfied with three and goes to great lengths to keep Luke safe. Luke recalls a time when he hit a key on his father’s computer, and for weeks after, Mother had “hidden him even more carefully than ever, locking him in his room when she had to go outside” (68). Mother’s paranoia is a result of the government’s propaganda, which promises severe punishments and steep fines for anyone caught breaking the Population Law and has convinced ordinary citizens that the government can monitor everyday electronics to find illegal children.

Mother seems to have a good heart, and she does her best to ensure Luke’s life is neither boring nor lonely, but she struggles to keep Luke’s life enriched after she goes back to work. Luke begins to notice “lines of fatigue that hadn’t been there before” on his mother’s face after she’s taken her factory job (34). She nods off while speaking to him at the end of the day. She is an understandably conflicted character, as she deals with the guilt of keeping Luke confined to the attic while still struggling to come up with better solutions to keep him happy.

When Luke comes clean to his parents about his visits with Jen and informs them he can obtain a fake ID, Mother “was red-eyed, devastated” (149). Mother shows a selfish side of herself by pleading with Luke to stay. She tells him they can find a way to get him a fake ID when he’s older, but Luke and his father both agree with Luke’s decision. In the end, Mother lets Luke go, allowing him the freedom to live a life she’s deprived him of. On Luke’s final night at his family home, Mother plays games with him and reminds him of the memories he’s made with his family, showing him how much he’s loved and will be missed and “filling him up with memories […] for the times when he’d have no one to talk to about his childhood” (150). Despite her reluctance to allow him to leave, Mother shows that she understands Luke’s decision and does what she can to make the change easier for him.

Luke’s dad and Luke have a strained relationship, which stems from Luke’s place as a second-class citizen in his home. Unlike his brothers, Luke cannot ride in his father’s truck or help with the harvest to the extent of the other boys, depriving Luke of a bond with his father. Dad also expresses the overprotective paranoia that Mother does, but his approach to Luke is much less tender. When Dad catches Luke baking bread, having cleaned the kitchen while the family is gone, he offers Luke no words of comfort or praise before scolding Luke for putting the family at risk. Although Dad spends the most time at home with Luke during the cold season or when the harvest is done, he never speaks to Luke, fearing someone would hear them.

Dad and Luke do share a moment of bonding one afternoon, when Dad seeks out Luke to play cards on a slow day. Luke plants the idea of hydroponic gardens in his father’s head, having read about them in one of the books Jen loaned him, and Dad takes to the idea with gradual enthusiasm. At first, he researches the method in the library, then he begins to collect materials, planning to build his own hydroponic garden. However, this venture is abruptly shut down by a government letter, on the grounds that Dad may grow drugs with his hydroponic garden. This ends Dad’s story arc until the final chapter, when Luke discusses with his family his opportunity to assume a new identity. Although Mother is reluctant to allow Luke to leave her protection, Dad believes that “[h]e needs to go now, if he can” (149), adding that “he’s not going to get another chance” (150). In the end, Dad allows Luke to leave the family. Luke’s departure implies an easier existence for the family going forward, without them having to worry about hiding and feeding an illegal child.