74 pages • 2 hours read
Victoria AveyardRed Queen
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Red Queen opens in August on First Friday, the one day each month when work and school end early for Reds to watch two Silvers battle in a televised match. Mare, a member of the oppressed Reds class, shuffles through the crowd toward the arena, pickpocketing trinkets and small amounts of money as she goes. She meets up with Kilorn Warren, her only real friend. Mare and Kilorn are 17 years old, which means they will graduate from school the next year. Since Kilorn has an apprenticeship, he will go to work, but Mare will be shipped off to the war against the Lakelanders like her three brothers before her.
The arena is rows of benches around a few giant monitors that broadcast the match between the two Silvers in the capital city. Kilorn enjoys the matches because he believes it shows the Silvers are vulnerable, but Mare sees them as a warning. The Silvers use the violence to keep the Reds in line, broadcasting the message that compared to the Reds “we are gods” (6).
The match is between a strongarm (a Silver with super-strength) and a shisper (someone with the rare ability to control minds). The whisper forces the strongarm to stab himself with his own sword and is declared the winner. The Reds are hurried out of the arena because they aren’t supposed to see Silvers as weak. As she goes, Mare sees the whisper cast a look at the strongarm that’s “blank, emotionless, and so cold” (11). She remembers lessons from school about kind gods but believes that the uncaring Silvers are the true gods.
Chapter 2 Summary
Mare’s village is called the Stilts, named for the houses that are built on high stilts to keep them above the muddy ground. After the match, she goes to her small home that offers a view of Silver boats headed upriver toward the royal summer home. She doesn’t understand why the royal family needs a second home when their first is so opulent, but Silvers operate on want and “what they want, they get” (13).
Gisa, Mare’s younger sister, works on a silk embroidery while their mother cooks dinner and their father, who lost a leg and a lung in the war, sits in his wheelchair. Mare drops her pouch of stolen money and goods on the table, which almost sparks an argument about how much she steals and why she can’t be more like Gisa and get a job. Gisa stops the fight by bringing out a letter from Shade, one of their brothers. Shade is fine but headed back into combat; he heard word that one of their other brothers is well. As soon as Mare finishes reading the letter, the lights go out. Mare’s parents retreat to their bedroom, and Mare follows Gisa up into the loft room they share.
Mare hears Kilorn’s disguised bird call outside and leaves to find him distraught. His apprenticeship master died, which means he no longer has a job. Since he can’t find new work, he will be sent to the war.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
The opening chapters of Red Queen set up the society of the novel. Reds and Silvers are named for the color of blood that runs through their veins. Reds are like humans on Earth while Silvers have silver-colored blood and possess a range of abilities, such as the superstrength and mind control shown in the televised match. The Silvers have used their powers to rise above the Reds and subdue them. As a result, the Reds live in squalor while even common Silvers have comforts. As Mare observes, the televised fight is a warning to the Reds to toe the line, but it is also a show. Silvers use the fights to appear invincible when they are not, which is foreshadowed by the strongarm’s near-fatal injury.
Mare’s family dynamic is shown in Chapter 2. While Mare’s parents and sister love her, she feels like she disappoints them. Gisa has a job making silks, something prized by the Silvers, which makes her the family breadwinner. Mare steals rather than seek an apprenticeship, which becomes a source of disagreement in her family. Mare’s disinterest in pursuing a job foreshadows her joining the Scarlet Guard and becoming a rebel. She doesn’t approve of the divide between Reds and Silvers, which she shows by not playing into the game of becoming “useful” to the Silvers.
Kilorn is both Mare’s friend and the first of her potential love interests. Young adult dystopian and fantasy books with a female protagonist often include at least two eligible suiters that the protagonist goes back and forth between throughout the book/series. Kilorn also acts as a plot device. Mare has protected him since his father died and mother ran away, and her willingness to do anything to keep him safe leads her to the Scarlet Guard, the tavern where she meets Cal, and the job at the palace where her power is revealed.
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