Prodigy — Chapter 1

About This Passage

This passage is worth slow study because of how Marie Lu uses interior monologue to do the work of two characters at once. The first short sentence is what June actually said. The next sentence ('I can practically hear') signals that we are about to be inside what she IMAGINES Day is thinking. And then the final two sentences are not June's voice at all — they are June's guess at Day's voice, performed in her head. This is a triple layer of consciousness packed into four short sentences: what June said, what June thinks Day heard, what June thinks Day is now thinking about her. Notice the precision of the imagined judgment: 'Poor little rich girl with her posh manners. She can afford to dislike food.' That's the exact thing June fears Day is thinking, and the fact that she can imagine it so vividly tells us she has thought it about herself first.

Narration Prompt

Retell the chapter, paying special attention to the moment June says 'I don't like fried dough' and instantly regrets it. What does this small moment tell you about both characters that an action scene could not?

Discussion Questions

1. June used to live in a world of luxury, and now she has 4,000 notes and a wounded friend on a train. The chapter is mostly her quiet thoughts. What does this opening tell you about June's PERSONALITY — not just her situation, but who she is as a person? Pick three specific things she notices or thinks about, and explain what each one shows about her character.
2. Marie Lu chose to write Prodigy in two voices — June's chapters and Day's chapters — but this opening chapter is only June's. Why might Lu have chosen to start the book inside June's head instead of Day's? What does June's perspective give us at the very beginning that Day's would not?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide