Chains
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Chains begins with a funeral and a broken promise. Isabel and her younger sister Ruth were supposed to be freed upon their owner's death. Instead, they are illegally sold to the Locktons, a wealthy Loyalist couple in New York City in 1776. Isabel finds herself enslaved in the heart of the American Revolution — surrounded by people shouting about liberty while denying it to her.
Laurie Halse Anderson uses this devastating irony as the engine of the novel. Isabel becomes a spy for the Patriots, passing information from the Lockton household to the rebel cause. But her espionage is not motivated by patriotism — it is motivated by the desperate hope that the people fighting for freedom will extend that freedom to her. They do not. The Patriots use her, the Loyalists abuse her, and Isabel learns the hardest lesson of the Revolution: that liberty, as America defines it, was never meant to include her.
What makes Chains essential is its refusal to let the reader hide behind the mythology of the founding. This is the American Revolution as experienced by the people it excluded, and Isabel's courage — the courage to fight for herself when no one else will — is more radical than anything happening in Independence Hall.
Falling Away
Isabel falls away from every institution and promise that should protect her. The legal system that should have honored her manumission fails. The Patriots who promise freedom in exchange for information betray her. Her sister is sold away from her. Even her own body is marked — branded — as property. The Falling Away archetype in Chains is the experience of discovering that the world's promises were never meant for you, and that the only freedom you will ever have is the freedom you seize for yourself.
Isabel's courage is the courage of a girl who has run out of people to trust and decides to trust herself. Her escape at the novel's end is not a gift from the revolution — it is an act of self-liberation that the revolution, in all its hypocrisy, could never have offered her. The Falling Away archetype reveals that sometimes the most courageous thing a person can do is stop waiting to be saved and start saving herself.
Emotional Arc Breakdown
Descent Phase
Isabel's descent begins with her illegal sale and accelerates with each betrayal. Mrs. Lockton's cruelty is relentless — physical punishment, psychological manipulation, and the ultimate devastation of selling Ruth away. Isabel's espionage work gives her a sliver of hope, but even that is stripped away when the Patriots prove unwilling to honor their promises to an enslaved girl.
Turning Point
The turning point comes when Isabel is branded on her face — marked as property in a way that cannot be hidden or denied. This act of violence, rather than breaking her, crystallizes her resolve. She stops looking for salvation from others and begins planning her own escape. The brand becomes not a mark of ownership but a reminder of what she will never accept again.
Growth Outcome
Isabel's courage manifests as self-liberation. She escapes with Curzon, another enslaved person, crossing the river into an uncertain future. Her growth is the recognition that freedom is not something granted by revolutions or governments — it is something claimed by individuals who refuse to be owned. Her courage is radical, personal, and historically resonant.
Who This Book Helps
- Young readers learning about the American Revolution from perspectives typically excluded from textbooks
- Anyone grappling with the gap between a nation's ideals and its practices
- Readers interested in the history of slavery and resistance in colonial America
- Young people who feel unseen or unvalued by the systems meant to protect them
- Anyone who has had to find their own strength when institutions and authority figures have failed
- Educators seeking to teach the Revolution through the lens of race, gender, and power
Discussion Questions
- How does Anderson use the rhetoric of the American Revolution — "liberty," "freedom," "rights" — to expose the hypocrisy of a nation that enslaved people?
- Why does Isabel agree to spy for the Patriots? What does she hope to gain, and what does she actually receive?
- What is the significance of the branding scene? How does it change Isabel's understanding of her situation?
- How does the relationship between Isabel and Curzon develop throughout the novel? What do they offer each other?
- The novel ends with Isabel crossing the river. What does this crossing represent, and what uncertainties does it leave?
Emotional Intensity
Chains registers at a 4 out of 5 on the emotional intensity scale. The novel depicts the brutality of slavery — physical punishment, family separation, branding, and the psychological violence of being treated as property. Anderson writes with historical precision and emotional honesty, making this a powerful but demanding read for young audiences.
Related Books
Between Shades of Gray
Another story of a young person surviving political violence through art, will, and the refusal to be erased.
The Hunger Games
A girl in a system designed to dehumanize her becomes a symbol of resistance against an empire built on cruelty.
Long Way Down
A modern story about the cycles of violence and the courage it takes to break free from systems that trap you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Chains follows Isabel, a 13-year-old enslaved girl in 1776 New York City. After being illegally sold to a cruel Loyalist couple, Isabel becomes a spy for the Patriot cause, hoping that helping the revolution will earn her freedom. But she soon learns that neither side of the war cares about the freedom of enslaved people.
Isabel falls away from every promise made to her — the promise of freedom from her former owner, the promise of liberty from the Patriots, the promise that loyalty will be rewarded. The Falling Away archetype here exposes the gap between America's revolutionary ideals and the reality of slavery.
Chains is rated 4 out of 5 on the Fallboys emotional intensity scale. The novel depicts the brutality of slavery including physical punishment, separation of families, and the psychological toll of being treated as property. Anderson writes with historical accuracy and emotional honesty.