Summary
The van arrives at Jilava, and Cristian, Liliana, and the fellow prisoners are led to a cramped cell where they meet other protestors and share information. Liliana explains that she, Alex, and Cici went to the protest to look for Cristian and delivers a message from Cici that "Mr. Van Dorn sends his thanks," meaning Mr. Van Dorn received Cristian's notebook. The adults in the group gather cigarettes to trade for releasing the children, who are then taken to a locked room with portraits of Ceauşescu and his wife, Mother Elena. In a fit of rage, Cristian takes the photographs off the wall and hides them in the corner. Though the other children cover for Cristian and claim the portraits were off the wall when they arrived, the guards beat Cristian mercilessly.
The guards then force the children to kneel and kiss the portraits, demonstrating their loyalty. Cristian and Liliana kiss before their "lips are forced to touch" the images of the hated tyrants. Despite his hatred of Ceauşescu and his humiliation, Cristian kneels and kisses the images, setting an example for the other children. They are then taken to a filthy room and forced to clean human feces with their hands before they are released from Jilava. As the oldest and the default leader, Cristian does most of the work, using the Amnesty International papers, destroying them to avoid incriminating himself and endangering the other children. They are then herded into a van and driven back to Bucharest, where they stop before the juvenile prison. Liliana encourages Cristian to escape, find Luca, and tell their families where they are. Though he hesitates to leave Liliana, Cristian returns to his apartment complex with the help of a stranger. He is shocked and devastated to see the destruction and violence in the streets as Secu agents hunt down protestors.
Outside his apartment, Cristian meets Starfish, who helps him get a supply of Kents and updates Cristian about the conflict. Cristian then goes to Colţea Hospital, which is overrun with wounded. Cristian bribes a receptionist into telling him where Luca is. On his way to Luca's room, Cristian encounters Cici, who is looking for him. Cristian refuses to hear his sister out and instead asks her to help rescue Liliana from the "detention center on Aaron Florian." Cici warns Cristian not to leave the hospital.
Cristian finds Luca alive but unconscious, his arm amputated. Luca's parents ask Cristian to stay with their younger daughters. Though Cristian does not want to leave Luca, he complies and falls asleep at their house. After waking, he learns that Liliana and Luca both survived, though Liliana was tortured. Romania is in political upheaval, and Cristian returns home. While Cristian and Liliana listen to Radio Free Europe, a broadcaster reads a passage from Cristian's notebook, explaining that Mr. Van Dorn used the information to encourage America to aid Romania. That evening, the Ceauşescus are captured and executed on Christmas day. Cristian and Liliana share a Twinkie together, enjoying and trying to make sense of their newfound freedom.
In the Epilogue, Cristian reflects on his life after the revolution. He and Liliana stay together and pursue careers. However, Cristian is haunted by the truths he discovers in the declassified Securiate archives. Cici is murdered, as she actually worked as a double agent for the American embassy and was discovered after she helped the Harvard researcher escape to the American embassy before the uprising. Even more disturbing, Cristian discovers his mother was a Securiate agent informing on the entire family in exchange for her children's safety.
Cristian leaves a manuscript recounting his experience by Bunu's grave. At a high school reunion, Cristian learns Agent Paddle Hands is still alive and living nearby, as most Secu agents escaped criminal charges. The novel ends with Cristian waiting outside the agent's door, hoping for answers to his questions. After the epilogue, the novel includes historic photographs from the Romanian revolution and quotations about Romania.
Analysis
The theme of dehumanization is most clearly explored during Cristian's experiences at Jilava. First, the adult prisoners bribe the guards to release the children from prison. Cristian is disgusted that in Romania, people are reduced to "trading Kents for the lives of children" because "the guards cared more about nicotine than humans." Next, Cristian, Liliana, and several young children are beaten and humiliated; they are forced to clean human feces, and the guard compares them to the excrement, explicitly stating that their lives are worthless.
In Jilava, Cristian resists the regime in subtle yet powerful ways, exemplifying the theme of compliance and resistance. He removes Nicolae Ceaușescu's and Mother Elena's portraits from the wall and reminds the other children of their human dignity and the value of their Romanian heritage. Paradoxically, Cristian has to comply with the guards at several points to save lives and continue the revolution. Setting an example, he kneels and kisses the portraits when instructed so that he and the others can be released; he also cleans the filthy bathroom using the Amnesty International documents, realizing that saving his own life is the greatest act of resistance he can perform.
The text contrasts the impact of Cristian's notebook with the Eastern European guidebook he reads. Though the guidebook describes the oppression of Romanian people in great detail, the outside world knows little of the nation's struggles, as Nicolae Ceaușescu strictly controlled Romania's image in the international press. Cristian's notebook, by contrast, is less objective yet more factual. He integrates poetry, philosophy, and self-reflection into the writings he gives to Mr. Van Dorn. The text argues that indirect expression, whether through jokes, poems, or art, often contains more truth about a person's lived experience than simple facts and statistics. Cristian's notebook is compelling and powerful because it humanizes the Romanian struggle in a way the Romanian guidebook does not; when his poem is read aloud on the radio broadcast, even Cristian's mother, a dedicated informer, is emotionally moved.
In Chapter 80, Nicolae Ceaușescu and Mother Elena are executed. Cristian is confused by the event, a seemingly anticlimactic resolution of decades of tension and oppression. To reflect Cristian's emotional response, Chapter 80 is short, the descriptions of the execution explained in simple, blunt detail; Cristian's reaction is described using poetic, powerful imagery, comparing the sensation of hope and freedom to scents and sounds. The following chapter is entitled Chapter 1, signifying that the end of the regime created a new beginning for Cristian and countless others. Chapter 1 employs a hopeful mood and a comforting tone as Liliana and Cristian share Twinkies on Christmas Day.
The final chapters explore the theme of "Memory." The prisoners, Cristian and Liliana included, fear their lives will pass unremembered. Cristian notices that people who passed through Jilava recorded their names, political messages, and advice on the wall, marking their lives and contributing to the future of the revolution. Cristian and Liliana announce their names and addresses to the other prisoners, hoping that someone will contact their families or at least remember them. After Romania wins independence, Cristian's poem is read aloud on the broadcast to "reflect upon communism's aim to create a man without a memory." Though the Securiate kept thousands of pages of notes on every Romanian family, the Romanian people under Nicolae Ceaușescu were not permitted to engage with history, express their feelings and beliefs, or imagine a future. The text connects memory with accountability. The Secu attempts to destroy the records of their crimes, and government agents like Paddle Hands are never punished. In the Epilogue, Cristian combats this deficit in memory by teaching his students the details of the Ceaușescu regime, writing a manuscript of his experiences, talking about the Secu with his peers, reading his family's file, and ultimately, confronting Agent Paddle Hands. In this conclusion, the text argues that memory is a form of resistance, and forgetting is a form of complicity.
