55 pages • 1 hour read
Rick RiordanDaughter of the Deep
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 38-44Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 38 Summary
After a moment of chaos, Ophelia organizes the students. She, Luca, and the four house prefects discuss how the Aronnax tracked them and how they might defend the base. Ophelia and Luca send Ana with the Nautilus to keep the submarine out of the LI’s hands. Tia and Franklin volunteer to stay behind on the base, leaving Ester and Nelinha as acting prefects. Gem comes on the Nautilus too, telling Ana, “my orders are to keep you safe. Where you go, I go” (219). Although she worries about Lincoln Base, Ana prepares to take command of the Nautilus.
Chapter 39 Summary
The students quickly pack the submarine with supplies and get ready to leave. When they get on board, Ana is determined to make the Nautilus alive again. Looking at the captain’s chair, she thinks, “this is the central altar in the Dakkar family mausoleum. I have to make it more than that. I have to make this a living, working ship again” (221). When she gives the submarine an order in Bundeli, the ship responds by playing the organ, which is a sign of agreement. After everyone confirms they are ready, they take off, only to quickly hit something.
Chapter 40 Summary
The LOCUS sensor was on the wrong setting, and luckily the collision was only minor. Since there is no damage, they navigate out into the open sea. Suddenly, the entire Nautilus shudders, and Gem says that the Aronnax has attacked. After they get out to sea, Gem realizes that the shudder was the Aronnax destroying part of the island. He says, “that explosion? It didn’t just hit the north side of the atoll. The north side of the atoll is gone” (229).
Chapter 41 Summary
The students realize that the only way to protect Lincoln Base is to hide the Nautilus since the Aronnax will not destroy the base while they believe the Nautilus to be inside. When they try to leave, goo leaks everywhere, and the Aronnax taps into their announcement system: Caleb demands that the Nautilus surrender, and Ana hears her brother ask her to give up the sub.
Chapter 42 Summary
Ana is shocked that Dev is alive, but instead of joy, she has mixed feelings: “my thoughts turn to syrup. My brother is alive. My brother is a traitor” (235). She also realizes that Dev has been tracking her through the necklace he gave her the morning of HP’s destruction. Ana destroys her necklace, even though it was her mother’s. Dev announces that he has aligned with the LI because HP kept his inheritance, the Nautilus, from him. When he threatens to board the submarine, Nelinha gets them away by engaging a special engine called the cav-drive although it moves the ship so quickly that Ana hits her head and passes out.
Chapter 43 Summary
When Ana wakes up, they are safe from the Aronnax for the moment. Almost all of the HP students were injured from the cav-drive, but not too seriously. The ship itself is in bad shape, but it is intact, and they are thousands of miles away in the Philippine sea. Ana thinks, “I add super-cavitation drive to the list of reasons why Land Institute wants this “piece of junk” submarine so badly” (242). Ana then asks Nelinha to gather the crew so they can talk.
Chapter 44 Summary
Everyone gathers around the dining table, and Ana nervously announces that she had no idea about Dev’s betrayal. She feels guilty and offers to step down, but Gem says, “nobody blames you” (245). Everyone wants to help protect Lincoln Base, but they do not know if it would be a good idea to bring the now-damaged Nautilus back. Ana knows that Dev would keep his prisoners alive because he “will want to interrogate them” (247). Ester points out that they must return in seven days because of their limited supplies.
Chapters 38-44 Analysis
These chapters include Ana’s first test of command leading the Nautilus. Ophelia and Luca, who are the only adults helping the HP freshmen since Dr. Hewett is unconscious, return to Lincoln Base to defend it while Ana takes the submarine away from danger. Before they leave, Ana tells Gem, “gather the crew. Get the orangutang. I’m taking command of the Nautilus” (219). While Ana was hesitant before on the Varuna to take command of her fellow students, now she has the confidence to lead them. Despite a brief snag on a rock when exiting Lincoln Base and a close call with the Aronnax, the submarine manages to escape the Land Institute students. This only further proves Ana’s abilities as a commander.
This group of chapters dealing with the emotional aftermath of finding out that Dev is alive but a traitor. At first Ana does not want to believe her brother capable of such treachery, but when she thinks back to the day of HP’s destruction, she realizes the traitor had to have been Dev. She thinks, “I force myself to breathe. I can’t spiral into this emotional vacuum right now…not when it would mean abandoning my friends” (236). Even though Dev is alive, the brother that Ana thought she had might as well be dead because he certainly does not exist now. All she has is this new, terrible Dev. With her brother lost (emotionally speaking), Ana’s only family is the one she has in her friends, the other HP freshmen. Dev’s betrayal even separates Ana from her parents because she figures out that Dev has been tracking her through their mother’s pearl. In response to this, she puts the pearl on the floor, decides “I can’t take any chances,” and crushes the pearl beneath her foot (237). This pearl was the only thing Ana had left of her mother, but her crew’s safety takes priority. In crushing the pearl, Ana shows that her grief for her lost family, while great, does not hold her back from protecting those still living around her.
Gem continues to integrate himself into the group of Ana, Ester, and Nelinha. In Chapter 38, when Tia and Franklin—the prefects of House Cephalopod and Orca—decide to stay and protect Lincoln Base, they leave Nelinha and Ester behind as acting prefects. This means that the four primary representatives of each house on the Nautilus after this point are Ana, Ester, Nelinha, and Gem, meaning that these four will have to work together to save the submarine and the remaining students from HP Academy.
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