Spy School

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2012

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-20

Chapters 21-25

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Benjamin Ripley

Ben is the novel’s narrator and main character. He is a 12-year-old boy who has been selected as a patsy for the CIA’s operation not because they feel he is qualified for the academy, but because he is someone who could plausibly be qualified. Alexander Hale seems enthusiastic about Ben from the beginning, which suggests that he sees some potential in Ben. Though Ben lacks the physical strength and coordination of the other students, along with not yet having the benefit of their months or years of education, he is a clever, adaptable, and determined student who makes up for his deficits with his intellectual strengths.

As the “normal” person entering the extraordinary environment of the academy, Ben is the reader’s surrogate throughout the novel. What Ben does, the reader may also imagine themselves doing—his accomplishments take few special skills other than paying close attention to what is going on around him. As the novel’s arc progresses, Ben grows in confidence; everything he needed to be successful, he already had within himself. Though Ben figures out who the mole is, disarms the bomb, and anticipates and neutralizes Murray, he does not use any of his few weeks of spy school education to do so. Instead, he relies on his situational awareness, attention to detail, strong math skills, and creative thinking.

Ben’s cleverness, adaptability, and determination are not valued highly by the faculty and administrators, who prefer a flashier performance. Most of the adults are incompetent, so the reader is not expected to align with their values. Ben’s cleverness is seen throughout the novel, particularly in his unconventional approaches to solving problems: He calculates the right moment and location to drop the book on the attacker’s head in the library, in his use of the taser on the principal’s door lock, his revelation about Murray’s plan to double back, and in firing at the ice on the roof of the building to make up for his inability to hit a human target.

Ben’s adaptability is displayed as he encounters more danger, discomfort, and oddities at the academy. Each time, Ben overcomes the obstacles and adjusts his approach or his mindset to help him move forward. For example, when Erica tells Ben that he’s a patsy, Ben thinks, “[t]here had been a lot of heavy things to deal with today, but this was the heaviest. To go from the euphoria of learning I could be an elite spy to discovering it was all a setup—and one that could have gotten me killed, no less—was devastating” (76). By the end of the conversation, however, Ben is even more motivated to prove himself. Ben’s characterization as an ordinary kid determined to make himself indispensable to the CIA allows many readers to see themselves in him, and to be inspired by what he accomplishes.

Erica Hale

Erica is 15 years old and a few grade levels above Ben, but her training has been life-long due to her family’s generational tradition of spy work. Erica’s nickname around school is “Ice Queen” because she is cold and aloof and has not made friends with any of the other students. Erica’s strengths are limitless: She is a martial arts expert and can disable several adult men on her own, has an encyclopedic knowledge of Washington D.C. and its many hidden rooms and passages, can break and enter any facility, and easily defuses bombs. However, Erica is not as good at reading human interactions and motivations as Ben is, which makes the two a good team. Despite their age difference, Erica does not serve as a mentor figure for Ben. Though Ben is far behind Erica in terms of spy skill acquisition, their dynamic is more of a partnership than it is a mentor and mentee relationship.

Erica does not have a great deal of trust in those around her, which includes the other students, the administrators, and officials, and even her own father. Before she takes Ben to see Professor Crandall, she tells him they are going to see “the one person we can trust” (223). Erica widens her scope of trust to include Ben, who earns her trust both with his loyalty and with his insight. When Ben and Erica are waiting out the kidnappers at the top of the Washington monument, Ben connects his previous interactions with that her father, Alexander Hale, and realizes that he is a fraud. Erica is impressed by the insight, but Ben also understands that this is one of many secrets Erica has held close her entire life. Whereas Ben is the quintessential “normal kid,” Erica is a character who never had a normal childhood. As they leave the monument, Ben sees Erica’s transition back to her “Ice Queen” identity but realizes there’s more under her exterior. He thinks to himself, “But while she was trying to be her usual, distant self, I’d noticed a hint of regret in her eyes. As though she’d wished she could have stayed up there all night, dishing dirt on her father and laughing for the rest of the night as well” (222).

Alexander Hale

Alexander is Erica’s father and the CIA’s most lauded agent, despite his incompetence and opportunism. Alexander’s ego and self-centeredness are on display from his first meeting with Ben, when he requests an energy drink with electrolytes, “Just in case [he] need[s] to leap into action” (3). His fantastic stories continue throughout the novel and few of them are true. According to Erica, the honest elements are stolen for from other agents’ stories, frequently ones who died during the mission. Alexander’s appropriation is highlighted in the final moments of the novel, when he claims to have neutralized Murray himself, though it was Ben who had done so. Despite his dishonesty, Alexander is invested in Ben and interested in mentoring him. Alexander stands up for Ben during the assessment of his introductory exam, and he rescues Ben from the interrogation room, freeing him to continue his investigation into the mole with Erica.

Character development is limited for Alexander, as he is one of the incompetent adults who heightens the stakes and demands on the younger characters. This novel is the first in a series, so readers may expect to see more growth in future novels. Though Alexander is dauntless in his egotism and lies, his relationship with his daughter is complex. When Ben asks why Alexander has not brought Erica into his investigation of the mole, he “[seems] slightly thrown, as though he wasn’t quite sure what to say about his daughter for a few moments” and quickly changes the subject (104). Ben describes the relationship as “odd,” noting that, “neither wanted the other to know what they were up to” (107). Future novels may develop Alexander’s character more, revealing his motivations or any misgivings or regrets he may have.

Murray Hill

Murray is Ben’s friend, a first-year repeat student, and the mole. He has been nicknamed “Washout” by Zoe due to his repeated failure of courses, need to repeat the first year, and general lack of ambition or success. All of this proves to be a façade—what he might call a “disinformation campaign”—designed to conceal Murray’s true role as a double agent for the international consortium SPYDER. Like Ben, Murray is also clever and adaptable, but he is far more jaded and cynical and lacks Ben’s loyalties. The reasons Murray gives for his decision to become a double agent are both straightforward and complex. Murray cites his own naivete and America’s history of political corruption, exploitation, and environment destruction to make the argument that the United States government isn’t inherently better or nobler than SPYDER. He also points out that CIA agents make very little, reasoning that they should undertake the same actions for SPYDER—actions which Murray suggest aren’t worse than those of the American government—for better financial security and benefits.

Despite Murray’s role as the villain of the story, his friendship with Ben is sincere. He saves Ben from Chip the first night and continues to guide and advise Ben as he learns how to navigate the school. As Murray points out, neither he nor SPYDER caused Ben real physical harm, which is more than can be said for Professor Crandall and his ninjas. Murray even attempts to ensure that Ben will not be on campus when the bomb goes off. He tries to persuade Ben to run and hide, and when that doesn’t work, Murray sends Tina off-campus knowing that Ben will follow her to safety. Murray, like Alexander, is primarily a self-serving opportunist, but he has the capacity for friendship and loyalty.

The novel highlights Ben’s qualities of cleverness, adaptability, and determination as positive traits that young people should aspire to. Murray, on the other hand, reveals the dangers of laziness, selfishness, and deception. Like Erica, Murray possesses many of the spy school skills, even if he does pretend not to. He builds the large bomb, disables the security cameras, falsifies and plants evidence to frame Tina, and remains undetected by all the students, agents, faculty, and administrators on campus. Murray’s characterization suggests demonstrates how a person’s values and intentions determine whether they will cause harm or do good, and that these factors are internal and cannot necessarily be taught.