How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I have put everything I can into my one suitcase—clothes, shoes, a good wind-up clock, some soap, an extra pair of glasses. Bring no books, they said, and no photographs. We have been told to say nothing, ever again, about the world we come from. (20.3)
This account from our mysterious old lady journal writer tells how the first citizens of Ember were to carry nothing that conveyed any of Earth's history or a sense that there's a whole world outside Ember. That must've made packing a difficult task. No books? No movies? No photographs? How would people remember their lives?
Quote #8
I don't know yet which one of these gentlemen I'll be matched with. We are all strangers to one another. They planned it this way; they said there would be fewer memories between us. They want us to forget everything about the lives we've led and the places we've lived. The babies must grow up with no knowledge of a world outside, so that they feel no sorrow for what they have lost. (20.7)
Again, we learn from journal-writer-lady that the people coming to populate Ember are being encouraged to forget what they know of the world. This is so that they won't mention it to the babies who will grow up to be Ember's first native-born citizens. If these young folks knew there was an outside world, they might go seeking it… and it likely wouldn't be safe for them.
Quote #9
Absently, Doon dug his finger into the ground, which was soft and crumbly. "But what was the disaster that happened in this place?" he said. "It doesn't look ruined to me."
"It must have happened a long, long time ago," said Lina. "I wonder if people still live here." (20.30-31)
Does every disaster leave a trace? The aftermath of a forest fire looks different than that of an earthquake. What if the disaster the Builders feared happened so long ago that its effects are no longer visible? Or worse, what if its effects were never visible in the first place, like radiation from a nuclear bomb? How would Lina and Doon have any clue whether the ground was safe for them to walk on, the water safe for them to drink, the fruit safe for them to eat? Having zero connection to the past is leaving them pretty clueless right now.