In Chap­ter Sev­en of *If These Wings Could Fly*, the nar­ra­tor reflects on her pro­found dis­con­nec­tion from her sur­round­ings and the world beyond her small town of Auburn. Feel­ing like she’s on the edge of a precipice with­out sup­port, she seeks solace in the writ­ten word—a com­fort­ing lega­cy from her moth­er who loved clas­sic lit­er­a­ture. How­ev­er, she has grown weary of the tragedies inher­ent in these sto­ries; instead, she prefers the truth of jour­nal­ism, which offers her a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive on life. Despite her dis­dain for the clas­sics, she finds her­self in a lit­er­a­ture class dis­cussing *Tess of the d’Urbervilles*, dread­ing the inevitable heartache con­tained with­in.

Through­out the class, she becomes acute­ly aware of Liam, a class­mate who, unlike the stereo­typ­i­cal pop­u­lar kids, exudes a qui­et charis­ma that attracts both admi­ra­tion and scruti­ny. The class dynam­ic is tense, par­tic­u­lar­ly when Brody, a pop­u­lar boy, makes dis­parag­ing com­ments about fem­i­nism, using deroga­to­ry lan­guage. The nar­ra­tor attempts to advo­cate for the con­cept of fem­i­nism, empha­siz­ing that it sim­ply means sup­port­ing equal rights for women—not a rad­i­cal stance as Brody sug­gests.

Inter­est­ing­ly, Liam inter­jects that he con­sid­ers him­self a fem­i­nist, yet he fal­ters when prompt­ed to define it. The nar­ra­tor, feel­ing bristly yet res­olute, chal­lenges Brody’s igno­rance, which leads to an esca­lat­ing ten­sion in the class­room. It is evi­dent that although Liam is well-liked and social­ly adept, he also faces the under­ly­ing racism that exists in their small town, some­thing the nar­ra­tor feels guilty for hav­ing ignored in their youth.

The chap­ter encap­su­lates a moment of pro­found reflec­tion as the nar­ra­tor grap­ples with the social com­plex­i­ties of her envi­ron­ment. Through her expe­ri­ence, she nav­i­gates themes of iden­ti­ty, soci­etal norms, and the effect of small-town dynam­ics on per­son­al rela­tion­ships. Ulti­mate­ly, Liam rep­re­sents both a famil­iar fig­ure from her past and an enig­mat­ic pres­ence that ignites curios­i­ty in her, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing her feel­ings as she bal­ances her shel­tered upbring­ing with the broad­er issues of race and accep­tance in Auburn.

In Chap­ter Sev­en of “The Choco­late War,” the nar­ra­tive opens with Archie dis­cov­er­ing Emile Jan­za siphon­ing gas from Carl­son’s car at the school’s park­ing lot. Emile, unboth­ered by Archie’s pres­ence, finds humor in his audac­i­ty and responds that he is mere­ly get­ting his gas for the week. Archie ques­tions Emile about what he would do if Carl­son con­front­ed him, know­ing well that the mild-man­nered Carl­son wouldn’t take any action. Emile takes pride in his abil­i­ty to manip­u­late his peers, high­light­ing a cru­cial aspect of his char­ac­ter: despite being phys­i­cal­ly small, he exhibits a dom­i­neer­ing nature over his class­mates, whom he iden­ti­fies as var­i­ous vic­tims of his machi­na­tions.

Emile’s mis­chie­vous behav­ior extends beyond pet­ty theft; he delights in aggra­vat­ing teach­ers through sub­tle dis­trac­tions, plac­ing him­self strate­gi­cal­ly in class for max­i­mum irri­ta­tion. His tac­tics reveal a pro­found under­stand­ing of weak­ness among his peers—most kids, he finds, are reluc­tant to con­front con­flict. This insight, learned ear­ly in life, fuels Emile’s self-serv­ing con­duct, as he exploits this reluc­tance to assert con­trol, whether through steal­ing lunch­es or embar­rass­ing class­mates.

Emile’s con­duct, how­ev­er, does not reflect a lack of intel­li­gence. While he coast­ed through school with min­i­mal effort, he finds joy in caus­ing dis­or­der and inflict­ing dis­com­fort on oth­ers. He yearns for cama­raderie, espe­cial­ly with Archie the only indi­vid­ual he respects, albeit with a degree of appre­hen­sion. Their inter­ac­tion grows more com­plex as Emile con­sid­ers shar­ing more of his inner­most thoughts but ulti­mate­ly decides against it, feel­ing a sense of dis­con­nec­tion.

As Archie departs, Emile is left grap­pling with his aspi­ra­tions of join­ing The Vig­ils, reflect­ing his desire for accep­tance and recog­ni­tion sim­i­lar to Archie’s. The chap­ter encap­su­lates themes of pow­er dynam­ics, social hier­ar­chies, and the bur­dens of iden­ti­ty, inter­weav­ing ele­ments of dark humor through­out Emile’s antics and inter­ac­tions. This blend of brava­do mixed with under­ly­ing vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty illus­trates Emile’s com­pli­cat­ed nature as he nav­i­gates his tumul­tuous ado­les­cent expe­ri­ence.

In Chap­ter Sev­en of “Lord of the Flies,” titled “Shad­ows and Tall Trees,” Ralph fol­lows Jack along the pig-run near the rocky coast­line. The oppres­sive after­noon heat forces Ralph to con­front his dis­com­fort and dirt­i­ness, prompt­ing reflec­tions about hygiene and the changes he has under­gone since being on the island. As the boys eat bananas, Ralph observes their unkempt appear­ances, real­iz­ing he has nor­mal­ized their filthy con­di­tions. Look­ing out to sea, he feels a sense of iso­la­tion con­trast­ed with mem­o­ries of home.

Sud­den­ly, Ralph is dis­tract­ed by Simon, who offers a reas­sur­ing word about get­ting back home, despite Ralph’s sar­casm over ships. The encounter leads to a shared moment where they both smile, sig­ni­fy­ing an alliance amidst grow­ing ten­sions. Mean­while, Jack is keen on hunt­ing; they dis­cov­er fresh pig drop­pings, and the group’s hunt is fueled by fear and the thrill of the chase.

Jack becomes increas­ing­ly assertive, lead­ing the group in search of meat, while Ralph reflects on pre­vi­ous child­hood mem­o­ries filled with warmth and com­fort. How­ev­er, the boys’ care­free spir­it soon morphs into chaos when they chase a wild boar. In an out­burst of adren­a­line, Ralph suc­cess­ful­ly strikes the pig, result­ing in a mix­ture of pride and fear amongst the group, deep­en­ing the eth­i­cal dilem­mas they face.

As the hunt­ing game esca­lates, an impul­sive bout of aggres­sion results in Ralph and the oth­ers near­ly injur­ing Robert dur­ing an imi­ta­tion of pig hunt­ing rit­u­als. They become engrossed in this bru­tal play, illus­trat­ing the blur­ring lines between boys and sav­agery. Amidst the eupho­ria of the hunt, Ralph feels uneasy about their vio­lent behav­ior but is swept up in the excite­ment.

When they final­ly acknowl­edge the quest for the beast to climb the moun­tain, debates arise on fear and respon­si­bil­i­ty. Jack­’s chal­lenge to Ralph ignites a rival­ry col­ored with brava­do and con­tempt, lead­ing them both to ascend the moun­tain in the envelop­ing dark­ness. Their hike reveals Ralph’s inter­nal con­flict, bal­anc­ing lead­er­ship against the creep­ing under­stand­ing of their dire sit­u­a­tion and the beast they fear. The chap­ter con­cludes with a sus­pense­ful encounter as Jack leads Ralph and Roger into the unknown, fac­ing what­ev­er lurks ahead in the shad­ows .

In the morn­ing, after break­fast, Par­vana returned to the mar­ket­place. Fol­low­ing her mother’s advice, she took her father’s writ­ing tools and a blan­ket in hopes of earn­ing mon­ey like he did. The pre­vi­ous day’s expe­ri­ence had inspired her; she rel­ished the chance to escape chores. Dis­guised as a boy, she felt lighter with­out her chador and long hair flow­ing freely in the fresh breeze.

Arriv­ing at the same spot her father had pre­vi­ous­ly occu­pied, she set up her blan­ket, repro­duc­ing his lay­out with pens, writ­ing paper, and her fan­cy shal­war kameez for sale. Her moth­er had coached her to claim she was Kaseem, her father’s nephew, say­ing their father was ill. This false­hood safe­guard­ed them from unwant­ed atten­tion due to their father’s arrest.

Despite her edu­ca­tion, doubt loomed over her abil­i­ty to attract cus­tomers. The hour passed with no inter­ac­tion until a Tal­ib sol­dier approached her. Par­vana trem­bled, fear­ing reper­cus­sions but held her com­po­sure as she con­firmed her role as a let­ter read­er. The sol­dier pre­sent­ed her with an old let­ter addressed to Fati­ma Azi­ma, his deceased wife. Par­vana read aloud the emo­tion­al cor­re­spon­dence, reveal­ing deep famil­ial ties and sor­row over lost con­nec­tions.

After fin­ish­ing, the Tal­ib shared the news of his wife’s death, express­ing grief while she offered to com­pose a response, high­light­ing her skill as a writer. In return for her ser­vice, he hand­ed her some mon­ey and left, mark­ing a sur­pris­ing moment where she wit­nessed sor­row in some­one so often per­ceived as cru­el.

Parvana’s day con­tin­ued uneasi­ly inter­spersed with thoughts of this encounter. After anoth­er brief inter­ac­tion that led to the suc­cess­ful sale of her shal­war kameez, she felt a blend of sat­is­fac­tion and lin­ger­ing emo­tions. As exhaus­tion over­took her, she felt a twinge of nos­tal­gia for her father. Pack­ing her belong­ings seemed like an echo of her past with him, stir­ring her long­ing for his pres­ence.

As she jour­neyed home, car­ry­ing her earn­ings, Par­vana caught a fleet­ing glimpse of move­ment from the blacked-out win­dow near­by, lead­ing her to won­der if her imag­i­na­tion was play­ing tricks on her. With a new­found sense of pride and accom­plish­ment, she ran home, eager to share her expe­ri­ence.

In Chap­ter Sev­en, the pro­tag­o­nist finds her­self in a Min­istry safe house, grap­pling with the after­math of an assas­si­na­tion attempt involv­ing a man she recent­ly learned might be from the future. After a tense encounter with Adela—their enig­mat­ic operative—she process­es her con­flict­ing emo­tions, reflect­ing on her rela­tion­ship with her com­pan­ion, Gra­ham. They share a com­pli­cat­ed his­to­ry, marked by a recent kiss that has left the pro­tag­o­nist feel­ing vul­ner­a­ble.

As she nav­i­gates con­vo­lut­ed feel­ings about Gra­ham, her mind drifts between moments of fear and tran­quil­i­ty with­in the drab, sti­fling envi­ron­ment of the safe house. She recalls their recent escape from dan­ger, which involved elab­o­rate logis­ti­cal maneu­vers and the stark real­i­ty of their new confines—a tat­tered flat where her past life feels increas­ing­ly dis­tant. Ade­la’s unex­pect­ed kind­ness con­trasts sharply with the omi­nous atmos­phere they’re trapped in.

The ten­sion esca­lates when Gra­ham enters, still shak­en yet seek­ing solace in famil­iar rou­tines. Their sub­se­quent dia­logue reveals strains of mis­un­der­stand­ing tied to the ear­li­er kiss, unrav­el­ing lay­ers of desire and inse­cu­ri­ty that char­ac­ter­izes their com­pli­cat­ed bond. Gra­ham express­es regret, and yet, in an unlike­ly twist, reveals that he’s been attempt­ing to court her, illus­trat­ing mis­giv­ings root­ed in his upbring­ing.

The nar­ra­tive bal­ances phys­i­cal inti­ma­cy with intel­lec­tu­al con­fronta­tion as they explore bound­aries, lead­ing to a height­ened sense of con­nec­tion. Phys­i­cal explo­ration entwined with emo­tion­al rev­e­la­tions lays bare their desires and hes­i­ta­tions. Gra­ham nav­i­gates his feel­ings with hes­i­tance, cul­mi­nat­ing in a euphor­ic moment filled with pas­sion and unguard­ed vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty that eclipses pri­or ten­sions.

The chap­ter ends on a note of awakening—both phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly. As they draw clos­er, their rela­tion­ship under­goes a trans­for­ma­tion, a blend of affec­tion, con­flict, and desire, against the larg­er back­drop of impend­ing dan­ger that looms over them. This atmos­phere reflects their pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion, where the per­son­al and the per­ilous inter­twine, leav­ing them tee­ter­ing between love and sur­vival.