The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games)
CHAPTER 27
by Barnes, Jennifer LynnThe chapter begins with the narrator, Avery, reluctantly agreeing to show Eve Toby’s wing after Grayson insists it was part of their deal. As they approach the wing, Eve slows her pace, visibly affected by the remnants of the brick wall Tobias Hawthorne had built decades ago. Avery explains that the wing was sealed off after Toby’s disappearance and later searched for clues when they discovered Toby was alive. Eve’s curiosity is piqued, and she eagerly asks what they found, setting the stage for the revelations to come.
Avery reveals a hidden compartment beneath a marble tile in Toby’s wing, containing an engraved poem by William Blake titled “A Poison Tree.” The poem reflects Toby’s teenage identification with suppressed wrath, a sentiment Eve deeply relates to, momentarily losing herself in the words. Avery further explains how the poem led them to a legal text in Toby’s library, which contained a coded message—a self-written poem by Toby. The poem hints at stolen evidence and a dark secret, leaving Eve desperate to understand its meaning.
Eve’s emotional connection to Toby’s story intensifies as she requests to explore the wing alone, revealing her personal struggles with identity. She shares how her adoptive family treated her as an outsider due to her dissimilar appearance and how a DNA test failed to connect her to any biological relatives. Avery empathizes, acknowledging Toby’s role in finding her, but Eve’s focus remains on Toby’s poem, which resonates with her own experiences of isolation and hidden anger.
The chapter concludes with Avery reflecting on her own mother and the traits they share, contrasting Eve’s search for belonging. As Avery leaves Eve to explore Toby’s wing in private, the moment underscores the themes of identity, family, and the weight of hidden truths. The emotional depth of the chapter highlights the characters’ intertwined journeys and the lingering mysteries surrounding Toby’s past.
FAQs
1. What significant poem did Avery show Eve in Toby’s wing, and why is it thematically important to both Toby and Eve?
Answer:
Avery showed Eve William Blake’s 18th-century poem “A Poison Tree,” which was hidden beneath a marble tile in Toby’s wing. The poem explores themes of suppressed wrath and its destructive consequences, which teenage Toby strongly identified with. Eve also resonated deeply with the poem, seeing parallels to her own emotional experiences. This connection highlights how both Toby and Eve struggled with hidden anger and feelings of alienation, suggesting a shared emotional legacy despite their physical differences.2. How does Eve’s personal backstory explain her emotional reaction to Toby’s hidden poem and belongings?
Answer:
Eve reveals she never resembled her adoptive family physically or emotionally, leading to lifelong feelings of isolation. Her mother even altered her appearance (via haircuts) to minimize these differences. This upbringing made Eve yearn for biological connections, which she sought through DNA tests—unsuccessfully, until Toby found her. Discovering Toby’s poem and possessions gives her the first tangible link to someone who shares her emotional worldview, explaining her visceral reaction and desire to experience this connection privately.3. Analyze the significance of Toby’s unfinished poem that Avery recites. What key clues does it contain about his past actions?
Answer:
Toby’s self-written poem references “secrets,” “lies,” and “stolen evidence” hidden in “the darkest hole,” with a promise that “light shall reveal all.” This suggests he took concrete proof (likely about his adoption) and hid it in a place requiring illumination (like UV light revealing his invisible-ink journals). The truncated ending (“I writ upon the…”) implies the hiding place—probably a wall, given the context. The poem serves as both a confessional and a treasure map, revealing Toby’s teenage rebellion against family deception.4. Why does Avery ultimately grant Eve’s request to explore Toby’s wing alone, despite initial reluctance?
Answer:
Avery recognizes Eve’s profound need for this solitary experience when Eve explains her lifelong alienation from her adoptive family. The emotional weight of finally connecting with biological kin through Toby’s possessions—especially the poem that mirrors her own psyche—compels Avery to prioritize empathy over protocol. This decision reflects Avery’s inherited trait from her mother: the ability to love “fiercely, deeply, unapologetically” by honoring Eve’s vulnerable moment of self-discovery.5. How does the physical state of Toby’s wing symbolically reflect the Hawthorne family’s hidden truths?
Answer:
The wing’s visible rubble from Tobias Hawthorne’s bricked-up wall represents the family’s attempts to literally and figuratively bury secrets (like Toby’s disappearance and adoption). The hidden compartments and UV-light-dependent journals mirror how truth in the Hawthorne family operates—obscured but discoverable through deliberate effort. Eve’s exploration parallels the narrative’s broader theme: reconstruction (through rubble) and revelation (through light) are necessary to uncover generational deceptions.
Quotes
1. “‘A Poison Tree,’… An eighteenth-century poem written by a poet named William Blake… teenaged Toby seemed to identify with the feeling of wrath—and what it cost to hide it.”
This reveals a key insight into Toby’s psychology through the poem he left behind, showing his suppressed anger and emotional turmoil as a teenager—a theme that connects to Eve’s own experiences.
2. “‘Secrets, lies, all I despise. The tree is poison, don’t you see? It poisoned S and Z and me. The evidence I stole is in the darkest hole. Light shall reveal all, I writ upon the…’”
Toby’s cryptic poem hints at hidden truths and stolen evidence related to his past, creating suspense while symbolizing the Hawthorne family’s buried secrets and the destructive nature of deception.
3. “‘I don’t look like my mom… No one had eyes like mine. Or a single one of my features… I convinced myself that maybe I had family out there. I did one of those mail-in DNA tests. But… no matches.’”
Eve’s poignant confession about her alienation and search for identity underscores the chapter’s themes of belonging and biological connection, making her emotional reaction to Toby’s writings more understandable.
4. “She’d given me my resilience. My smile. The color of my hair. The tendency to guard my heart—and the ability, once those guards were down, to love fiercely, deeply, unapologetically. Unafraid.”
Avery’s reflection on inheriting traits from her mother provides a striking contrast to Eve’s experience, emphasizing how deeply identity and family bonds shape characters’ perspectives.