Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson is a story about persistence. Young Isabel and her little sister Ruth have been slaves since birth. Having been promised freedom upon their mistress' death, they are cheated by Miss Finch's brother Robert who sells them to the Locktons. The Locktons own a wealthy estate in New York City where the girls go to work as house servants. Madam Lockton abuses the girls meanly, forcing Ruth to accompany her at all times so that the sisters are separated. In exchange for the promise of forced freedom, Isabel decides to work for the patriots, feeding them any information she can obtain from the loyalist-sympathizing Locktons. Ruth gets sick and is sent to a property in Charleston, but Madam Lockton tells Isabel she's been sold. When Madam Lockton learns of Isabel's treachery with the patriots, she reveals the truth about Ruth and says that she will be drowned as Isabel's punishment. Isabel escapes not long after this, swiping a free pass, and rescues one of her fellow slaves Curzon, a who is being held in prison with all the other patriots after the British invasion. Together Isabel and Curzon row to New Jersey where they decide to rescue Ruth together.
Since Chains is the first book in a series, it doesn't end as resolutely as one may hope. There are still many loose ends floating around at the conclusion. For instance, is Ruth still alive? Despite the somewhat unsatisfactory ending, Isabel embarks on a journey of transformation throughout the book. At the beginning she struggles with timidity and is immensely discouraged by how unfairly society opposes her goal of freedom. As she sees matters, she's been denied a promised reward of freedom, so now she's owed something. Through rising action she starts to believe that the debt white society owes her allows her to take drastic measures in order to collect. This quest for freedom inspires her to join the patriot cause, not for political values but because of their sympathy toward her plight. Finally, Isabel reaches the climax of her personal transformation when she learns that Madam Lockton lied to her about Ruth's fate and she sums up the courage and ingenuity to escape on her own.
Anderson sets her novel in the chaotic New World colonies in the 1770s. This is a period when the colonist become increasingly aware of injustice as they start to feel the full weight of the tyrannic pressure of Britain. You can only push people so far before they snap, however. In a sense, all of the action in Isabel's narrative is reflected in the overall political atmosphere of her surroundings. When she first becomes aware of the cruel, unforgiving nature of society -- when Robert Lockton denies the girls freedom, -- she changes her ethical beliefs accordingly, to account for evil. She starts to act upon the conviction that rules may be broken when their establishers or enforcers don't adhere to them. Similarly, the patriots form their rebellion based upon military force after they wake up to the tyranny of England. They commit violent and questionable acts in order to force the king to respect them enough to engage them in actual war, which is the only way to accomplish their true goal of separation.
