Summary
America attempts to convince Maxon that Celeste isn't a good person, but the conversation angers him. He tells America that she is probably better acquainted with her maids’ personalities than with the other Selected girls. When America persists, Maxon reminds her of his status: “For all intents and purposes, I am lord and master of this country, and I’ll be damned if you think you can treat me like this in my own home. You don’t have to agree with my decisions, but you will abide by them” (289). He leaves. That night at dinner, he attempts to signal at her with his ear, but she ignores him.
After dinner, America is upset with Maxon and unprepared to see Aspen stationed at her door. Their interaction as he opens her door for her is innocuous on the surface but proves to America that they both still have feelings for each other. In the middle of the night, Aspen slips into her room. He asks her if she loves Maxon, and she responds that she doesn't. They kiss. After fifteen minutes, Aspen goes to leave. Aspen tells America that after being drafted, he excelled in training, and graduated at the top of his class, which is the reason for his placement at the palace. He opens his door and kisses America again before stepping out. In the morning, America is worried about what she has done. She knows it would be considered treason, and the punishment for treason is severe.
The next day is a Saturday, but America begs out of going to the Women’s Room by pretending to have a headache. Aspen comes to visit her in her bedroom. He apologizes to America and tells her he hadn't been dating the girl she saw him with at her going-away ceremony. America tells Aspen she never stopped loving him. They kiss but are interrupted by America’s maids. Aspen pretends he had been checking America for a fever, and her pale complexion helps sell the lie.
That night, America is shaken awake by Anne, who tells her an attack on the palace is underway. The maids lead America to a secret passage that will take her to the basement, and America insists they come with her despite their protests. America thinks that her favor with Maxon will allow her to grant them access to the room. When stopped by a guard to the safe room, America insists that she will not enter the space without her maids. She enters the room and no one stops them. Silvia approaches and attempts to put the girls to work serving those in the room, but America resists, sending Anne to tend to the royals but keeping the other two with her. She does so loudly enough for the king, queen, and prince to hear. She brings them to the back of the room and huddles with them in silence. America plasters a calm expression onto her face.
Aspen appears in the room and commends her choice to bring her maids with her. Aspen leaves, and after some time Maxon approaches. He tells America that the rebel group are Southerners, which means that there will surely be violence and possibly death in the palace that night. He moves on to check on the next girl. After a number of hours, an official comes to the room and dismisses them. He tells the Selected to go directly to their rooms and not to leave. When she returns to her room, America sees that it had been ransacked. She does not cry until she is alone in her room once again.
After some time, Silvia comes to her room. America notes again how casually Silvia has reacted to the invasion, to the point of callousness. She tells America that three girls have already decided to leave the palace during the course of the night. She gives America a phone so that she can call home and tell them she is safe. America has never before held a cellphone. On the phone, May begs America to come home, and May takes America’s denial to mean that she is in love with Maxon. After Silvia leaves, America determines that she must set things right with Aspen and Maxon.
At breakfast a few days later, America marvels at how close she has become to the other girls in the competition. She notes that Maxon looks distressed that morning. As his gaze sweeps the table of girls, he seems to be debating something. America catches his eye and tugs on her ear, and he responds in kind. Aspen enters the Dining Hall. Immediately after, Maxon stands and approaches the table of the Selected. He tells them the attack has encouraged him to cut them down to the final six contestants. Marlee, Kriss, Natalie, Celeste, Elsie, and America are the ones chosen to stay, and because they have made it to the final stage of the round, all six girls are immediately propelled into Elite status. On her way out of the dining hall, America agrees to meet with Aspen later that night.
Maxon comes to America’s room later that morning. America tells him she is surprised he has kept her in the competition. He apologizes for their fight and tells her it came from frustration about being pressured into a decision by his family and advisors. He tells her all the reasons why he kept the other girls, and they are all political in nature—Marlee is the people’s favorite, for example, and Celeste comes from a powerful family. When she asks why she remains, Maxon tells her that he thinks he could be happy with her, and if it wasn’t so complicated he would have ended the Selection already and chosen her to be his bride. He tells her his reservations in choosing her come from the fact that she still acts unsure of her feelings for him, and that he will continue to wait for her to make up her mind.
America begins to ask if Maxon could ever forgive her, but thinking she is discussing the fight they had, he assures her there is nothing she could do that he would hold against her. Maxon reminds America that she has a choice to stay and that if she decides to go they could part as friends. America hugs him and responds that they are more than friends. They kiss.
That night, Aspen comes to visit her. He keeps the door open so that he might be able to claim that he was simply checking on a disturbance in her room. When Aspen sees that America has kept the last penny, he leans down to kiss her. America tells him not to do that anymore: “whatever we were, or are right now, we can’t be that here” (324). She tells him that it was ultimately his fault she was in the competition at all. When asked by Aspen if she is choosing Maxon over him, America responds that she is choosing herself. Aspen tells her he will not be giving up, despite the inherent danger in fighting for her affection. America falls back asleep, feeling at peace, and like everything is right in the world. When she wakes the next morning, she feels as though this is her first true day at the palace: “The Selection was no longer something that was simply happening to me, but something I was actively a part of” (326).
Analysis
Although Maxon’s anger at America is fair, as he had dismissed another contestant for speaking poorly of her, by justifying his anger with his status as a prince, he does more than shut down the conversation between them. Maxon reminds America that she is still his subject and that despite their friendship and growing love, she will always have to abide by his final say. Seeing Aspen reminds America of another love, even though that love is as burdened with social stratification as is her connection with Maxon. Part of the reason she consents to kiss Aspen that night is her anger at Maxon. An important piece of information learned from America’s tryst with Aspen is that they were injecting him as well as other enlisted men with some sort of growth hormone that was causing him to grow quickly.
In reopening her relationship with Aspen, America risks everything about her new life in the palace. She does so because she is unable to suppress the emotions she feels upon seeing Aspen, and because he offers her comfort that feels like home. In some ways, their relationship as it exists now mimics the dynamic of the one they shared before the Selection—it is as forbidden as ever, if not more so, and is irresistible to America. She is already accustomed to breaking the rules for love. Still, her relationship with Aspen is a risk, one that she knows could lead to dire consequences. In following her desire over her reason, America reminds readers of how motivated she is by love. It is the primary incentive in America’s life and takes precedent over any other concerns, including challenging the regime and fostering her friendship with Maxon and the other Selected.
America’s decision to bring her maids with her to safety is unprecedented and potentially risks her status in the competition, but when faced with a life-or-death situation, she cannot in good conscience allow her maids to go off into danger. In making that decision, America ascends into a sense of authority and self-assuredness that she had not possessed before. When her maids attempt to stick around and help clean up, she insists they go to bed: “Now that I’d found my ability to command, I wasn’t afraid to use it” (308). America’s decision seems to be a sort of resolution of the tension between her previous caste status and her new power. It also works to prove to those in command that she will shine in the role of a princess if it were to be offered to her. In seeing how easily those in the safe room accept the presence of America’s maids, the hypocrisy and blindness of the upper classes in Illéa are brought to light. The fact that it is completely normalized that only the select few be protected from the terror of rebel attacks demonstrates that inequality does not only exist outside the walls of the palace.
During America's conversation with Maxon, the prince admits that they still have no idea what the rebels are searching for in the castle. He is afraid of the speed and strength with which they strike the castle. This solidifies the demands of the rebels as a central plot point in the novels to follow in The Selection series. Whatever the rebels are looking for in the palace, it is made clear that they will not stop their assault until they obtain it, and they will not let anything get in the way of that process. Although the rebel attack encourages America’s mother to finally give her the out she has been looking for, as she is told to come home by her family on the phone with them after it, America fully commits herself to participate in the competition despite the inherent danger of doing so. America is fully terrified by the rebels, but brave enough to confront that fear in order to stay at the palace and keep spending time with both Maxon and Aspen. America’s reasons for staying also demonstrate that while she can use her position to fight back against the inequality that plagues the nation of Illéa, it would never be her primary motive in life.
The theme of love reemerges at the end of the novel in full force. The establishment of a love triangle between Aspen, America, and Maxon places America in a physically vulnerable position, due to the very real consequences that might arise from America's involvement with a man who isn't the prince, as well as in an emotionally vulnerable position, as she is conflicted about who to choose. The moment when America decides to choose herself, rather than either Maxon or Aspen, for the time being, is a crucial moment of character development for America. Previously, America had operated her entire life according to the desires of other people, but now resolves not to be "swayed by what was easy or what someone else thought was right" (325).
This conclusion to the novel sends an important message about the power of self-love. America finds peace not through the acceptance of the men in her life, but through self-acceptance, and it is this very self-acceptance that will give her the strength to face whatever comes next. America's feelings of peace at the end of the book, even though none of the conflicts have been truly resolved, speaks to the conclusion she makes that she must be true to herself no matter what. In a book primarily concerned with the courting process of a prince, this ending subverts many of the expectations a reader might have had for The Selection. By ending the book without finding Prince Maxon a wife, Cass demonstrates that it is not those who love a person that creates value in their lives, but rather the relationship they have with themselves.
