The Stonekeeper

The Stonekeeper opens on a hugely formative moment for Emily: Not only does she helplessly watch her dad die, but she also watches her mom make the difficult choice to physically let go of him in order to take care of Emily and Navin. While the rest of this graphic novel has no chapters or structural divisions, this scene is separated out as the Prologue because of how important it is in establishing Emily’s character at the beginning of the novel. She is scarred by watching her father’s death, which makes her vulnerable; she is also adapting to life without him. At the beginning of the Prologue, she is a happy and upbeat girl, but these traumatic events change her—she seems serious and detached after. She prefers to be by herself and has pulled away from her family, which is evident in her decision to explore the house alone rather than help her mom and brother clean. Her attitudinal shift has created conflict with her mom, and Emily is quick to question, complain, and criticize without thinking about others’ feelings. Emily’s impatient, abrasive attitude shows that she is still immature. Throughout this novel (and the rest of the Amulet series), Emily grows and changes, and she learns to consider other people’s thoughts and feelings.

Emily is forced into a position of responsibility, which begins to slowly inspire her growth. This begins when two things happen in parallel: First, Emily discovers the amulet and immediately takes it, and this gives her access to a kind of power and control she’s never had before. Then, her mom is taken by the arachnopod, thrusting Emily into a position of responsibility. After her mother’s disappearance, Emily must look after herself and her younger brother, Navin. However, things do not go smoothly at first: Emily fails to rescue their mom, the amulet she took without thinking appears to have a mind of its own, and she completely ignores any input from Navin.

As the novel progresses, the experiences Emily has in Alledia precipitate her growth as a person and a leader. She begins to cultivate some mastery over the amulet and uses it to save Navin on multiple occasions (first from the birdlike creatures and then later from the arachnopods). When she learns more context about the amulet and is given the choice to explicitly take responsibility for it and others (her mom because it will help rescue her but also the robots of the Charnon House who rely on it for power), she accepts it without hesitation. Immediately following this decision, she also listens to Navin for the first time and allows him to pilot the plane, which shows that she is learning that being responsible for someone is not the same as controlling them. Two incidents toward the end of the novel are evidence of how much Emily has grown. In the first, when she has almost succeeded in pulling her mom from the arachnopod, Navin needs her help; Emily has the confidence to let go of her mom and know that she will be able to come back and save her later, demonstrating that Emily has overcome the trauma of witnessing her dad’s death. Second, after Emily has defeated Trellis and the amulet urges her to kill him, she resists its power and lets him live, demonstrating that she has control over it and has not been corrupted by its power. While Emily’s character growth is not complete at the end of The Stonekeeper and continues throughout the rest of the series, Emily shows a great deal of growth and maturity at the end of the novel when compared to where she started.