Imagine living in an underground dystopian city, that is controlled by a mayor who has all the power.  The mayor doesn't want anyone to know about the Unknown Regions because then the he wouldn’t have all the  power. Could you survive living in this dystopian society, being controlled by a totalitarian government? In The City of Ember the citizens didn't really care what's going on in Ember.  However, Lina and Doon are really curious to find out more about why the lights are going out and to find a way out of the city of Ember to the unknown regions. In The City of Ember Lina and Doon are concerned about why the blackouts are happening. On the other hand, the citizens of Ember have a lack of concern about the crisis.
Curiosity leads to wisdom.  In The City of Ember Lina and Doon are curious to find out why the lights are going out.  The lights are going out in the City of Ember because for some reason the generator is causing too many blackouts. Throughout the novel, Lina and Doons’ actions show they are curious. Lina and Doon find Looper stealing from the supply depot and and try to question him on what he is doing and why. Lina and Doon discover the movable light and decode the message Poppy was eating at try to ask around to see if anyone could understand the message.  They found a big locked door that might have had to with the message so they tried to find the key to the locked door.  Lina and Doon thought that the way out of the city to the unknown regions was to go through this locked door. As you can see, Lina and Doons’ curiosity

led them to being wise and therefore figure a way out of Ember. In contrast, the city was to supposed to live 200 hundred years so that might result in the lights going out.  The letter the builders created was put in a box and was set to last for 200 hundred years.  The city of Ember lasted for more than 200 hundred years.  Lina found poppy eating the message from the box that was supposed to only last for 200 years. 
Apathy leads to foolishness.  In the book the citizens of ember have a lack of communication and concern to what is going on and don't really care too much about the lights going out.  The 7th mayor died without passing the box on so the future mayors didn't know about it.  The mayor doesn't want anyone to know what was in the Unknown Regions because he wants to control the government and its citizens.  In the story, Lina and doon are curious to know what was in the unknown region. At the end of the story Lina and Doon encourage the citizens to come to the unknown regions and live there. Based on the citizens previous actions, one can assume that they will not be concerned about going to the unknown regions and in turn stay in Ember. This shows how the citizens of Ember are apathetic, or have a lack of concern, with what is going on in their community. 
One of the themes in The City of Ember is how difficult times often bring out the best or the worst in people. As the blackouts threaten eternal darkness in the city, some of its citizens become darker while others look for the light. Characters who are curious, such as Lina and Doon, led to them having wisdom and finding a way out of Ember. The crisis therefore brought out the best in them. In contrast, the citizens of Ember where Apathetic, and therefore did not care about the crisis going on around them. This shows how crisis may also bring out the worst in characters, which was seen in the citizens of Ember