Beggars in Spain

Once again, Abraham Lincoln appears in the book, this time when Jennifer makes Lincoln's “House Divided” speech the only content available to Leisha on the Sanctuary server. Delivered in 1858 during Lincoln's unsuccessful Senatorial campaign, the speech reads:

A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to dissolve—I do not expect the House to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided (Lincoln, Abraham. “House Divided Speech.” Illinois State Capitol. Springfield, Illinois. 16 Jun. 1858.).

The “house” Jennifer refers to is the Sleepless community, which she seeks to unify through her vow of solidarity. Jennifer's hatred of disunion within communities will appear in greater detail in future chapters, particularly with respect to the Sanctuary space station orbiting the Earth. For now, though, the Lincoln speech serves as a direct attack on Leisha—herself a Lincoln biographer, making the attack more painful—for threatening discord among Sleepless by attempting to reason with We-Sleep.

Like the previously mentioned John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau—whose writing inspired the line, “All men are created equal” in the U.S. Declaration of Independence—Lincoln is an important figure in a book so concerned with the idea of equality. Such is the importance of Lincoln that one of his quotes adorns the first page of each of Beggars in Spain's four Books. The first quote is little more than a pun around the book's subject matter. A quote to Major General Hooker delivered during the Civil War, it reads, “With energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories” (2). The quote at the beginning of Book 2, however, holds deeper relevance to the book's themes and Leisha's character. Taken from a message to Congress on December 1, 1862, it reads, “A nation may be said to consist of its territories, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability” (98). The full implications of this quote won't become apparent until near the end of Book 2, when the fiasco of Jennifer's trial and the reality of Hawke's crimes cause Leisha to lose faith in one of the few things she still trusts, aside from reason: the law. This questioning of the law is framed in the same way Leisha's questioning of Yagaiism was framed near the end of the Book 1, placing it in the context of Leisha's broader philosophical development, the dominant arc of the entire novel.

Envy is what powers Hawke's We-Sleep movement, Leisha argues, not profits. As such, it's a movement that contradicts her old Yagaiist beliefs, wherein money and rational self-interest drive economics, not resentment. When Leisha confronts Hawke about his crimes, she says, “You really did it because you're not a Sleepless, and never can be, and you're one of the haters that always moves to destroy any superiority he can't have” (207). Here, Leisha reiterates her view of Populist movements like Hawke's, movements that have only spread across the Western world since the publication of Beggars in Spain. Although these movements can, and frequently are, created by opportunistic power-hungry leaders looking to profit off them, resentment fuels them first, Leisha argues.

Finally, when Leisha crumbles in Alice's arms, finally realizing how much she relies on her for emotional support, Alice says, “Now I can stop sending all those damn flowers” (201). The point, the book suggests, of Alice sending her sister ordinary flowers rather than the exotics she prefers is to remind Leisha that ordinary individuality matters as much as extraordinary individuality. The use of flowers as a symbol for individuality first appeared in Book 1 with Roger, but while Roger only values the individuality of exotic flowers, Alice teaches Leisha that individuality must be inclusive of all types of individuals, even the ordinary ones.