The definition of chains is: “a series of metal links used to confine a prisoner.” In the novel Chains, the author, Laurie halse Anderson shows that there are two main chains that hold Isabel down as Madam Lockton . Chains about a young girl named Isabel, (who is sold along with her younger sister, Ruth) who is sold to the Locktons, a Loyalist family that lives in New York. The first day Isabel and Ruth go to New York, Isabel meets Curzon, and he offers her to be a spy for the Rebels so she can be free. At this time Isabel was very loyal to her new owners and was scared to be beat or killed. A few days later Madam Lockton hits Ruth, and Ruth doesn’t talk for the rest of the day. Isabel doesn’t know why her sister got hit. She gets angry