Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Children of Blood and Bone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Prejudice and Inequality
Duty to Family vs. Self
Faith and Tradition
Cycles of Violence
Summary
Analysis
Inan watches as soldiers fall to magic around him, terrified. He thinks it is a slaughter rather than a fair fight. He feels Saran was right—if magic is allowed to return, the kingdom will fall to slaughter and chaos.
Inan sees magic being used for fighting and thinks that it confirms his long-held fear: magic always leads to violence. Although he does not wish to slaughter and oppress divîners in the same way that his father does, his fear of magic nonetheless brings him in closer alignment with his father’s beliefs.
Themes
Inan is now determined to stop magic, but he also must save Zélie. He realizes that the maji breaking in will head to Zélie’s cell to try to find her, and so he heads there.
Although Inan has decided not to follow his father, his father’s belief in the danger of magic still has powerful influence over Inan. Like his father, Inan is afraid of those have magic because he worries they will use it to violently seize power. What he fails to grasp is that even without magic, Saran has violently seized power for himself.
Themes
Inan is stopped short by the sight of Amari, wielding a sword with confidence. The Amari he knows would never fight. Inan hands Zélie to Tzain, who is devastated at the sight of the slur carved into his sister’s back.
Inan is surprised to see that Amari, like Zélie, has come to terms with the fact that violence is sometimes a necessary tool. Meanwhile, Tzain sees that Zélie will now carry a painful, powerful reminder of the monarchy’s dehumanizing tactics.
Themes
As they leave, Inan says he must stay to try to help them from inside the monarchy, since King Saran does not yet know that Inan’s allegiance has shifted. Privately, he thinks that his mission to destroy magic is just beginning.
Inan’s goals now align in some ways with those of his father, making it unclear whether he is still in Saran’s thrall.
Themes
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