Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Children of Virtue and Vengeance, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power and Systems of Oppression
Cycles of Violence
Tradition and History
Love vs. Duty
Summary
Analysis
Zélie thinks of all the maji who dedicated themselves to this fight and of whom they’ll need to sacrifice. Zélie can’t give up Tzain or Roën, and there’s only one other person Zélie loves: Amari. Even though everyone Amari killed is alive, Zélie thinks that she can’t forgive her—she killed indiscriminately so she could rule. Zélie’s thoughts are interrupted by Harun’s voice. She peers around the corner and sees Roën tell five members of his crew that it’s over. Harun spits that Roën can’t just bow out, but Roën grabs a flint and a cigarette from two mercenaries and struggles to light it. Harun knocks the cigarette to the ground, asks if Zélie neutered Roën, and admits that he knew Nehanda was lying. Harun gives Roën a lit cigar and says that they’re done.
Harun’s admission that he was aware Nehanda lied to them suggests that Roën has been failing in his work as a mercenary because of his love for Zélie. As a mercenary, it’s necessary for him to pick up on this sort of double-crossing—and normally, he can do so just fine. The fact that Zélie is considering sacrificing Amari shows that she’s beginning to see the necessity of combining love and duty, which by virtue of what it is, the blood sacrifice for the moonstone is.
Themes
Roën seems to accept the cigar and nods. Harun nods too, but suddenly, Roën tackles Harun to the ground and presses the lit end of the cigar to Harun’s neck. Roën takes another puff and then touches the cigar to Harun’s skin again. As Harun screams, Roën says that Harun will stand down. Harun agrees and Roën tells him to take the crew—but if Roën catches Harun going against these parting orders, he’ll kill him. Zélie sees no sign of the kind man connected to her heart as the mercenaries retreat. Once his men are gone, Roën falls in pain and tells Zélie she doesn’t have to hide—he always knows where she is now that their hearts are connected.
Violence may be the only way that Roën can control his mercenaries and scare them into playing right, but this doesn’t mean that behaving so violently and cruelly is easy for Roën, emotionally or physically. Roën’s choice to end his career as a mercenary in general shows that it is possible to break the cycle of violence—but it’s necessary to leave the violent situation altogether to do so. Importantly, though, he’s turning toward love, suggesting that love can help people make this transition.
Themes
Zélie sits with Roën and asks what happened. She asks if Roën is really giving up on his crew, but Roën says he’s been a terrible leader since he fell in love with her. He says that he doesn’t expect Zélie to still love him after witnessing this; even if Zélie knew he was a mercenary, she never had to face what that actually meant. Zélie thinks that now, she knows the truth and the monster is in the open. She puts her hand in Roën’s and asked why he thought of his mother’s song as he was dying. He says she was worth remembering. Zélie sees that Roën does have a heart. They kiss and only stop when she realizes she’s crying. Roën asks when Zélie is leaving to finish the war and says he’s coming too—Zélie is his zïtsōl, his home, and he’s not staying behind.
Though Zélie’s life has been full of violence, she’s never had to grapple with the knowledge that someone close to her whom she loves is violent by choice—she did some with Inan, but his betrayal made it more of a useless exercise than a real attempt at building community and intimacy. Choosing to accompany Zélie to finish the war shows that Roën is committed to her now that his crew is gone. Duty in the form of the mercenaries can’t get in the way anymore; he can focus on love, which means supporting Zélie’s duty.
Themes
