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 sits on the edge of the bathtub, thinking of Mâzeli. It’s been three days since he died, but she can’t bring herself to wash his blood off. Tzain enters and invites Zélie to the assembly downstairs, but she refuses. She tries to step into the bathtub, but the room spins. Zélie hears another knock and yells at Tzain to leave, but Roën steps in, takes Zélie’s face in his hands, and tells her to breathe. He helps her sit on the edge of the tub and says the elders sent for his help. As he washes Zélie’s face, he said the day he lost his partner was the worst day of his life. He smiles as he tells Zélie how he met her. Zélie whispers that she has to get out of Orïsha. Roën says that if she’s serious, now is the time. She demands to know more.
Zélie’s moments of panic illustrate how raw and damaging her grief is. However, in this moment, Roën’s appearance allows them to connect over some of their shared trauma, which in turn helps them build intimacy. Roën’s success at getting Zélie to open up and bathe begins to show that if Zélie can bring herself to trust Roën more, intimacy and love might be able to help her heal—but doing this would require a major reversal of everything Zélie knows to be true, given how violent Orïsha is.
Themes
