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
When dinner chimes ring, Amari is relieved. None of her Connectors acknowledge her. She closes the temple and struggles to pronounce the Yoruba that is supposed to create a dreamscape. Amari knows she can use it to reach Inan. With a sigh, she goes to Zélie and watches Mâzeli attempt and Màri succeed at breaking their falls with shadows. When the young Reapers run off, Amari gives Zélie the scroll. Zélie’s smile fades and she says that Inan took her into a dreamscape a few times. She suddenly becomes angry when she realizes that Amari wants to talk to Inan using the dreamscape. Zélie snarls that Inan only does the right thing when it’s easy; otherwise, he’ll hurt them. Amari asks if this is about loving Inan or wanting to kill him. Zélie stomps the scroll into the water and forbids Amari from contact Inan.
Amari reads as distinctly unprepared to lead here, as she barely knows Yoruba and yet has to teach her Connectors incantations in the language. She doesn’t know the language because she hasn’t grown up in the culture, which further cements Amari’s outsider status. Zélie is even more aware that Amari is an outsider as Amari admits that she want to contact Inan, as her desire for diplomacy goes against everything the Iyika are fighting for right now.
Themes
Enraged, Amari asks if Zélie wants to steal her throne, but Zélie angrily stalks off. Mama Agba appears and offers to help Amari. She leads Amari to a mossy spot in the gardens and says she used to meditate here. Amari waits for a scolding, but realizes that Mama Agba wants to listen. Amari asks if it’s wrong to fight for peace, but Mama Agba says it’s more complicated than just right and wrong. Amari sighs that Inan has made mistakes, but he was raised by Saran and bore the brunt of Saran’s torture. Inan wants to be a great king and is probably fighting for the same thing Amari is—but the Iyika won’t listen.
Again, Amari understands what Saran has done to her and Inan far better than the Iyika do, but notice that she still frames her fight with Zélie as being for the throne. This suggests that for Amari, the end goal is the throne, not necessarily peace or what might come after—an indicator that she’s still suffering from what Saran has taught her to be too, even if she is advocating for diplomacy here.
Themes
Mama Agba suggests that Amari isn’t thinking big enough. The monarchy and the maji have been fighting for centuries, and both Inan and Zélie are products of that fight. Amari must understand the history if she wants peace. Mama Agba points out that Amari’s name means “possesses great strength,” and now, she’s an elder and a queen. Mama Agba looks at Amari warmly, hugs her, and says that this spot was the best place to explore her powers. She reminds Amari that as a cênter, she doesn’t need an incantation—it doesn’t matter that Zélie destroyed it. Amari settles in and calls to Inan.
With this, Mama Agba seeks to make Amari see that this argument between her and Zélie is bigger than just this current fight for the throne. This is the product and the current iteration of centuries of conflict and violence on both sides. Now, neither side trusts each other, so diplomacy isn’t as easy as Amari wants to think it is. Mama Agba also recognizes that reminding Amari of her power is the most effective way to get through to her, as this is what Amari is focused on.
Themes
