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 tows Roën to Ibadan. She expects to feel pain but instead, she remembers all the happiness she experienced here with Mama and Baba. She’s not sure how long she can keep herself and Roën alive with the connection, but she wants to live and fight. Zélie hears an Iyika signal horn and puts Roën down. She drags herself over the top of a cliff and watches with horror as a dome of wind descends over the valley of Ibadan. A second horn sends a Cancer’s rusty clouds into the rotating wind of the dome. Birds die instantly as the wall of gas starts to close in.
Because Zélie has vowed to live and focus on surviving, it’s easier for her to remember happy childhood times with her parents—as well as focus on the future she might have with Roën. The cloud of Cancer gas, however, means that Zélie is also an unintended target of what Amari planned with Jahi and Imani (who’s a Cancer maji). This shows that there are always unintended consequences of ruthlessness like Amari exhibits.
Themes
Thinking of Mâzeli, Zélie grabs Roën and summons shadows to carry them quickly to the center of Ibadan, the last place where the gas will hit. Zélie focuses on the well and screams to the villagers to climb in. She hands Roën’s body to those inside and waves as many people in as she can. A woman screams and pushes her baby toward Zélie. The gas hits the back of the woman’s head, so Zélie conjures a spirit to catch the falling baby and pull it close to her chest. Spirits seal off the top of the well.
Saving as many villagers as she can means that Zélie can do everything in her power to make sure that she helps create as many survivors of this disaster as she can, which would then give her more allies—and begin to build a culture of survivorship, rather than suffering and oppression.
Themes
