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
Nâo chants for hours as they hike through the caves. She marvels that they’re almost victorious and Zélie tries to feel her joy, but she feels as empty as when Baba died. Nâo reassures Zélie that nobody blames her for wanting to run, but Roën spits that Zélie is a coward. He snarls that the Iyika die for Zélie, and all she wants to do is run. Zélie points out that Roën left his home, but Roën says he had nothing left—he won’t feel sorry for Zélie since she still has people she loves. Roën shouts that Zélie is a survivor, not a victim, and that she should stop running. He pushes past the girls and Nâo desperately expands their tunnel further. Zélie sees a red spark above Roën’s head and smells oil. She throws Nâo back.
What Roën gets at here is essentially that in his eyes, Zélie is leaning so far into her victimhood that she’s unable to celebrate that she’s alive and has lots of people, including him, that love her and want to see her succeed at this quest. This asks Zélie to completely rethink the way she considers herself and the maji and rather than seeing them as an oppressed people, to see them as a people who have, against all the odds, survived.
Themes
