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
Seeing Zélie seems to stop time for Inan. He can’t organize his thoughts and burns with shame when he thinks that Zélie and Amari make him a useless fighter. As Jokôye, Nehanda, and Ojore approach, Inan isn’t sure whom to protect. Jokôye gives the order to surround the room and summons the other tîtáns from outside. Inan says he wants the Iyika alive, but Jokôye says they can’t hold back. Painfully, Inan knows they’re right and hears Saran’s words, “Duty over self,” in his head. He tells Jokôye that if they kill the Iyika, the war will escalate.
Seeing Zélie and remembering the love they shared forces Inan to reckon with the human cost of what he’s doing. This isn’t some abstract concept, and the Iyika aren’t subhuman animals: they’re people he loved and still loves, and in the case of Amari, they’re his blood. When Inan, like Amari, hears Saran’s words in his head, it again suggests that neither of them can truly escape the horrible things their father taught them as children.
Themes
