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Chapter 20
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mortal Engines, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Social Class
Sacrifice
Dangers of Technology
The Importance of History
Prejudice and First Impressions
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
Back in London, the city continues to flee from Panzerstadt-Bayreuth. Crome sends Beefeater guards to put down riots in the Gut. Meanwhile, disguised in goggles and a rubber suit, Katherine and Pod infiltrate the Engineerium, where many Engineers are gathering for an important meeting.
Beefeaters are the name of the real royal guard in Britain today, and so the fact that the term Beefeater survives in this future London suggests that ideas from the past can remain but take on new forms.
Active
Themes
Inside the Engineerium, Katherine and Pod manage to successfully convince the people around them that they’re Guild members. Katherine overhears some Engineers talking about an upcoming test of MEDUSA. They mention that Valentine himself found MEDUSA and brought it to Crome. Eventually, Katherine and Pod make it to an auditorium where Crome is standing at a lectern on stage. He tells everyone to be seated.
Katherine continues to get bolder and bolder about the ways that she investigates what’s going on with her father. Pod has the most to lose if he gets caught, so his agreement with Katherine’s plan shows that he is brave and that he trusts Katherine.
Active
Themes
A slide projector shows a diagram behind Crome of a big, complicated-looking machine. Crome proclaims that it’s MEDUSA. He explains how MEDUSA will be able to turn rival cities into dust and how it will even allow them to breach the Shield-Wall of the Anti-Traction League. He says they’re about to do a test-firing of the weapon. All of a sudden, Katherine feels that she has to get out of the auditorium, and Pod follows her.
Katherine is angry, believing that Crome lied and that Valentine never wanted anything to do with old weapons, but Pod isn’t sure why Crome would lie about that. They try to find a way out of the Engineerium, but they need to take a monorail and there are none in sight. Suddenly, they hear a rumble. They look out and see the dome of St. Paul’s opening.
Active
Themes
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