Mortal Engines

by

Philip Reeve

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Themes and Colors
Social Class Theme Icon
Sacrifice Theme Icon
Dangers of Technology Theme Icon
The Importance of History Theme Icon
Prejudice and First Impressions Theme Icon
Friendship Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mortal Engines, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship Theme Icon

Like many young adult novels, Mortal Engines centers on the power of friendship. At the heart of the story is the friendship (and perhaps later romance) between Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw. Running parallel to this friendship is a similar one between Katherine Valentine and Bevis Pod. Both of these friendships involve people from very different backgrounds: Tom and especially Katherine are both part of London’s privileged upper class, but Hester is a scavenger from outside London and Pod is a convict-worker in the Gut (the very lowest part of London). In fact, however, these differences become strengths in their respective friendships, helping all of these characters survive longer in the dangerous post-apocalyptic world they live in. Tom’s caution and level-headed thinking balance out Hester’s more impulsive and decisive actions, while Katherine’s leadership abilities complement Pod’s practical knowledge. Mortal Engines shows that not only do opposites attract; they can also help create balanced relationships in which people learn to trust and rely on each other, overcoming their weaknesses in the process.

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Friendship Quotes in Mortal Engines

Below you will find the important quotes in Mortal Engines related to the theme of Friendship.
Chapter 3 Quotes

“Ask him!” she screamed. “Ask him what he did to Hester Shaw!”

Related Characters: Hester Shaw (speaker), Tom Natsworthy, Thaddeus Valentine
Related Symbols: Scar
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“The law!” she scoffed. “Valentine is the law in London. Isn’t he the Lord Mayor’s favourite? Isn’t he the Head Historian? No, he’ll kill me unless I kill him first.”

Related Characters: Hester Shaw (speaker), Tom Natsworthy, Thaddeus Valentine, Magnus Crome
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“Yes, I know, and I’m terribly sorry about it, but what can I do?” said Wreyland sadly. “Times are hard, you know.”

Related Characters: Orme Wreyland (speaker), Tom Natsworthy, Hester Shaw, Thaddeus Valentine, Magnus Crome
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

“It’s made of junk!” he gasped.

“Junk?” laughed Miss Fang. “Why, the Jenny Haniver is built from bits of the finest airships that ever flew! An envelope of silicon-silk from a Shan Guo clipper, twin Jeunet-Carot aero-engines off a Paris gunship, the reinforced gas-cells of a Spitzbergen war-balloon... It’s amazing what you can find in the scrapyards...”

Related Characters: Tom Natsworthy (speaker), Miss Anna Fang (speaker), Hester Shaw
Related Symbols: Scar
Page Number: 71
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

“I WORK FOR THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON NOW,” said Shrike. “HE HAS SENT ME TO KILL YOU.”

Tom whimpered again. Hester gave a brittle little laugh. “But ... you won’t do it, will you, Shrike? You wouldn’t kill me?”

“YES,” said Shrike flatly, still staring down at her.

Related Characters: Hester Shaw (speaker), Shrike (speaker), Tom Natsworthy, Thaddeus Valentine, Magnus Crome
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

“We don’t stand a chance against Shrike in the air,” she explained. “Hopefully on the ground I can outwit him.”

Related Characters: Hester Shaw (speaker), Tom Natsworthy, Shrike
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

Above it flapped a black and white flag; a grinning skull and two crossed bones.

“Great Quirke!” gasped Tom. “This is a pirate suburb!”

Related Characters: Tom Natsworthy (speaker), Nikolas Quirke, Chrysler Peavey
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

“What does she mean, K Division?” asked Katherine.

Related Characters: Katherine Valentine (speaker), Thaddeus Valentine, Bevis Pod
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

“I may be no better than Valentine,” she went on, “but there is a difference between us. Valentine tried to kill you, and I want to keep you alive. So, will you come with me?”

Related Characters: Miss Anna Fang (speaker), Tom Natsworthy, Hester Shaw, Thaddeus Valentine
Page Number: 197
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

“I try to be nice,” she said. “Nobody’s ever made me feel they like me before, the way you do. So I try to be kind and smiley, like you want me to be, but then I catch sight of my reflection or I think of him and it all goes wrong and I can only think horrible things and scream at you and try and hurt you. I’m sorry.”

Related Characters: Hester Shaw (speaker), Tom Natsworthy, Shrike
Related Symbols: Scar
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

And light burst down from above; the harsh beam of an airship’s searchlight raking across the snow. The aviatrix reeled blindly backwards, and Valentine leaped up, snatching his sword, pulling her hard against him as he drove it home. For a moment the two of them stumbled together like drunken dancers at the end of a party, close enough to Tom’s hiding place for him to see the bright blade push out through the back of Miss Fang’s neck and hear her desperate, choking whisper: “Hester Shaw will find you. She will find you and—”

Related Characters: Miss Anna Fang (speaker), Tom Natsworthy, Hester Shaw, Thaddeus Valentine
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32 Quotes

She had come to think of Bevis Pod as a sweet, clumsy, rather useless person, someone who needed her to look after him, and she suspected that that was how the Historians all thought of him as well. But that afternoon she had begun to understand that he was really much cleverer than her.

Related Characters: Tom Natsworthy, Hester Shaw, Katherine Valentine, Bevis Pod
Related Symbols: Scar
Page Number: 252
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

“I’ll be dead in twenty minutes, Tom,” she said. “Just get yourself safe away. Forget about me.”

“I’ll circle back...”

“I’ll be dead.”

“I’ll circle back anyway...”

Related Characters: Tom Natsworthy (speaker), Hester Shaw (speaker), Thaddeus Valentine, Miss Anna Fang
Page Number: 269
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

Hester was stumbling backwards, lifting her bound hands to ward off Father’s blow, and Katherine flung herself between them so that suddenly it was she who was in his path, and his sword slid easily through her and she felt the hilt jar hard against her ribs.

Related Characters: Hester Shaw, Thaddeus Valentine, Katherine Valentine, Bevis Pod
Page Number: 286
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 37 Quotes

“But we’re alive, and together, and we’re going to be all right.”

Related Characters: Hester Shaw (speaker), Tom Natsworthy, Thaddeus Valentine
Related Symbols: Scar
Page Number: 296
Explanation and Analysis: