Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Six of Crows, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Greed
Friendship and Difference
Trauma, the Past, and Moving Forward
Identity, Values, and Growing Up
Summary
Analysis
Kaz hurries through the cells, looking for Bo Yul-Bayur—and for Pekka Rollins. He feels unhinged, and he remembers the rest of the story of how he became Dirtyhands. After swimming back from the Reaper’s Barge, Kaz experienced a “rebirth.” He “left decency behind,” stealing food from other children and cutting a boy’s feet with a glass bottle so Kaz could take the boy’s job at a gambling den. He soon became Dirtyhands, and he changed his last name from Rietveld to Brekker. Kaz discovered that Hertzoon’s trick was a common one, and he learned that he was exceptional at cards—he and Jordie could’ve gotten rich if only they’d learned that sooner. Before long, Kaz was banned from every gambling establishment, and he started stealing watches and wallets.
In the novel’s present storyline, Inej has just been reborn as someone healthier, who has purpose. In this flashback scene, Kaz also finds purpose—but it destroys all the “decency” and goodness in him. While it’s implied that this is something that protected Kaz (and still does in the present), it also helps explain why Kaz is so isolated from others in the present: he learned to focus on himself, his revenge, and on tricking people. Now, he doesn’t know how to do anything else.
Themes
Kaz kept an eye out for Jakob Hertzoon and finally, one day, Kaz saw him enter a gin shop. He tried to enter behind Hertzoon, but the bouncer wouldn’t let Kaz inside—and eventually, the bouncer told Kaz that the man who entered was Pekka Rollins, the most powerful man in the Barrel. Rollins looked out the window then and didn’t even notice Kaz. Kaz realized he was just another mark to Rollins. At this point, Kaz approached Per Haskell and asked to join the Dregs, knowing he could one day turn the gang into his own “army.” Back in the present, Kaz finally finds Rollins’s cell. He hesitates for a moment—everyone else is waiting for Kaz—and then decides to pick the lock. Jordie won’t get his revenge if the Fjerdans kill Rollins.
The novel finally reveals why Kaz is focused on Rollins and not Hertzoon in the present: they’re the same person. In the flashback, Kaz discovers that Hertzoon/Rollins continues to swindle people because he dehumanizes them—Kaz doesn’t even exist to Rollins. He was nothing more than a source of money, and Rollins didn’t see the boy deserving of love and kindness. As Kaz decides to pursue Rollins in the present and turn away from his crew, he’s symbolically turning into his own traumatic past and away from his friends, suggesting that pursuing Rollins isn’t actually going to give Kaz the relief he needs.
Themes
