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
Nina hesitates when Matthias opens her cell, but she races to him. He recites the drüskelle promise to Fjerda to her, and Nina promises to kiss him later. Then, they run to get Yul-Bayur out of the vault; they’ll meet Kaz by the ash later, and hopefully they’ll survive his wrath. Inside the vault is a massive chemistry setup and a Shu boy, who says that his father, Bo Yul-Bayur, is dead. The Fjerdans have been trying to make him recreate jurda parem, and though he believes he can, he’s been stalling. Nina raises her hands to kill the boy, but Matthias stops her: he is just a boy, like them. The boy introduces himself as Kuwei Yul-Bo and explains that he’s an Inferni; his father was a Fabrikator who created jurda parem by mistake while trying to hide Kuwei’s powers.
By reciting the drüskelle promise to Nina, Matthias symbolically shifts his loyalty from his country to Nina, his romantic partner. When they discover Kuwei and learn that Bo Yul-Bayur is dead, it’s significant that it’s Matthias who convinces Nina to let the boy live. He suggests that it’s not appropriate to kill a young person who, if Kuwei is to be believed, has suffered just as much as they have at Fjerda’s hands.
Themes
Kuwei sets some vials up to explode and destroy the lab, and then he follows Nina and Matthias out of the treasury. Just as they decide to take cover in a hedge and then head for the ash, drüskelle guards appear and chase them. The lab exploding throws them all to their feet, and when they stand again, Nina tells a guard that they were enjoying the party when the treasury exploded. Matthias reveals his identity to the drüskelle, Lars. But just as Lars realizes Matthias betrayed Fjerda and Nina prepares to knock Lars out, cables fly out of nowhere, sinking barbs into Nina, Matthias, and Kuwei. Lars taunts Matthias as dozens of drüskelle emerge from the shadows.
At the moment, all hope seems lost: the drüskelle have captured Kuwei, Matthias, and Nina, and this makes it seem as though the crew won’t accomplish their goal. The barbed cables, in addition to being cruel and painful, suggest the drüskelles’ reach: they can find Grisha and other enemies anywhere in the world, capture them, and bring them under Fjerdan control.
Themes
One drüskelle steps forward and hands Lars the handle attached to the barbed cables—and moments later, blood starts pouring from Lars’s mouth. He drops the whip and another drüskelle picks it up as popping sounds come from the ash; Nina recognizes the sound as that of the salt concentrate Wylan used to bring the tree down over the road. The tree tips and a roar comes from the hole it leaves behind. Then, the drüskelle holding the whip takes his hood down—and it’s Kaz. He reminds Matthias and Nina not to pop the baleen until they hit the bottom. Then he grabs Kuwei and leaps into the hole, dragging Matthias and Nina with him.
It's somewhat shocking that Kaz is not only holding the barbed whip, but that he uses it to drag Matthias and Nina with him. This mirrors how Kaz, in so many instances, is willing to cause immense pain and suffering to his friends and fellow gang members in the name of accomplishing his goals. He may be saving them, but this doesn’t change that he’s also hurting them.
Themes
