Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Tale of Despereaux, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Good vs. Evil
Love, Forgiveness, and Absurdity
Principles, Courage, and Growing Up
Conformity
Summary
Analysis
The narrator asks if readers remember when Despereaux was in Gregory’s hand and whispering a story in Gregory’s ear. The narrator would love it if the reader thought of them as a mouse telling a story to save their life from the darkness—and to save the reader from the darkness too. Gregory said to Despereaux that “stories are light,” and the narrator hopes the reader has found some light.
Light, in the coda, seems to refer to joy and fulfillment. Hopefully, the narrator suggests, the reader was able to find some refuge from whatever darkness might be plaguing their lives. This is, according to the narrator, the power of stories: they can teach, but they can also provide an escape.
Themes
