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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Game of Thrones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics and Power
Climate Change and Collective Action
Gender and Power
Honor and Integrity
Identity
Summary
Analysis
Jon goes to say goodbye to Bran before he rides north to the Wall, where he’ll begin training with the Night’s Watch. It’s been a fortnight since Bran entered his coma. Jon hasn’t been to see him because Catelyn is always at Bran’s bedside, and Jon doesn’t want to upset her. But he knows he has to say goodbye now. When Jon reaches the room, Catelyn is there. She asks him why he’s come and tells him to leave, or she’ll call the guards. Jon goes to Bran’s bed anyway, says goodbye and, wishes for Bran’s recovery. As Jon leaves, Catelyn calls after him. “It should have been you,” she says.
This passage shows that Catelyn’s animosity toward Jon isn’t just a simmering resentment. Instead, her contempt boils over into actual rage. Catelyn’s explosive contempt for Jon suggests that he has had to live his entire childhood experiencing some version of that hatred directed against him. That contempt also shows the personal and intimate impacts of Westeros’s rigid hierarchy on individual people like Jon.
Themes
Jon sees Robb getting the horses ready to depart. Robb won’t be traveling to King’s Landing with the others today but is helping the others with the preparations. Jon and Robb say goodbye and wonder when they’ll see each other again. Jon then goes to find Arya for his final goodbye. He gives her a small sword, which he has named Needle, and tells Arya to practice while she’s in King’s Landing. He also tells her not to tell Sansa about the sword. Arya is elated and hugs Jon before he turns to leave for the trip north.
The novel again highlights the extreme disparities between Robb and Jon, which are a result of the circumstances of Jon’s birth. While Robb will stay in Winterfell to command in his father’s absence, Jon—who has experienced the same upbringing as Robb—is banished to the Night’s Watch and, as a result, essentially exiled from the only family he has known.
Themes
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