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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
A new recruit named Samwell Tarly, or Sam, arrives at the Wall. He goes to training with Alliser Thorne. The other boys disparage Sam for his appearance and call him fat. During combat training, Sam falls, and Alliser orders the other boy to keep hitting him. Jon defies Alliser’s orders when he steps in to stop the unfair fight, and Alliser tells three boys to fight Jon. Grenn and Pyp join in on Jon’s side. Sam gets up and thanks Jon, Grenn, and Pyp for helping him and apologizes for being a coward. Grenn and Pyp can’t believe it. They don’t know why anyone would call himself a coward.
This passage examines the struggle of how to address improper and poor leadership. In this case, Jon confronts the tension between respecting an established hierarchy by obeying his superior and following his conscience. Jon chooses to defy his superior’s orders when they violate his sense of right and wrong, showing a propensity toward compassion and morality that will become central to Jon’s character.
Themes
That night, Jon talks with Sam. Jon says he misses Winterfell, but Sam doesn’t miss home. He says that he enjoyed cooking, clothes, and dancing, but his father wanted a different kind of son to be his heir. After Sam’s 15th birthday, his father gave him an ultimatum. Sam could either join the Night’s Watch, or the next day they would go hunting, and Sam would have an “accident.” Sam’s father told him that he would relish hunting him down like a pig. Later, Jon tells all the other boys on the Night’s Watch not to hurt or make fun of Sam. He persuades some and threatens others to get them on his side. Sam doesn’t know exactly what Jon has done, but he thanks Jon for his help. Sam says he’s never had a friend before, and Jon tells him they’re not friends—they’re brothers.
Jon displays his leadership qualities by getting all the other recruits to go along with what he wants them to do (stop ridiculing Sam). He also displays a different side of his leadership qualities through the compassion he has for Sam. The novel uses that compassion to show that Jon is beginning to embrace the people on the Night’s Watch as a kind of family. He treats Sam as he might have once treated his siblings like Arya or Bran, looking out for Sam when Sam is in a difficult and vulnerable situation.
Themes
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