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Chapter 14
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Babel, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonization and Racism
Language, Translation, and Power
Race, Gender, and Intersectionality
Violence and Nonviolence
Complicity
Summary
Analysis
The summer that follows their third year exams is the best of Ramy, Robin, Victoire, and Letty’s lives. They enjoy long days together, and that time is a welcome respite after the difficult study of the past year and the upcoming pressure of their fourth year. Morse Code is invented in 1838, and Babel becomes one of the first places to use it regularly. At the end of the summer, Babel enlists students to work as operators. When Robin works those shifts, he usually studies.
This passage shows again how Robin, Ramy, Victoire, and Letty are becoming so close that they feel like family to one another. The information about Morse Code coming to the Babel campus again shows that Babel is at the forefront of technological innovation. As Griffin has argued, though, that technology is often used to advance the immoral and unjust goals of the British Empire.
Themes
One night, when Robin is working as an operator, he sees two figures clad in black approaching Babel. As they get closer, he sees that it’s Victoire and Ramy. He’s sure they must be there on Hermes Society business. He decides to pretend he doesn’t see them and let them take what they’ve come to Babel to take. But when Ramy and Victoire leave the building five minutes later, Robin hears an alarm go off. When he gets up to check out what is happening, he sees that Ramy and Victoire have been ensnared in a silver web. Silver bars lay on the floor at their feet.
This passage presents a plot twist in the novel. While Robin previously thought that he was alone in working for the clandestine Hermes Society, he now realizes that two of his closest friends, Victoire and Ramy, are also working for the Society. Though Robin has quit the Society, he decides to help and protect Victoire and Ramy by pretending he hasn’t seen them, showing the concern he has for his friends—and that on some level, he still supports the Hermes Society’s aims.
Themes
Robin works to get them free. But as he gets them free, he becomes ensnared in the web. He asks Victoire and Ramy how they became involved in the Hermes Society and asks if Griffin recruited them. They say that Anthony recruited them. Robin says he thought Anthony was dead, and Ramy and Victoire say that they’ll explain later. Robin tells them to run. He’ll stay behind and take the heat. Ramy and Victoire leave. When police arrive, Robin starts to tell them that he had been trying to catch thieves when the web ensnared him, but his story doesn’t sound convincing, not even to himself. The police take him to an interrogation room and tell him to wait for the professor.
Robin sacrifices himself to save Ramy and Victoire, again showing how much his friends mean to him and the lengths to which he is willing to go to protect them. This passage also relays another plot twist in the novel. While Robin and the rest of the students and faculty thought Anthony was missing, he actually faked his disappearance so he could devote himself more fully to the Hermes Society, just as Griffin faked his own death for the same reason.
Themes
Professor Lovell then enters the interrogation room. Professor Lovell asks Robin how long he’s been working for the Hermes Society. Robin is surprised by how direct Lovell is. Robin thinks about concocting a story but decides that Lovell won’t be convinced. Instead, Robin says he’s been working for the Hermes Society for three months. Robin thinks three months sounds better than three years. Lovell chastises Robin for being ungrateful and says that he’s done more for Robin than he could imagine. Robin counters that Babel functions in unjust ways, and he was trying to do the right thing by working for the Hermes Society.
Lovell accuses Robin of being ungrateful about all the things that he (Lovell) has done for Robin. By saying that, Lovell implicitly contends that he took Robin from Canton and sent him to Oxford for Robin’s benefit. However, the novel has previously established that Babel is in desperate need of fluent speakers of languages like Mandarin. With that in mind, the novel implies that Lovell may not have been motivated by a desire to help Robin as much as a desire to enrich Babel and himself.
Themes
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Professor Lovell asks Robin if Griffin recruited him. Robin flinches, which Lovell takes as a confession. He asks Robin if he knows what happened to Evie Brooke. Robin says no. Lovell says that Griffin murdered her when he had been stealing from Babel. Lovell takes a silver bar from his pocket and says that Griffin used that bar to kill Evie. Lovell was the one to find her, and she was covered in blood. Robin isn’t sure what to believe. Part of him is doubtful of Lovell, but he can also see how Griffin’s singlemindedness would lead him to harm others.
This passage again delves into the question of whether violence is ever morally permissible. Previously, Robin bristled at the possibility that others might get hurt as a result of his actions in support of the Hermes Society. In this passage, Lovell tells a clear story in which Griffin is a murderer, leading Robin to feel even more suspicious about the motives and tactics behind Griffin’s—and the Hermes Society’s—actions.
Themes
Professor Lovell tells Robin that he has a choice to make. He can choose the Hermes Society or Babel. Robin is surprised. Lovell asks Robin if he thought he would be expelled, and Robin says yes. Lovell explains that he thinks that Robin had been led astray by bad influences. He’s willing to give Robin another chance, but he cautions Robin that there won’t be a third chance. In exchange, Lovell wants any information that Robin can give him about the Hermes Society. Robin is reluctant, but he ultimately tells Lovell about a storeroom the Hermes Society has at St. Aldate’s. Robin moves to give Lovell back the silver bar used to murder Evie, but Lovell tells Robin to keep it. It will help to remind Robin who the true villains are, Lovell says.
Lovell’s willingness to let Robin stay at Babel even after he has confessed to being a member of the Hermes Society shows just how much Babel needs Robin. That is, they need Robin for his fluency in Mandarin, so they can create more useful silver bars—but they can also use him to gather information on their enemies. By choosing to accept Professor Lovell’s proposition, Robin essentially chooses the comfort of life at Babel over the difficulties that come with standing up to the British Empire through the Hermes Society.
Themes
