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Chapter Fifty-Three
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Children of Blood and Bone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Prejudice and Inequality
Duty to Family vs. Self
Faith and Tradition
Cycles of Violence
Summary
Analysis
Zélie and Inan swim in the cool lake in the dreamscape. Zélie talks about living in the lakeside town of Ibadan before the Raid, and then in Ilorin, by the sea. He realizes he burned down her happiness. He says he’ll rebuild the town when everything is over. She laughs bitterly, saying that Tzain believes Inan will kill her long before then.
Speaking with Zélie, Inan realizes the true impact of the violence he and the guards committed. Putting a personal face on the destruction drives home the actual human toll of Saran’s policies. Another byproduct is that Zélie cannot bring herself to fully trust Inan, who she knows has been taught to hate her his entire life.
Themes
