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Chapter Sixty-Nine
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 feels nothing but pain and guilt. Seeing Tzain’s face, she thinks that her injuries are hurting him like watching the Raid did. She can no longer feel magic, and without it, performing the ceremony will be impossible. A girl who touched the scroll uses her new power to knit together the wounds on Zélie’s back, and she falls into a deep sleep.
Even though she can be headstrong, Zélie takes her commitments to her family—both her biological family and her adopted one—very seriously. She worries that her own injuries are hurting them.
Themes
Zélie finds herself once again in the dreamscape. Inan approaches gingerly, and all Zélie can think is that she can’t reveal how much Saran has broken her. She sees pity in his eyes, and it makes her furious. Wanting to forget the scars on her back, she pulls him into a kiss. He is hesitant, but she is insistent. Yet when she closes her eyes, all she can think of is Saran’s torture. But she wants to stop thinking about it, and pulls him closer.
Saran’s violence has inflicted deep psychological wounds on Zélie. She feels powerless to combat an enemy that resides in her own heart and mind. Saran is an expert at using violence as a tool to make others feel weak and alone.
Themes
