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Chapter 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
Once she gets to the shore, Zélie thinks about those who perished in the fire. Because of her magic, she could feel their deaths. She feels responsible for endangering her family and village. She wants to give up.
Zélie worries that once again she has put her own goals and desires before the safety of her family, since helping Amari catalyzed the events that led to Saran’s men burning the village and murdering innocent people.
Themes
Baba tells Zélie she can’t stop fighting. He says their homes have been destroyed twice by the monarchy, and the only way to ensure their safety is to fight back. Tearfully, Baba and Mama Agba bid goodbye to the three teenagers. On Nailah’s back, they ride into the night.
Instead of blaming his daughter, Baba now believes it is more important for Zélie to fight for what is right than to focus solely on staying safe and avoiding trouble. The only way to effectively break the cycle of oppression and violence that the monarchy perpetuates is to show that the divîners can fight back, restoring a balance of power to the kingdom. Zélie must fight back in order to prevent the divîners from staying powerless to the king’s atrocities.
Themes
