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Chapter Thirty-Eight
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
Inan feels his goal of killing Zélie tantalizingly close. He presses down on her arms and raises his sword, preparing to plunge it into her heart. But then his magic rips through him, showing him a powerful vision of Zélie’s life. He sees the incredible pain his father’s rule caused Zélie.
Inan is committed to killing Zélie because it is what his father would want, and Inan also thinks that killing Zélie will somehow free him from the magic that plagues him. Saran thinks that all divîners, and all magic, are evil, values he has instilled in Inan again and again. However, when Inan sees the other side of the story—the human cost of Saran’s hatred, and the actual feelings of an innocent divîner—he questions his loyalty and his beliefs.
Themes
King Saran’s instructions ring in Inan’s ears. But with this new perspective, he can’t bear to bring more death in his father’s name. Instead he, slashes off Zélie’s restraints. Realizing Tzain and Amari are gone, they both feel shattered and collapse on the ground.
Now that he has seen the actual impact of his father’s prejudice, Inan can’t bring himself to continue following his father’s orders.
Themes
