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Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in I’m the King of the Castle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Property and Class
Childhood
Fear and Psychological Manipulation
Imprisonment and Escape
Nature
Summary
Analysis
Late the next morning, Charles and Edmund wake up, and Charles notices that Edmund has a nasty greenish bruise on his head. Charles surveys the forest and finds it beautiful in the light of day. He goes for a swim, telling Edmund not to join him, since he might have caught a cold from yesterday.
When Charles wakes up the next morning, he savors the beauty of the wood. Even though he’s frightened by the owls and night noises of the wood, he seems to be far more comfortable and confident here than he is at Warings, because here Edmund doesn’t exert the same control over him.
Themes
As Charles wades into the water, he hears the bark of a dog. His first reaction is to think, “I don’t want them to find us. Not now. This is all right.” Living in the forest is exactly what Charles had wanted. But then, he wonders if life at Warings will be different from now on. Suddenly, there’s a shout, and a man comes into view, his head blocking the sunlight.
Charles is just getting used to his “new life” in the wood: he thinks that he can survive on his own and live in peace with Edmund (though of course if he were to live in the wood for a little longer, he’d probably see how naïve he was to think that he could survive on his own). But now, he’s going to be dragged back to Warings, where Edmund has always bullied him in the past. Charles’s disappointment is aptly symbolized by the image of a man blocking out the sun: adults are dragging him away from nature and back to a life of fear.
Themes
