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Chapter 21
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mortal Engines, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Social Class
Sacrifice
Dangers of Technology
The Importance of History
Prejudice and First Impressions
Friendship
Summary
Analysis
Back on Black Island, Shrike approaches the pirates and claims that Hester and Tom belong to him. The pirates open fire on him with their guns. Although Shrike flinches and starts to bleed, he keeps moving. Mungo tries to switch from his gun to his sword, but Shrike decapitates him in one blow of his bladed hand.
This chapter presents a complicated state of alliances, where Hester and Tom have multiple enemies but their enemies are also enemies of each other. Mungo’s quick death once again shows the consequences of a violent pirate lifestyle.
Themes
Hester asks Shrike if he’s going to kill her. He says yes, but only temporarily. He plans to have Crome turn her into a Resurrected Man, since Crome’s Engineers learned how to create new stalkers by studying Shrike. Hester doubts Crome will Resurrect her, and she refuses to let Shrike kill Tom. After some hesitation, Shrike agrees to pretend that Tom died and his body couldn’t be retrieved.
Shrike’s plan reveals that he does still care about Hester in one sense, but in another sense, his own obsession with Hester is so overpowering that he doesn’t even consider her own feelings. Hester herself has often been reckless with her own life (like when she tried to assassinate Valentine), so she is surprisingly willing to go along with Shrike’s plan, particularly if it helps save Tom.
Themes
As Shrike goes to kill Hester, Tom grabs a sword and intervenes. Shrike knocks Tom back, but the sword goes through Shrike’s chest. As Shrike dies, he remembers who he used to be and reaches a hand toward Hester, but then he goes still. Hester gets angry at Tom for killing Shrike and for stopping her from becoming Resurrected so that she could take down Valentine. Tom tries to justify his decision, but he gets interrupted when, suddenly, the sky fills with light as if there’s a new sun.
Tom gets extremely lucky to succeed in killing Shrike when more experienced fighters like Miss Fang failed. Luck will continue to be an important element throughout the rest of the novel, particularly near the end when Tom’s luck goes in a very different direction.
Themes
