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Chapter 23
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
On Black Island, Anti-Tractionists ride over on horseback to Tom and Hester. One of them seems ready to kill Tom, but another intervenes, and Tom realizes it’s Miss Fang. She hugs Tom and Hester, glad to see they’re still alive.
Miss Fang’s intervention shows that, while parts of her might be morally gray, she remains loyal to friends, particularly Tom and Hester.
Themes
Miss Fang rides back with Tom and Hester, taking them to a doctor at an Anti-Tractionist town, while somewhere above them Airhaven hovers. Miss Fang talks about taking Tom and Hester with her, but Tom confronts her about being a spy for the League of Anti-Tractionists and trying to get information about London out of him. Miss Fang defends her actions. She admits that she has committed assassinations and even planted bombs, but she says her choices saved hundreds more people from being killed or enslaved.
Somewhat surprisingly, Miss Fang admits that Peavey didn’t lie and that she did kill several people, believing that the ends justified the means. Miss Fang’s violence seems to be more targeted and less random than Peavey’s and the novel leaves open the question of to what extent her actions may have been justified.
Themes
Miss Fang says she may kill people like Valentine does, but one big difference between them is that Valentine wants to kill Tom and she doesn’t. She asks again if Tom will come with her to Shan Guo. She believes London intends to break through the Shield-Wall, and she wants to warn the people behind the wall. Finally, she reveals that she spoke to Hester earlier and she’ll only come along if Tom agrees to come too. Tom blushes and realizes Hester is the closest thing he has to a friend anymore. He agrees to come.
Miss Fang casts her own actions as self-defensive. Although many characters have tried to deceive Tom and Hester throughout the story, there isn’t necessarily anything here to suggest that Miss Fang is lying. Hester has an easier time expressing her feelings for Tom indirectly to Miss Fang, showing how Hester’s many years of solitary revenge-seeking have left her unable to handle normal friendship and romance.
Themes
