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Chapter 33
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
As Tom flies above London, all of a sudden, something hits the side of the Jenny Haniver and punches a hole in it. Valentine’s ship is flying near him.
The damage to Tom’s ship doesn’t seem to be enough to cause a crash, but it’s a wake-up call for Tom about the dangers he faces in the sky with a hostile airship.
Themes
Crome and his party guests have headed out to a square where they’ll have a better view of MEDUSA. As they’re getting ready, however, Valentine stands in Crome’s way. He worries that breaching the Shield-Wall will result in massive loss of life, not just for the Anti-Tractionists but also for London, when it has to face the many strongholds inside the Wall. And even if London is successful, it will run out of prey at some point. But Crome just smiles and says he’s already thought of a plan that will allow London to keep moving forever.
Valentine seems to be telling the truth here—he really does seem to be having some last-minute regrets about his cooperation with MEDUSA. But his objections come too late, and unlike Valentine, Crome has zero conscience, thinking in totally selfish terms, and so he doesn’t find any of Valentine’s arguments persuasive. Moreover, Crome remains convinced that he himself is always correct.
Themes
As Hester crouches to avoid Stalkers, Katherine and Pod emerge from Cat’s Creep not far from the square where the crowd has gathered to watch MEDUSA. Meanwhile, Tom searches for the Jenny Haniver’s guns. He finds them and fires, managing to hit Valentine’s ship, but the shots mostly bounce off its armor. Then Tom remembers the rockets he saw Miss Fang fire earlier. He finds the rocket controls and fires. The other ship catches fire and starts to go down.
Tom once again seems to get lucky, finding the rockets just in time and managing to shoot down the enemy ship, even though it struck the first blow against him. As it turns out, however, Tom’s seeming good luck here will lead to a cascade of events that suggest his luck isn’t so good after all.
Themes
Valentine’s ship comes crashing down toward London. Pod pushes Katherine away in time, but the burning ship hits him. Katherine recognizes it as her father’s ship. She looks through the wreckage and finds Pod’s body. A nearby man who works at one of the elevator stations tries to reassure Katherine by telling her that Valentine wasn’t on his ship when it crashed.
Even though Pod only knew Katherine for a short time, he is willing to give his life for her, possibly suggesting how much he cared for her and how much he appreciated her getting him out of the Gut, or possibly just reflecting his selfless personality, which contrasts sharply with the greed of men like Crome.
Themes
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Hester witnesses the crash as she heads toward Guild-hall. She comes across a Stalker who was seriously wounded by the crash, then all of a sudden, several more Stalkers surround her. The dome of St. Paul’s begins to open.
This passage suggests that things are taking a turn for the worst, with Hester presumably captured by Stalkers and MEDUSA getting ready to fire.
Themes
