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Chapter 8: Jesper
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Six of Crows, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Greed
Friendship and Difference
Trauma, the Past, and Moving Forward
Identity, Values, and Growing Up
Summary
Analysis
Kaz ends the meeting by telling everyone to be ready to sail tomorrow night. As he hands everyone money for supplies, he tells Jesper to keep Wylan safe and Wylan to not let Jesper gamble. Neither boy is pleased. Kaz says that they’ll probably have to enter the Ice Court with nothing. Nobody should tell anyone they’re leaving Ketterdam—they can say they’re doing a job in the countryside. Matthias is going to stay here with Rotty and Dirix at the door, and if Matthias will behave, Kaz won’t chain him. Turning to Wylan, Kaz says he needs to know everything about Van Eck’s shipping business—but to his surprise, he believes Wylan when Wylan insists he knows nothing.
It's interesting that Wylan insists, seemingly truthfully, that he doesn’t know anything about his father’s shipping business. This suggests that things weren’t happy for Wylan in his father’s house, though the particulars are still a mystery. But this does mean that Kaz now faces a disadvantage, as Wylan can’t provide the intel on his father that Kaz almost certainly counted on getting from Wylan.
Themes
As everyone begins to leave, Matthias asks Kaz for a private word. Once Inej is gone and the door shuts, Matthias lunges at Kaz. Kaz is ready for it, but he still finds Matthias’s hands on his mouth repulsive. Matthias digs for the pardon until Kaz uses his cane to disarm him, and Matthias falls to the ground. Kaz reveals the pardon, makes it disappear and reappear, and then produces a blank piece of paper. Matthias calls Kaz a demon, but Kaz has just spent a lot of time practicing card tricks. He warns Matthias not to jump him again and kicks Matthias on his way out.
It's another intriguing detail that Kaz experiences disgust when Matthias touches him—is it about Matthias, or about Kaz himself? Kaz’s explanation for why he isn’t a demon—that he’s just practiced extensively—suggests that there’s more to his Dirtyhands persona than the rumors suggest. He’s not a demon, and he’s not just Dirtyhands: he’s someone who’s worked hard to create those impressions, as incomplete as they might be.
Themes
