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Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bronze Bow, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love vs. Vengeance
Trust, Dependence, and Friendship
Leadership: Power vs. Service
Earthly Hopes vs. Heavenly Values
Summary
Analysis
A few days later, Daniel sits at the foot of the mountain, nervously anticipating his first solo job for Rosh. He knows it’s both a reward for fixing Rosh’s dagger and a test of Daniel’s usefulness. Rosh wants him to steal a bag of gold from an old smuggler who, he says, disguises himself as a poor beggar. Daniel tries to accept Rosh’s point of view—that this smuggler should spare some of his gold for Israel’s cause—but he feels uneasy about it.
Daniel is moving up in Rosh’s world, being entrusted with new responsibilities. But every new responsibility also comes with a test. In other words, Daniel is expected to prove himself over and over. And he must prove himself on Rosh’s terms, adhering to Rosh’s values. Daniel is starting to question those values.
Themes
When the wheezing, tottering man finally appears, Daniel leaps on him. The man doesn’t resist. He moans that he’s poor and doesn’t have anything valuable. But the instant Daniel reaches for the beggar’s money-pouch, the man strikes with a dagger. Daniel wrestles with the surprisingly strong man until he sees he’s holding a second dagger as well, then Daniel knocks him down. He’s about to walk away with the gold when he glances back and sees the old man sprawled in a way that reminds him of his grandfather, when Daniel was a child. Suddenly Daniel can’t leave him there, helpless. He waits until the man returns to consciousness, gives him back one dagger, and sends him on his way.
This is an important moment for Daniel’s character. Though Daniel completes the job for Rosh, it becomes clear that there’s an additional test—can he actually leave an old man unconscious and vulnerable? It turns out that he can’t. His childhood love for his grandfather is still strong, and this moves him to empathize with the old man, no matter how despicable he might be otherwise. Daniel isn’t coldhearted or vengeful, even though the man was willing to hurt him.
Themes
When Daniel brings the bag of gold to Rosh, it’s clear that somebody was watching Daniel and brought back a report of what happened—Rosh knows the man carried two daggers. He angrily tells Daniel he was foolish not to have killed the man when he had a chance. But then, more gently, he tells Daniel he has a “soft streak,” a weakness, that he’ll have to get rid of if he wants to be useful to the cause. When Rosh offers his hand, Daniel clasps it.
Rosh was monitoring Daniel’s behavior to see how he reacted in this specific situation. He wanted Daniel to kill the helpless old man. If Daniel wants to advance in Rosh’s world, he’ll have to become more ruthless and reject his “softness.” For now, Daniel accepts this.
Themes
As Daniel gets back to work at his anvil, he suspects Rosh is right. Rosh doesn’t even know how much Daniel worries about Leah and his grandmother—or how much he thinks about Thacia. He tries to pound the weakness out of himself as he works. Yet he also feels a nagging doubt. He recalls something—maybe from the Scriptures—that seems to disprove Rosh’s argument. Yet what finally comes into his mind is one of Jesus’s sayings: “For each of you is precious in his sight.” He realizes that Rosh and Jesus look at people differently. Where Rosh sees a person as something to be used, Jesus sees a person as a child of God.
It's no news to Daniel that he is “soft.” He continues to feel torn between his various responsibilities, especially between the mountain and the village. Yet, having met Jesus, he begins to suspect that this part of himself can’t be easily removed—and that maybe it shouldn’t be. He identifies the big difference between Jesus’s attitude toward people and Rosh’s. Jesus thinks people should be treated with dignity because of their value in God’s sight. Rosh thinks people can be thrown away when they’re no longer “useful.”
Themes
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