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Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Poppy War, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dehumanization and the Horrors of War
Identity, Cultural Trauma, and Coming of Age
The Purpose of Education
Addiction, Drugs, and Control
History
Summary
Analysis
Once Enro deems Rin healthy enough, Rin moves to the basement where the school used to hold fights. She’s so tired that she doesn’t find this odd. Once, she hears the Empress, Irjah, and Jun arguing: the Empress and Irjah argue that it’s not right to imprison Rin like this, but Jun insists she’s a liability. Jun also notes that the Gatekeeper is dangerous, but the Empress says that the “Gatekeeper’s been dealt with.” When Rin finally comes to, guards won’t let her out. She screams for hours until someone sends Jun to her. Rin asks to see Jiang, but Jun leaves without saying anything. Eventually, Rin decides to just wait it out.
Rin’s masters—and the Empress—dehumanize Rin, keeping her captive like an animal or a criminal and refusing to answer her questions. Given Jun’s feud with Jiang, it follows that he’d be so concerned about Rin (whether he’s genuinely concerned or is just abusing his power remains unclear, though).
Themes
Niang visits sometimes, and Kitay visits often. He tells her how the battle ended soon after Rin killed the Federation general; the Empress and the Third Division arrived at the same time. He shares that everyone thinks she’s a Speerly who was possessed by demons. Rin decides not to tell Kitay the truth, though she insists she can’t be a Speerly, as nobody survived the attack on Speer. Kitay points out that Altan, and perhaps Rin, survived. Over the next few days, Kitay shares that only about half their class survived; Nezha is undergoing a third surgery today. Soon, Nikan will evacuate Sinegard. Venka will go to Golyn Niis to serve with the Sixth; Kitay will be a junior officer in the Second. This is what he wanted, but he isn’t happy about it. There’s still no sign of Jiang anywhere.
The possibility that Rin is a Speerly is interesting, particularly because this has the potential to totally upend Rin’s understanding of herself. On the whole, the novel suggests that identity formation occurs as a person works through their personal past and their cultural past—and the Speerlies’ past is nothing short of traumatic. However, for the moment, Rin and Kitay are far too caught up in taking stock of where their classmates have ended up—and a devastating number of them are dead. The consequences of war are becoming unignorable.
Themes
With Kitay gone, Rin is on her own. She sleeps as much as she can and feels alone and unsafe. After six days, Irjah—now a general—comes to sit on the floor with Rin. He observes that she’s a Speerly and admits that he raised Altan, so he knows that she isn’t dangerous. But he says that she’s been assigned to the Cike. Rin is beside herself, but Irjah explains that Speerlies seldom fought with the Twelve Provinces, and when they did, it was “difficult.” He insists that Rin will be safer in the Cike, as the Warlords would try to steal her for their own divisions if she was in one of the Twelve Divisions. Then, he says that Altan is the commander of the Cike. Altan walks in.
Irjah is perhaps more sympathetic to Rin because, having raised Altan, he has no problem believing that Speerlies are just as human as anyone else. Being assigned to the Cike is the last thing Rin wants. She dreamed of security and prestige, which the Cike won’t offer her simply because of its reputation. However, Irjah makes the case that the Cike is actually Rin’s best chance at staying safe, given that the Warlords will see her as a weapon to manipulate rather than a fellow person.
Themes
Altan and Rin speak alone. Rin can’t get over the fact that she’s speaking to her childhood hero, and she explains that she didn’t know she was a Speerly. She’s suddenly overcome as she remembers being unable to control the flames when she burned the general. Rin is certain that she’s “going crazy” and is doing what Jiang told her not to do, but Altan gently says he’ll help Rin; he knows what it’s like. He explains that the Cike are really nice people. All but two are shamans who came to the Cike with “shamanic potential.” The Cike trains them and then uses them as assassins. Members come from everywhere, often from Baghra’s prison.
Rin experiences a bit of an identity crisis. She’s been operating on the assumption that she’s just any other orphan, when really, all signs point to her being one of the last surviving Speerlies. This puts a lot of pressure on her as she works this knowledge into her conception of herself. Altan seems kind here, but note the power dynamic at play: Jiang is gone, Altan has appeared to take his place, and Rin instinctively senses that Altan is leading her down the path away from Jiang. On some level, she does agree with Jiang that what she really wants to do is dangerous and/or inappropriate—and this seems to be exactly what Altan plans to teach her to do.
Themes
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That afternoon, Altan tells Rin to pack and prepare to march with the Fifth Division to Khurdalain, a port city in Tiger Province. It’s where Nikan has established its warfront, as the city is surrounded by creeks that make it easy to defend but hard to invade. Altan explains how uncoordinated the Twelve Warlords are; because of this, the Nikara Militia is underprepared. But, Altan says, they have to hold Khurdalain—or the entire country will fall to the Federation.
Altan doesn’t think highly of Nikan’s military, suggesting that Sinegard isn’t actually doing a good job training commanders. Also of note here is the fact that Altan seems to take full responsibility for holding Khurdalain—when readers can understand that ideally, holding the city is a group effort, not one man’s responsibility.
Themes
